Last month, while watching a news piece on YouTube, I happened to see this image in the background. I have to admit I wasn’t a feline fan, until my Uncle Wes moved in with me, along with his cat Leo, last year. I’m glad to see, though, that people of all types here in the U.S. are joining the anti-racist movement, which seems to have gained new life in recent years with the election of right-wing extremists.
Filed under Curiosities
The story of Henrietta Lacks is one of the most compelling I’ve ever encountered. It’s also one of the most tragic and upsetting. Lacks was an African-American resident of Baltimore when she developed cervical cancer in the early 1950s. While seeking treatment in the racially segregated ward at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital, doctors removed a sample of her cancer cells without her knowledge or permission and sent them to Dr. George Gey, prominent cancer and virus researcher at the time. In 1951, it was still perfectly legal to extract cancer cells and engage in other medical procedures without the patient’s consent or knowledge. In those early days of oncology research, Gey had been looking for cancer cells that would survive for any extended period. None had – until he obtained those belonging to Lacks. Whereas other cells would die as soon as he obtained them, Lacks’ cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours. This replication would eventually lead to a myriad of solutions and treatments in various medical fields.
Nicknamed “HeLa” (from the first two letters of Henrietta’s first and last names), the cells have been used to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on cancer cells without actually experimenting on humans. “HeLa” cells were even critical to the development of the polio and COVID-19 vaccines, as well as continuing oncological research. Meanwhile, Lacks passed away quietly on October 1, 1951 at the age of 31, leaving behind her husband and children and was buried in an unmarked grave.
Johns Hopkins never sold or benefited financially from the usage of the “HeLa” cell line, but it did offer them freely for scientific research. The Lacks family certainly never benefited financially from this research – and Henrietta didn’t receive any recognition for her “contribution”.
Until recently.
Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” brought much-needed attention to the case. Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah, wondered aloud if the doctors at Johns Hopkins had killed her mother to harvest those valuable cells. Had they even gone so far to clone her in some fashion? Considering that Henrietta was an impoverished Black woman in 1950s America, such hypotheses aren’t beyond the realm of possibility.
In 2013 the Lacks family reached a settlement with the National Institutes of Health that provided some control over how the DNA from the HeLa cells is used in future research. It also includes acknowledgement in any future scientific papers discussing those cells.
Last year Johns Hopkins University officials announced plans for an on-campus building project named for Henrietta. “The architectural design of the building to be named for Henrietta Lacks reflects Johns Hopkins’ commitment to proudly honor and celebrate Mrs. Lacks’ extraordinary legacy on our campus,” said Ronald Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins.
Last week Lacks’ descendants reached a settlement in its lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific, a biotech company that apparently profited the most from usage of the HeLa cells. However, Lacks’ family points out that their situation highlights the legacy of racism in American medicine and its persistence even now. We have evidence that European colonialists gave smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment remains one of the most egregious examples of medical research in American history.
“Indeed, a great portion of early American medical research is founded upon nonconsensual experimentation upon systemically oppressed people,” Lacks family attorneys declared in their initial suit.
I have to note that Thermo Fisher had demanded the lawsuit be dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. But Lacks family attorneys asserted that Thermo Fisher continues to benefit.
Here’s another curiosity. Ronald Lacks, one of Henrietta’s grandsons, self-published a book in 2020 about his grandmother’s case; hoping to bring further attention and possibly generate some revenue for his family. That same year Thermo Fisher CEO Marc Casper received a compensation package over $26 million.
No amount of money can ever compensate for the mistreatment of vulnerable populations. Denying that such wrongdoing occurred in the first place certainly doesn’t alleviate matters. This is what we’ve seen here in the U.S. with the relentless conservative denial of the brutal realities of European colonialism and Black slavery and the vicious legacies they spawned.
As a society, however, we can make some amends by acknowledging what happened and how bad it was. I feel Henrietta Lacks has ultimately been vindicated with her story now being told and a medical building that will bear her name.
And that kind of recognition means just about everything.
Filed under Essays
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”
Last November, when he won reelection by a large margin, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared that “Florida is where woke comes to die.” I still don’t know who created the term “woke”, much less why or when. But it’s become the latest toy in the diaspora of political angst. If “woke” means historically accurate or aware, then those of us with at least half a brain are more than fully “woke”. I can’t say the same for the conservative mindset.
In the latest salvo against historical accuracy, the state of Florida’s education board approved a spate of standards in teach African-American history. The new measures require lessons on race to be taught in an “objective” manner that doesn’t “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view”. Excuse me? Objective? Indoctrinate? Only social conservatives in the Deep South would view solid history studies as indoctrination.
Not to be outdone on the ignorance scale, an Oklahoma education official, Ryan Walters, has declared that the notorious 1921 Tulsa race massacre – which resulted in the bloody deaths of some 300 African-Americans – wasn’t actually about race and that teachers should not “say that the skin color determined it”. The 1921 Tulsa event remains one of the most sanguineous racial events in U.S. history. It’s similar to a 1923 slaughter in Rosewood, Florida. But, in the eyes of social (and mostly White) conservatives, they apparently were just really bad days.
Not surprisingly, these changes in teaching regimens have generated controversy – and anger. In response to Walters’ claim, Alicia Andrews, chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, stated, “How are you going to talk about a race massacre as if race isn’t part of the very cause of the incident?”
In response to the recent Florida measures, the Florida Education Association, a statewide teachers union, denounced the new policy as a “big step backward.” Andrew Spar, president of the association, issued a press release asking, “How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don’t have a full, honest picture of where we’ve come from? Florida’s students deserve a world-class education that equips them to be successful adults who can help heal our nation’s divisions rather than deepen them.”
This is why we progressives view conservatism with disdain. To us, conservative ideology is often regressive; holding onto false narratives of life’s events and who people are. It’s also an improper revision of what happened way back when. In 2015, controversy erupted when one of the biggest publishers of school textbooks, McGraw-Hill presented a tome that deemed African slaves as “immigrant workers”. The caption accompanied a map of the United States in a section about immigration and read: “The Atlantic Slave Trade between the 1500s and 1800s brought millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations.”
The verbiage had gone unnoticed until the mother of a 15-year-old high school student raised hell over it. McGraw-Hill promptly recalled the book and issued a public apology.
And that is what people have to do now when they encounter something so outrageous. Ignorance is not education. Just as the truth always comes to light, so does history. Revising it to fit a particular narrative won’t change the facts.
Filed under Essays
What do a failed president, a disoriented rapper and a White separatist have in common? They’re all losers! And, as news reports have revealed, they all met for dinner just before Thanksgiving. Former President Donald Trump hosted hip-hop singer Kanye West (now known as Ye) and right-wing extremist media personality Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida a few weeks ago.
If I ever host a dinner party with some of the most interesting and intellectual people in the world, the three aforementioned clowns wouldn’t get past my front door. (Disclaimer: no offense meant to professional clowns.)
We’ve all had those ‘what-were-they-thinking’ reactions to certain people’s bizarre behavior. But Trump, West and Fuentes bring a new level of absurdity into the public forum. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that a walking embodiment of incompetence (Trump) would invite two other dopers to his estate.
I’ve never been a fan of Trump. When he announced his bid for the U.S. presidency in 2015, I pointed out that he’d technically been running for president for some 30 years. In a 1980s interview with Barbara Walters, she queried Trump about whether or not he would seek the Oval Office. Many scoffed at the notion that a New York real estate tycoon should run for the presidency simply because he was incredibly wealthy and well-known.
Those of us old enough to remember the excesses of the 1980s – especially here in the U.S. – know that wealth and fame suddenly became requisites for political office or any kind of leadership position.
Regardless of his status, Trump isn’t a realist. Consider his relentless – and undeniably refuted – claims that the 2020 elections were fraudulent. He still refuses to accept defeat; thus proving he’s the proverbial sore loser. In my own analysis, the 2000 and 2016 presidential elections were blatantly fraudulent, but that’s an entirely different discussion.
But West and Fuentes are also denialists. West denies observations that he has no real talent, and Fuentes denies the Nazi Holocaust occurred. I’m certain they all deny other realities, but I don’t want to spend that much time on them.
Trump, West and Fuentes are perfect companions for each other. While Trump made a name for himself in the 1980s as a successful real estate magnate, West made a name for himself in the violence-prone world of hip-hop. I have to admit I can’t identify any of his “songs” and I wouldn’t care to either.
Fuentes’ arrival in the public arena is recent. At barely 24 years old, he’s become an icon of right-wing extremists; a youthful vial of hate and bigotry. He represents a new generation of Christo-fascist warriors who believe, for example, that Christopher Columbus discovered America and African slaves were actually indentured servants.
Further proving his detachment from reality, Trump denied knowing who Fuentes is. He’d allegedly invited only West for dinner, and West invited Fuentes. Of course that’s what happened!
No matter who invited who for dinner, Trump brought out the worst in humanity: the hatred, the putrid, the disgusting and the violent. Along with West and Fuentes, he represents everything that’s wrong with this nation – and everything a civilized society shouldn’t be.
But let them dine together! They deserve one another.
The rest of us deserve better.
Image: Kelli R. Grant/Yahoo News; photos: Jean-Baptiste Lacroix/AFP via Getty Images, Joe Raedle/Getty Images, Rainmaker Photos/MediaPunch /IPX via AP)
Filed under Essays
“Those who play with fire will perish by it.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping, to President Joe Biden, regarding Taiwan’s independence
The comment comes after news that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan soon.
“This is why we have always fought: We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race.”
Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, who is scheduled to speak in Dallas next week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, urging his fellow Europeans not to marry non-White immigrants
Orbán also appeared to make light of the Nazi Holocaust while discussing plans to reduce natural-gas demand in Europe: “I do not see how it will be enforced – although, as I understand it, the past shows us German know-how on that.”
“You degenerate pagans and atheists and non-believers went way too far with the COVID nonsense, with shutting down our churches and forcing our kids to be masked, and forcing us to get vaccinated with some mystery goop in order to keep our jobs and provide for our families. You pushed us too far, and now we’re going to take dominion of this country, of our culture, of news, of entertainment, of technology, of education, of everything for the glory of Jesus Christ, our king. It’s just that simple.”
Andrew Torba, a far-right Christian nationalist preacher, in a speech supporting fellow right-wing nationalist Doug Mastriano
“Nobody has gotten to the bottom of 09/11 unfortunately, and they should have.”
Former President Donald Trump, as his country club prepare to host several officials from Saudi Arabia for a golf tournament
Trump’s Bedminster Club is just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Several families of 9/11 victims have expressed outrage over the event. Of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers, 15 were from Saudi Arabia.
Filed under News
“Because a mentally ill teenager murdered strangers, you cannot be allowed to express your political views out loud. That’s what they’re telling you.”
Tucker Carlson, responding to the mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York grocery store on May 14
Carlson also stated that “hate speech” is just speech that other people hate. He and other right-wing pundits have been criticized for propagating “replacement” theory, which claims that native-born (White) Americans are being replaced by immigrants from other (non-Western European) countries.
“Abortion is not the way to help single Black mothers.”
Sen. Tim Scott, in an editorial criticizing a speech by Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, about the impact overturning abortion rights could have on many working women
Yellen had stated, “I believe that eliminating the right of women to make decisions about when and whether to have children would have very damaging effects on the economy.” She went on to say how abortion affects “particularly low-income and often Black” mothers and how a lack of access to abortion “deprives them of the ability often to continue their education to later participate in the workforce.”
Scott declared, “To me, this was stunning. I thought I had misheard her. Was Yellen making the case for how abortion is good for America’s labor force? But when questioned, Yellen doubled down on what I believe is a callous, inhumane reason for ending innocent life.”
Filed under News
“I would like to see sensible gun control. I would like to see ending hate speech on the internet, on social media. It is not free speech. It is not the American way.”
Byron Brown, Mayor of Buffalo, New York, after a mass shooting at a local grocery store on May 14
Brown also declared, “We are not a nation of haters. We are not a nation of hate. We need to send the message that there is no place on the internet for hate speech, for hate indoctrination, for spreading hate manifestos. I will be a stronger voice for that. I believe that what happened in Buffalo, New York, yesterday is going to be a turning point. I think it’s going to be different after this, in terms of the energy and the activity that we see.”
“Parents and caretakers across the country cannot wait. They need our support now. This bill takes important steps to restore supply in a safe and secure manner. Additionally, with these funds, FDA will be able to help prevent this issue from occurring again.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, after passage of a bill in the U.S. Congress that would help to alleviate the current baby formula crisis
One of the bills provides $28 million in emergency funding to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to address the shortage. The money would also be used to increase staff at the FDA, such as inspectors who could help the agency accelerate the approval process for formula manufacturers.
It has to be noted that an overwhelming majority of House Republicans voted against the bill, even though a majority have been complaining about the ongoing baby formula shortage.
Filed under News
“Do you agree…that babies are racist?”
Sen. Ted Cruz, to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, repeatedly asking about her views on racism, children’s books and critical race theory (CRT)
He specifically asked if she agrees with a children’s book called “Anti-Racist Baby,” by Ibram X. Kendi, which is in the library at Georgetown Day School, a private school in Washington, D.C., at which Jackson was a board member. Cruz held up a copy of the book and described it as one of the “most stunning” taught at the school. He claimed it teaches children that babies are taught to be racist, not born racist, and that they are encouraged to admit if they have been racist and to talk about it.
In response, Jackson noted, “Georgetown Day School, just like the religious school that Justice [Amy Coney] Barrett was on the board of, is a private school.”
“On a scale of 1 to 10, how faithful would you say you are? Do you attend church regularly?”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, inquiring about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s faith and how important it was to her
Jackson replied that, although faith played a big role in her life, she was reluctant to talk about it in detail because “I want the public to have confidence in my ability to separate out my personal views.” Jackson noted she is “Protestant, non-denominational”.
Graham conceded that judges could separate their religious beliefs with the way they rule. It must be highlighted, though, that Graham voted to confirm Jackson three times to other posts: her current seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a court considered second only to the U.S. Supreme Court; her previous seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; and her previous seat on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Filed under News
On March 10, disgraced actor Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 30 months felony probation and a USD 25,000 fine for his 2019 hate crime hoax. After Judge James Linn announced the ruling, Smollett went on a tirade proclaiming his innocence and trying – again – to play the victim.
Filed under News
Chief Writing Wolf 