CASH MICHAELS
“THIS VILE RACISM CARRIES A HOST OF EXCUSES…”
by Cash Michaels
You know, sometimes I feel like I’m living in one of those silly reverse universe episodes of “Star Trek,” where everything up is down, and stuff that’s in, is out.
But at least on “Star Trek,” you know that foolishness will be interrupted by commercial breaks, and ultimately come to an end in 57 minutes.
The disgraceful nonsense we’re all caught up in now, however, feels like it will last forever.
Take that incredible alleged “vile racism” letter that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and U.S. Dept. of Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent to an unsuspecting Duke University Health System last month.
In case, you missed the story, or never read the explosive missive for yourself, here’s a sample of what must have rocked Duke University officials to their knees:
“Racial preferences in hiring, student admissions, governance, patient care, and other operations betray that mission [of health care and medical research] and endanger human lives. There is arguably no other area of our educational system where the rejection of merit is more dangerous than in medicine, where the competence of doctors means a difference between life and death for patients, and where scientific discovery is the difference between life-saving uses and the ravages of disease.”
“This vile racism carries a host of excuses and hides behind a smug superiority that such “benefitted” races cannot compete under merit-based consideration. Like all racism, “affirmative action” undermines America’s commitment to merit-based justice and violates the nation’s civil rights laws…”
Yes, this idiotically-written bullcrap goes on, but I think you have the idea.
Now this would be a stunning rebuke from the federal government if we were talking about traditionally solid, fact-based findings of racial bias and racial discrimination from forty or fifty years ago at Duke Health. You know, the kind of insidious racism that was, and still is, prevalent in many of our institutions, against people of color.
Even though our society has done a great deal to eradicate that kind of racial bias from schools, government and the professional ranks, there are still, unfortunately, documented areas of our society where that sort of tribal barbarism still exists.
Our public schools “…remain highly segregated along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines (U.S Government Accountability Office - June, 2022)”; local governments continue to ignore the growing needs of the poor and low-wealth citizens they’re suppose to serve (US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development- May 2024); and qualified professionals of color are still being passed over for well-earned job opportunities and promotions (Reuters - Sept. 2020), and access to needed capital or loans to grow their small businesses (Forbes - 2023, National Urban League - August 2025).
And don’t get me started on how law-abiding citizens of color are still deliberately racially profiled and mistreated by law enforcement as they go about their constitutionally protected business on the roads and streets of this nation everyday, years after the tragic police murder of George Floyd (NBC News - March 2023).
So let’s be clear. Just based on that handful of examples, backed up by the documented evidence I’ve provided here, racism against people of color in this country is still very much alive and well, ultimately meaning that, unfortunately, we have yet to enjoy the full value of our American citizenship without civil rights protection.
TRANSLATION - I’m not aware of anyone flipping a social readjustment switch to make any of those injustices just go away. So as a society, we still have plenty of work to do.
But Kennedy and McMahon - two of Trump’s least qualified of his least qualified presidential Cabinet officers - weren’t referencing any of the pernicious incidents of racism that traditional civil rights laws were designed to combat.
Hey, in fact, they didn’t reference any incidents, or any evidence at all!
Instead, in their highly polished, and certainly frightening written accusation of “vile racism,” along with anything-but-veiled promise to freeze $108 million in federal government funding earmarked to go to Duke Health for scientific research, Kennedy and McMahon did make one thing perfectly clear - the “vile racism” they’re alleging is against white people, NOT people of color.
What was that wonderful line from their dark letter of “vile racism” accusations again? “Like all racism, “affirmative action” undermines America’s commitment to merit-based justice and violates the nation’s civil rights laws.”
Cruel irony of cruel ironies here - by what metric of so-called “merit-based justice” are Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Linda McMahon even qualified to serve as Cabinet secretaries bitching about affirmative action to begin with?
Besides being white, and exceedingly loyal Trump sycophants!
Well, we all know what an “expert” HHS Sec.Kennedy is on vaccines, so much so that he literally fired a standing CDC panel of vaccine experts, and replaced them with his own…you know…folks who, like Kennedy, don’t believe in vaccines in the first place.
Guess the nation is in capable hands when the next pandemic comes around, eh?
And as for Linda McMahon, billionaire former president of the World Wrestling Federation (a virtual spring of educational excellence and achievement if ever there was one), it's kind of embarrassing she’s Education secretary, yet shows up on Fox News not knowing what major programs her federal agency administers, or for a Congressional committee hearing, not knowing anything about the Tulsa race massacre or other chapters of black history she and her president ultimately don’t want white children to learn about.
In fact, Sec. McMahon was asked during that hearing by Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-PA) if teaching about the Tulsa race massacre in school would “constitute illegal DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion)” history instruction?
Education Sec. McMahon’s response:
“Could I get back to you on that?"
So here we have two white, ignorant high federal government officials, threatening to punish Duke Health for opening its doors and providing worthy students of all colors, backgrounds and ethnicities an opportunity to learn and practice medicine, so that they can be of service to their communities, and mankind.
What other reason is there to become a doctor or nurse?
Personally, I'm always gratified to see, and be attended to, by a diverse cadre of qualified medical personnel when I go in for my monthly oncology examinations. Everyone is friendly, capable and professional. I can only attribute that to their education and training, and would love to see more of it.
But according to secretaries McMahon and Kennedy, the “vile racism” that they senselessly accuse Duke Health of committing “…carries a host of excuses and hides behind a smug superiority that such ‘benefitted’ races cannot compete under merit-based consideration.”
If that’s true, then what’s McMahon and Kennedy’s excuse for landing the high positions they have that they’re clearly not qualified for? Being better than everybody else at kissing the criminal king’s crooked behind? Is that all it took, besides being white?
Hell, where’s the “merit” in that?
And from what I read, Duke Health isn’t the only institution in higher learning being challenged by the Trump Administration for opening its doors of opportunity and learning not only to African-Americans, but eager students from the world over who seek to learn, and be productive citizens.
Columbia University has agreed to pay $200 million over three years to get reinstatement of its federal funding, and also to end its diversity initiatives.
Harvard University may be also be on the hook for $500 million to get back into the good graces of Trump & Co., which may also include scrapping its DEI policies and programs.
Brown University reached an agreement with the Trump Administration that will unfreeze millions of federal dollars, and restore millions in unpaid federal grants and funding for medical and health sciences research. That agreement also requires Brown U to comply “…with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to prohibit consideration of race in university admissions [and] provide access to all relevant data and information to rigorously assess compliance with its commitment to merit-based admissions.”
And UCLA is reportedly in negotiation with the Trump Admini after being hit with a $1 billion threat requiring the school "...to pay the federal government $1 billion over multiple installments, along with a $172 million claims fund for people impacted by violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin," reports CNN.
I have no doubt given the Brown, Columbia, UCLA and Harvard examples that Duke Health is going to try and settle their conundrum as bloodlessly as possible. But it would be a damn shame if they're forced to admit to practicing something that really isn’t true.
Namely vile racism.
Let me be frank here. America is a greater nation when every citizen, regardless of race or gender, has, as former Pres. Barack Obama used to say, “ a shot.”
That means every citizen, especially young people of color, have access to a good all-around education, and solid training in the specialized field of their choosing, be it medicine, scientific research, law enforcement, business, technology, you name it. Sharing those tremendous opportunities for knowledge is one of this country’s greatest attributes. Our nation grows stronger as our knowledge base expands. And most importantly, we fulfill one of Dr King’s greatest dreams - we slowly but surely eradicate poverty by ensuring that every child is properly educated, and develops the power and ability to lift themselves and their community up out of poverty, and the darkness of despair.
That can only help the nation, and surely there' enough opportunity for everyone!
But instead, we have a racist president who is actively and deliberately pulling back in the opposite direction of that aspiring greatness.
Why?
Because he believes that most white Americans are white supremacists like he is, and his late Ku Klux Klan daddy, Fred Trump, was.
King Trump believes that most white Americans are so ignorant of this nation’s racial history, he can racially misrepresent anything, and they’ll fall for it.
So far, shamefully, he’s proving his point.
According to a November 2022 poll by U.S News and World Reports and the Harris Poll, 47% of white Americans remain unconvinced that systematic racism exists against people of color in this country. “More than 80% of Black or African-American citizens believe that it does, as well as more than 70% of Asian or Pacific Islander respondents and nearly 70% of Hispanics do,” the 2022 poll revealed.
The Raleigh News and Observer has reported that some group that allegedly goes around suing and threatening to sue schools, universities and governments over their DEI programs may be the likely culprit behind inspiring the Kennedy/McMahon letter to Duke, which means this is all part of some orchestrated right-wing plot to eradicate DEI off the face of the planet.
So what’s their “cogent” argument? That students and people of color are being given opportunities that really belong to white people.
Looking at that argument more closely, these folks seem to be saying that you’re automatically “qualified” if you’re white, because it is then naturally assumed that you've earned the right to even be considered for such positions and opportunities.
And if you’re not an approved “minority,” like Asian, or FBI Director Kash Patel-like Indian, then you automatically couldn’t possibly have “earned” any position by merit or hard work.
I guess secretaries Kennedy and McMahon are the best examples of this so-called white “merit” philosophy.
Or Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth, who proudly posts videos of his “Christian” pastor extolling the virtues of denying women the right to vote, and sends secret attack plans to other top government officials via open commercial chat rooms. There's a white example to aspire to!
Or Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a former governor in charge of managing the nation's law enforcement apparatus, who was caught flatfooted during a congressional hearing not knowing what the definition of habeas corpus was.
For the record, and I mean this, I personally know of no one Black who feels entitled to a job or position solely because of the color of their skin. Everyone I have ever known, myself included, has taken pride in being properly trained or qualified for whatever opportunity that has come their way.
Can the underwhelming and unqualified members of Trump's Cabinet and administration say the same thing?
And for the record, I looked up the definition of "vile." It means "of little worth or value" and "morally bad or unpleasant."
Somehow, I see that term more descriptive of Kennedy and McMahon's boss, than anything DEI has ever done to our country. Just sayin'...
I could go on, but I think my point here is made. That so-called “vile racism’ letter to Duke Health is a joke, as are Trump's bootlicking authors and their cohorts.
The sad result, however, is that many a deserving young person of color is going to lose out on opportunities and doors opened to them because of this foolishness.
That means the true greatness of America is being held hostage by people who only see white supremacy as the way forward. There can be no other reason for this ongoing social damage.
As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to racism, there is nothing more vile than that!
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