From racist stereotypes to doctor errors, wite science/big pharma "cures", a so-called Homeless man on the loose in Dallas who "might" have Ebola and now the revelation of poor immigrants of color HELLthcare being one of the factors in Thomas Eric Duncan's death, I am reminded, as i often am, that Amerikkkan scarcity models kill. .
The Ebola virus is very serious, Ase and love to the children, elders, mamas and papaz who have transitioned because of it and prayers to all peoples who are sick right now, and to be perfectly clear I'm not making light of this deadly disease at all. Actually what i am trying to do is plead for a moment in time when this colonizer created empire stops operating under the killer scarcity models that continue to criminalize, profile, maim, destroy and incarcerate all of us Po folks everyday in amerikkka.
As poor peoples of color we are constantly subjected to scarcity models that rule over our food distribution by giving us only enough in food stamps to feed our families through the 15th or 20th of the month, welfare cash grants that are barely enough to afford to buy our homes toilet paper, school districts which continually profile and segregate our children based on their ability to pass wite-people created tests that aren't even relevant or comprehensible to their life experiences, indigenous languages or deep structures so our children can be shuttled into the school to prison pipeline. And equally deadly is the hater nation mentality that us poor peoples are lazy, stupid and/or crazy -dangerous and therefore should not recieve the food, healthcare or housing we need, but rather we should all be kept on a tight noose of hateful subsistance that barely keeps us alive, much-less able to thrive. And god forbid one of us houseless folks actually contracts "ebola" because thats all it would take for the hate to flow into a river of our blood in the streets.
Think what you will about the Ebola virus itself- i personally believe it was created by Big Pharma so they could earn billions of dollars on the eventual "vaccine" they have already created, not to mention the side benefit of killing off thousands of people so there can be a more colonizer land -grabs of fertile Mama Africa continent land for corporate agribusiness, etc.
The history of scarcity model hellthcare for Mr Duncan
In the case of Mr Duncan, we now know that not only was he a big-hearted hero who was practicing inter-dependence by helping a pregnant young woman who was sick, which is how he got the virus in the first place, but he was rejected from the hospital when he first sought treatment because in classic scarcity model style, he had no health insurance.
I can't tell you how many time this poverty skola throughout my poor people life has sought treatment for myself and my mama when we were deathly ill only to be told, sorry no healthcare for you cause you have no insurance and no money. One of my favorite (not) moments was when i was barely able to breathe with serious asthma and told that i needed to pay "something" on an old bill or not get treatment or medicine at all . Add the fact that Mr Duncan was an African immigrant to deck stacked against him and you have a recipe for scarcity model murder.
Mr Duncan didn't get an experimental drug immediately
Mr Duncan received the so-called "experimental" medicine on October 4th -- six days after his second request for help, and two weeks after he originally received the misdiagnosis that he was ok and spit back out to society.
Mr. Duncan's admission to the hospital was a far longer wait than four other Ebola patients treated in the United States. Those patients -- two each at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital and the University of Nebraska Medical Center -- got experimental medicine immediately. They're all U.S. citizens; Duncan was a Liberian.
Many truths, un-listened to and under-appreciated have been told about Malaria, Small Pox, Polio and all the other diseases the colonizers scattered to and fro as part and parcel of their genocidal theft of Mama Earth and its earth peoples, but the genocide didn't end with the diseases themselves, but rather with the racism and classism that rule over their so-called cures
But now this deadly virus is here and for all of us peoples who subscribe, if even by default to the scarcity models that rule over this stolen, indigenous land- now more than ever we as a society, not just revolutionaries, but all peoples, must move off the lie of independence, i-got-mines- scarcity models and move into the light of inter-dependence.
We must as a society learn back our indigenous medicines, traditions, ceremonies, eldership and care-giving ways which we po, indigenous mamaz, uncles and aunties from Healthy Hoodz, POOR Magazine and Hekau Divine Youth Academy are actively teaching our young leaders in a school we call Deecolonize Academy. Equally important we must teach, speak and practice sharing, caring and inter-dependence. In even the smallest of ways this can make a difference. We must grow our own medicine even if its in a tiny box in our tiny SRO kitchens and then share that with our fellow poor and working class neighbors.
For those of you reading this in the health care industry - stop practicing your own forms of scarcity models, realize the opening of your hearts and the changing of protocols begins with all of you.
Mr. Duncan didn't need to be turned away , some caring hospital intake worker could have checked another box on that original intake form and like one unusually loving doctor told me once when i went to see him in a county clinic - the mandate of this clinic states that i should not give you free samples because you don't have insurance, but i know that's not right so i will give you them anyway.
Inter-dependence means our lives and thrival is threaded together. Rather than send out a hate bulletin for the houseless guy who might have Ebola and hasmat suits for Mr. Duncan's innocent family and neighbors, how about admitting him for care before he got too sick to save. That move would have saved him and all of us.