"Heads nod, throats clear, + giant pauses signal how uncomfortable everyone is with truth baring down on them.

[They]...end meetings trying to assuage me away from the original point." #longcovid #disability

theblackestsidelc.substack.com/p/episode-11...

That's excellent. That's one of the best things I can say about having Long Covid. Everyone plays a game of telephone with my records. Now, let's make sure they write what your actual experience is or we gonna have to fight! Lol.

This is why racial diversity and equality always matters. This is what Black people have always endured. This is why @keystonesymposia.bsky.social and the #LongCovid Movement's meeting was flawed, though well-intentioned.

“Science, however — including bad science — was a category of intellectual production that remained largely closed to African Americans throughout the nineteenth century.”

Dr. Gretchen Long, Doctoring Freedom: The Politics of African American Medical Care in Slavery and Emancipation

The #LongCovid Movement cannot continue unless we consistently incorporate Black patients, experts, physicians, and organizers.

Why does racial equality matter in public health + academia?
When has it not mattered?

Innovative perspectives on scientific research starts with featuring more Black attendees, considering sliding scale price points for disabled and chronically ill attendees, + choosing to discuss methods to advance Black + Latino patient research.

theblackestsidelc.substack.com/p/bone-broth...

And there are plenty of ways to resist and protest without marching or holding up signs. Ingenuity is in our bloodline. We should NOT forget.

After the election, many of us decided to sit home and sip tea, pointing at Hispanic Americans for voting for Orange Soda as they were being arrested by ICE. As marginalized folks, none of us have the time to point fingers at "them," when the "them" is us, and always has been.

White folks gentrified #DC over 30 years ago. Most Black folks were pushed to expensive ass PG County. That's the real crime that no one likes to talk about.