What 2020/21 taught me

In the ongoing dumpster fire which is the past year or so I have realised I didn't know something I thought I knew. I claim to be relatively diversity aware but have realised that I didn't know as much as I thought I did. A turning point was reading an account by a Black doctor in the US who was wary about taking the Pfizer covid vaccine. Her reflection was prefaced with how her own father's medical needs and concerns were neglected because he was Black, and went on to describe how she felt she had to do her own research into the vaccine to make sure it was safe because of the apparent speed of its licensing.

Remember this is an actual *doctor* and not some insane antivaxxer. She only became reassured when she saw pictures of Black people involved in the research. Far from a paranoid rant, this brought it home to me how endemic racism is and how Black people are literally terrified for their lives.

This coming on top of the BLM protests and the attempted insurrection by white trash in Washington, which was majorly averted by a Black police officer and then the wreckage was cleaned up by Black janitorial staff, has really brought this home.

The rioters actually carried 'blue lives matter' flags with them. Firstly there is no such thing as a blue life, and if you are carrying that flag and overpowering police it means it's not about respect for the police, it's about racism.

The rise of far right, unreasoning, extremism is really scary. At the absolute least Trump needs to be tried and this needs to be tackled.