I choose not to watch CNN or Fox or any of those news sources. They have their place in our society, but I don't need to put myself through that. Stress is addictive. We begin to like the feeling of adrenaline we get when we are scared. We want more, and we can find it on CNN.
Ebola is real. I get that. I am nervous about it, just like everyone else. But y'all - we have got to calm down. A reporter from Fox News recently scared the country by reporting that Ebola can be spread going airborne through a sneeze. He incorrectly cited research. Ebola doesn't cause sneezing, and it can only be spread by direct contact with bodily fluids.
An elementary school child in the Triangle just died from the flu. Our chances of dying of ebola? Slim to none.
Throughout this whole media hysteria over ebola I've had this sneaking feeling... something seems racist about this. My heart breaks for Africa, this continent that has suffered so very much. But has the media told us any stories about any African person who has died of ebola? Do we know their names, or their life stories?
Recently, Thomas Eric Duncan died of ebola after a trip from Liberia to Dallas. According to his nephew, Duncan did report that he had recently been to Liberia. He was a poor black man without health insurance, they sent him home with Tylenol. Some could say it was just a simple error, but really? Smells like racism.
People from countries all around Africa have reported having been treated differently since the Ebola outbreak, as if they are "contaminated". A woman from Somalia explained,
“people are looking at us in a bad way. We didn’t have anything to do with this. Somalia does not have Ebola. It is on the other side of Africa."
“people are looking at us in a bad way. We didn’t have anything to do with this. Somalia does not have Ebola. It is on the other side of Africa."
If this epidemic were happening in Europe, would there be the same reaction? Would we want to close off all plane travel? Would we be sending in more health workers? I think the answer is yes. I think that the media, and America in general, view people of color as "lesser" than those who are white. Therefore, their deaths are not of so much importance.
Recent attempts to quarantine health workers on their return to the U.S. may discourage the much-needed help that Africa needs. Health workers are essential. If we do not treat ebola where the outbreak is, it will spread. Our focus is on protecting our precious white American lives, while in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone nearly 5,000 people have died of this awful disease.
Moral of the story: Wash your hands. Get the flu shot. Take care of yourself. And most importantly : black lives matter.
"In the Western media there are First World diseases and Third World diseases. The attention devoted to the latter depends on the threat they pose to us, not on a universal measure of human suffering." -Artist Andre Carrilho
