Ebola, race and fear (Only in the US, of course)

BBC News Echo Chambers ^ | October 21, 2014 | Anthony Zurcher, Editor, Echo Chambers

[2ndDivisionVet]

The examples of Ebola hysteria in the US are starting to get too numerous to count.

Two students from Rwanda, 2,600 miles away from West Africa, are sent home from a New Jersey elementary school for 21 days. A Maine high school teacher is given three weeks off because she attended a convention in Dallas, Texas.

A Texas college sends out letters to prospective students from disease-free Nigeria that informing them that they are no longer accepting applications from countries with "confirmed Ebola cases". A Pennsylvania high-school football player is met by chants of "Ebola" from the opposing team. A middle-school principal goes to a funeral in Zambia, also with no cases of Ebola, and is put on paid administrative leave for a week.

Some writers think they've found a theme that energises these fears, tying many of these incidents together: racism.

"In both the United States and Europe, Ebola is increasing racial profiling and reviving imagery of the 'Dark Continent'," writes Robin Wright, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, for CNN. "The disease is persistently portrayed as West African, or African, or from countries in a part of the world that is racially black, even though nothing medically differentiates the vulnerability of any race to Ebola."(continued)

[2ndDivisionVet]

In Africa, many are being KILLED if they're even suspected of being infected, but instead the Eurotrash have to write about America's supposed racism.

[Jewbacca]

All the countries bordering the worst-infected closed their borders and shoot people who try to cross.

I guess those Africans are racist against “real blacks” or something.

[skeeter]

The race card - accepted everywhere.

Is there an issue they won't pull it out on?

[wtd]

America's racism?

Read the headline carefully:

• Vocativ: Rwanda Starts Testing AMERICAN Visitors for Ebola 10/21/2014 14:57EDT

  (yeah, you read it right the first time)

[brooklyn dave]

I am wondering when someone from the hood is going to name their little girl Ebola Mae or something like that.

[USMCPOP]

"The race card - accepted everywhere."

American Express Black Card - leave home with it.

[Cowboy Bob]

I like the Ebola chant at the football game. Great way to psych-out the opposing team!

[freedumb2003]

>>Some writers think they’ve found a theme that energises these fears, tying many of these incidents together: racism.<<

WOW — knock me over with a feather! I did NOT see that one coming!

[zeestephen]

No racism in Africa of course.

Just the occasional witch burning and mass slaughter of innocent Christians.

[ex91B10]

Imagine my surprise...

[freedumb2003]

>>American Express Black Card - leave home with it.<<

You know there is such a thing — it is for the super-rich like Donald Trump. I think the annual fee is around $5,000.

[Iron Munro]

If democrats can get this scare ramped up to the point that cautious, informed people start to self-quarantine in their homes they might be able to suppress enough republican voters on election day to hang onto the senate.

[joshua c]

Ah, Robin, so stuck on stupid. Brainwashed beyond repair. If anyone is good with graphics, can you write “RACISM” on the lenses of her glasses because that is all she sees.

Seems Dr. Snyderman faced “immense discrimination” when she violated her quarantine. What was that all about, Robin? Our deep seated prejudice against doctors on TV?

[GraceG]

So if Martians carried a infectious disease and I met a Martian at a spaceport it would be wrong of me to keep my distance then......

I guess common sense is no longer common anymore....

[USMCPOP]

I got the Black Card offer in the mail. I’m not rich, just a cheap-ass who pays in full all the time.

[driftless2]

Yeah, that Ebola virus...nothing more than a common cold. Easy to get over. Forget the 70-90% mortality rate. Let's let everybody in from disease-ridden, third-world, pestholes. (snicker)

Hopefully, nobody more dies here from the disease, but the facts are even the "experts" don't know everything about this disease. Rational precautions should have been taken, but because of political correctness, they weren't. The attitude of the authorities was so what if large numbers die, we don't want to offend the people from the pestholes. Screw liberals.

[driftless2]

who is that?

[sergeantdave]

The BBC is England’s last-ditch effort to keep alive the memory of Lord Haw-Haw.

[ex91B10]

Wrong thread. Not paying too much attention. Too worried about where I’m going to sleep tonight and eat tomorrow. I recently joined the ranks of America’s homeless population.

[combat_boots]

WHAT?