Read on Twitter
the whole "medical workers are heroes" thing is definitely largely to cast them in a role where they're thanked for their "sacrifice" and never given proper PPE and the like, just like everyone's saying. but it's not just that
it's also an attempt to put them above question and in the troop/cop category so that can be used to deflect from the racist biases of the healthcare system and the racist actions of individual healthcare professionals that's happening here
so that as this goes on and people of color, especially Black people, end up dying at higher rates than white people, there's a built in "how dare you question the morality of these brave heroes" to shoot down criticism with
i think we'll see plenty of other forms of bigotry at work too-- i bet that central park tent hospital where the workers have to pledge themselves against gay marriage is letting queers die at higher rates than cishets-- but racism is gonna be the big one
there's been a lot of talk about how Black people are dying at much higher rates than whites and how a lot of it is class and environmental racism but the medical system has always been racist and it's not gonna stop just because of daily sessions of everyone clapping
with risk of going into the american civic religion again, this elevation of doctors/nurses to troop/cop status is used now to make them safely, heroically disposable, and tomorrow it will be used as a shield against pointing out the biases in who disproportionately died
just like troop worship is used as a shield against criticism of both american military policy and against abuse performed by the military
if you want context for the civic religion thing, here's my previous thread on it https://twitter.com/NoraReed/status/1117297885647757313?s=19
civic religion side note: the "treat this like a war" thing is also partially an attempt to create a narrative that fits into the civic religion; Americans are simply easier to manipulate and manage when we're talked to in those terms
that sucks but is not related to what this thread is about
that is also unrelated to what i am talking about, sorry
