Upon hearing the Coronavirus Committee's expression of alarm regarding the disease's disastrous affect in New Orleans, Louisiana, I said to a friend, "I'd bet a lot of that statistic is black people, especially black women."

Several factors play into the statistics, but I would wager eating habits play a large part.

My family's roots are in Texas by way of Louisiana. Most of my ancestry can be traced to that state.  An aunt explained that our ancestors were brought from Virginia to Louisiana.  After emancipation and many decades later, they moved to Texas in search of employment.

I know the culture, and when one of the culprits in the list of underlying conditions was identified as diabetes, I was further convinced that obesity (a precursor to Type 2 diabetes) in so many black people is a major part of the problem.  Fried and fatty foods are a staple of Southern cooking. 

There is an interesting history of eating habits in the South.  During earlier periods of the black experience in America, when economic conditions prohibited a typical black family from purchasing what we now know to be healthier foods, cheaper alternatives (especially to meat) were selected, primarily pork.  In fact, there was a term for it.  Expensive meats were considered "high on the hog."  Those parts that were not prime (hog heads, feet, and intestines) were either discarded by meat-packers or sold at cheaper prices.  And they were not as dietarily sound.

Even though I was born well past the time when my ancestors were compelled to live off such foods, they were embedded in the culture, so my mother prepared them in meals.  As an adult, I had to wean myself away from those foods, because when prepared well, they are very appetizing.  Barbecued ribs is a notable example.

Southern culture, however, is not the reason I'm addressing this issue of disparate results in COVID-19 findings. This brief statement of eating habits is to bolster my point.

I want to alert all who are involved in fighting the disease that "culture" will be deemed by progressives of all ethnicities a taboo subject.  Any attempts to reveal to black Americans that cultural habits could be killing them will be turned back on the hapless investigators as evidence of their racism and lack of understanding.

The victimhood scam, perpetrated by progressive leftists must be protected at all costs.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the perpetually race-baiting Democrat congresswoman from New York, has already expressed the ridiculous notion that even to suggest that blacks are doing something contrary to their well-being is racist.

Ocasio-Cortez is a very low-intelligence progressive who plays the victim card well.  But I don't doubt that some of the more astute among progressives were waiting for the issue of victimhood to raise its ugly head.  For them, any behavior is unassailable. T here is no right or wrong, no acceptable or unacceptable.  In the name of "inclusiveness," whatever anybody does, no matter the harm it causes, cannot be questioned.

In line with this misdirected notion, blacks are fed the lie that they hold no responsibility for their circumstances.  If they eat unhealthy foods and suffer the consequences of those choices, it's not their fault.  They are victims of that nebulous "racist system."  Progressive Democrats have been masters in force-feeding that lie.

Today's culture advances all sorts of aberrant activities, from forcing acceptance of psychologically disordered behavior (such as homosexuality and transgenderism) to overemphasizing biological disorders (birth defects and other disabilities) in the name of inclusiveness.

My perception is that progressive leftists do not care one whit about individuals suffering from such conditions.  Their goal is to erode society's traditional values, to force belief in the concept that every action and every behavior must be embraced.  Non-acceptance is branded "hateful."  Activist homosexuals have even infiltrated weak Christian churches so as to make the claim that Jesus is on their side, when they know he is not.

I admonish the members of the administration's committee, tasked with looking into COVID-19 findings, to avoid sources of information that are known to be racialist.  The aim of those sources is not to help suffering black people, or anybody else, but rather to advance an anti-American, socialist agenda.  The committee would be wise to search out black conservative, patriotic individuals and groups.  There are many, but the Congressional Black Caucus is not one of them.

When Vice President Pence indicated he had spoken with the Congressional Black Caucus regarding this issue, I imagined how that went — no doubt, a lot of posturing and attempts to put him on defense because he is white.

Too many white leaders tend to pander to racist blacks out of misplaced feelings of guilt over the historical plight of blacks in America.  Furthermore, blacks who are suffering under their own self-inflicted victimhood gain a sense of power when they can shame and demean a guilt-ridden white person, even one coming to their aid.  I am pleased that President Trump does not pander.

In a situation where we are confronting a deadly virus, where lives are at stake, there is no time for petty people, whatever the ethnicity, who play ideological games.

The solution to achieve positive results is to bring on board bona fide conservative and patriotic black men and women.  These individuals can issue that "tough love" needed to open the eyes of the many black people who are sealing their own doom by their behavior.

It will be interesting to see if sanity wins the day.

Sylvia Thompson is a writer and copyeditor, formerly employed with several Silicon Valley, California technical firms.  She currently resides in Tennessee and occasionally writes articles on race and culture.  Ms. Thompson was born and reared in Southeast Texas during the waning days of legal segregation.  She would like very much to see this nation move beyond racialist thinking and perpetual victimhood.