When anti-vaxxers cite their freedoms, constitutional rights, and–the whitest thing of all–the Founding Fathers to rail against vaccine mandates, do they know what they're talking about?
What if I told you this happens EXACTLY every 100 years?
In 1706, the members of a Boston church gave the pastor Cotton Mather a gift bag with a very special present--an enslaved Black man named Onesimus.
( That's how they collected tithes and offerings, but times were very different back then)
But Mather couldn't STAND Onesimus
Some of it was because Onesimus laughed his ass off when Mather tried to convince him that God was white. Mather said Onesimus was "wicked" because he was too smart. Plus, Onesimus tried to tell Mather something that was unbelievable.
In Africa, they had cured smallpox.
Smallpox was a deadly, contagious disease. When it came to the US, they blamed the pandemic on immigrants who came here on ships. Then…
You know what?
There's no way anyone living today would understand this part.
Anyway, Mather didn't believe Onesimus' BS.
But he told his pharmacist friend about it, and they decided to try it. So Mather & his doctor friend inoculated 248 of their friends and family.
When white people heard this, they lost their minds. One Boston newspaper stayed impartial. But the publisher and his little brother secretly printed pamphlets that said the slaves were trying to kill the white people by injecting them with smallpox
It sparked the first anti-vaxxer movement. They even firebombed Mather's house with a note that said "I will inoculate you with this."
Then, in 1721, 5,889 people in Boston – about 1/2 the town– caught smallpox & 1 out of every 7 died.
Only 6 of the 248 people inoculated by Onesimus' recipe died—or one in 40.
Massachusetts quickly became the first state to promote public vaccination.
The next year, another smallpox epidemic hit. Less than 3% even caught it. It worked.
But that publisher's little brother, who was printing those anti-vaxx pamphlets, he was too embarrassed to get his kids vaccinated and his son died.
He regretted it so much that he moved to Philadelphia, opened America's first hospital.
I'm not saying this guy was more intelligent than you, but when you talk about your "freedoms" & what the Founders stood for, you should know that this guy was kinda like a Founding Father. His nickname was "The first American"
But most people just call him Ben Franklin
Ben was all for vaccine mandates, but a lot of people weren't. States banned vaccines, & people rioted in Virginia in 1769. One Virginian wasn't worried because he had already gone to Philadelphia to get vaccinated.
Ben even helped him edit this breakup letter he wrote.
It was called the Declaration of Independence
In his 2nd term as president, he began mandating vaccines.
Literally 100 years after someone put a human being in the offering plate, Jefferson wrote a doctor concerning vaccines calling it the greatest discovery in medical history.
A few years later, Jefferson's homeboy created the National Vaccine Agency. If you believe in the Founders, you should know the guy who created the Agency was some dude named James Madison, who also wrote this thing called the Constitution of the United States of America.
In 1900, another smallpox epidemic broke out, The city closed all the schools and told everyone to get the vaccine or pay a fine. Another preacher, Hennig Jacobson, protested & refused to pay fines for the so-called vaccine mandate.
Again, this would NEVER happen today.
Newspapers called the so-called vaccine mandate the "greatest crime of the age" and said it was "worse than slavery." To be fair, it's possible that the people in this city didn't really know much about vaccines because it happened in *checks notes*...
IN BOSTON MASSACHUSSETTS!
So what did the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, say about the "freedoms" and the Founding Fathers' intentions?
"It is within the police power of a State to enact a compulsory vaccination law."
Apparently, the highest court in the country doesn't seem to think that spreading a pandemic is a constitutional right.
In 1906, EXACTLY 200 Years after Onesimus arrived, Jacobson got the shot.
This brings us to the modern anti-vax movement.
I'm sure you've heard about this one. In 1998, a British medical journal published a study by Andrew Wakefield concluding that the Measles/Mumps/Rubella vaccine caused autism.
After it made headlines around the world, parents around the globe refused the MMR vaccine. The story just kind of went away, which is why many people still believe that vaccines cause autism
But that's not what really happened.
See, that study never actually said that vaccines cause autism. But, just like in 1706 and 1806 and 1906, newspapers didn't really understand science, so they just wrote what they heard Wakefield say. But the other doctors in the study said, "Ummm… that's not what we found."
Then investigators discovered the whole thing was a hoax. A rival vaccine company & lawyers hoping to file a civil suit paid him millions to falsify the research. Some of the kids didn't even have autism!
But the biggest news outlets never reported this. VERY FEW reported that THEY had misreported the initial research
Because of the Wakefield hoax, measles children around the world died.
Well...Except for one place...The good ole USA.
Why?
BECAUSE WE HAVE A VACCINE MANDATE!
When did we discover out lawyers, medical companies and individuals had paid $19 million for Wakefield to create this hoax?
So no, the Founders would not have turned over in their graves. But, to be fair, you gotta admit...
The anti-vaxxer movement and white people dying science because of their "freedoms" is a time-honored American tradition.
One last bit of proof:
During the Revolutionary War, smallpox ravaged British and American troops. So George Washington came up with an idea on how he could gain an advantage.
Yep, a VACCINE MANDATE literally helped a ragtag group of soldiers create this thing called America
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A few years ago, while working for one of the greatest sports franchises of all time, I learned a very important life lesson.
A thread
Every summer, my hometown's recreation department hosted a "stop the violence" summer league to keep kids "off the street."
It eventually became so competitive that teams would recruit out-of-town ringers, leaving local basketball players shut out of their hometown's tournament
My homeboys asked me to sponsor a team and I agreed. Unlike the other teams, no one on my team played college ball. They were essentially regular dudes from the hood who just loved basketball.
Many people don’t know that the phrase “crabs in a barrel” comes from an old Geechie Gullah tale.
A thread:
A long time ago, it was impossible to catch crabs. They were too crafty. Even when they got caught in a net, other crabs would come and free them. Then, one day, a fisherman found a crafty old crab in his net one morning. He was just about to eat it when the the crafty old crab said:
“Please Mr. Fisherman, don’t eat me. Please don’t eat me!”
“Why wouldn’t I eat you?” said the fisherman
“Because I’m crafty, old, & other crabs respect me,” the crab replied.
Fisherman: What good does respect do me? You ain’t nothing but a crab”
Crafty Crab: Well crabs are very stupid, and I’m smart. They’ll believe anything I tell them
7 years ago, I wrote a small piece about a man who was falsely accused of a crime.
A few days later, I got an anonymous telling me to look up the woman they called “the evilest white woman on earth.”
What happened next is the absolute wildest story you’ll ever hear
A thread
The story begins in 2017, when an editor asked me to fill in for a coworker and do a quick write-up about Lamonte McIntyre, who spent 23 yrs in prison for a double murder he didn’t commit.
I thought it was weird his conviction wasn’t actually overturned
Contrary what people who don't read things say, the Virginia legislature is not "targeting" the Klan-affiliated, pro-Confederate hate group that is responsible for the "lost cause" by taking the tax-exempt status from the KKK's little sister.
See, in 1950, Virginia GAVE the UDOC a plot of land to build their HQ in Robert E Lee Park with 3 stipulations
1. They had to finish building in 5 years 2. If they didn't, the land reverted back to the state 3. If they finished, the state would GIVE them an additional $10K
In 1924, lawmakers tasked the census bureau was tasked with figuring out the “national origins of the white population of the US.”
If white people were from a certain country, that country was considered “Good.” Nonwhite people were from “bad countries.”
To preserve the country’s racial composition, they created a formula. Ppl from good countries could immigrate based on the % of pop. in the formula. Immigration from bad countries was limited.
And no Asians
This was why we call it the Asian Exclusion & National Origins Act
In 1952, they changed the formula to allow people from “bad countries” to immigrate at a minimum # 100
Except for Africans. Under the formula, ALL of Africa was considered 1 country
In 1965, civil rights activist convinced LBJ to sign the Immigration & Nationality Act
First of all, there is a good reason why Elon referred to Duke. It's part of a discussion began by Ben Shapiro and some other white people after a white girl said some things about Duke Medical School's DEI program
By its own admission, the school has a DEI program.
Duke Medical School is 12.5% Black and US News ranks it as the 5th best medical school in America. Nationwide, Black students make up 10% of medical students.
25 years ago, Duke was ranked 6th and was 9% Black. In 2005, the medical school was 15% Black.