WITH THE WHOLE CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC and the growing concern surrounding intimations of mandatory vaccinations as put forth by a retired software billionaire-turned-philanthropist—Bill Gates (head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and leaders from the US-based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the proposed location for human vaccine trials, I think it’s high time we had a real conversation regarding privilege and race. Before I begin though, I think it’s worth sharing that last week, I ran an informal poll on my Facebook page that essentially posited that before beginning human vaccine C19 trials in Africa, perhaps Bill should test them in the U.S. on willing volunteers in his home city and state, and unwilling volunteers (Microsoft employees and B&M Gates Foundation employees). The unanimous response I received was (paraphrased), “Keep that sh*# away from me!” Interesting response, but it’s okay to test on African children and adults, right? (Don’t answer that until you’ve finished the article, which begins now)…
Philanthropy
While I did not mention philanthropy in my opening paragraph, I mention it here because privilege seems to be a principal benefit enjoyed by all philanthropists. Now, the dictionary defines philanthropy as follows:
* The desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed especially by the generous donation of money to good causes (MacOS built-in dictionary app).
* Goodwill to fellow members of the human race especially : active effort to promote human welfare (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary).
The word “philanthropy” derives from the Greek word, “philanthrōpos,” which means “loving mankind” (phil = “loving” + anthrōpos = “mankind”).
Privilege
While I believe all of the above to accurately describe the intent of those whom are philanthropists, these days it seems that having an exorbitant amount of money to give away means being afforded the privilege to push forth the agenda that supports what YOU (the giver) feels is best for mankind, whether or not it truly is for the benefit of all parties (it sort of reminds me of playing the board game Monopoly® with friends who grow more ruthless the more money they collect. At any rate, if having all the chips means calling all the shots, then that should be a major cause for concern for anyone who isn’t independently wealthy.
Race
At this point, I’m sure you, the reader, is wondering how race factors into all of this. “I’ve been tracking with you so far Matt, but how does race play into all of this?” Well, let’s look at the philanthropist that has emerged as the leading source of funding for coronavirus research: Bill Gates.
It is no secret that Bill Gates sits at the forefront of most of today’s discussions regarding how to push the world forward beyond this pandemic. He has been on a number of major mainstream media outlets discussing how vaccines (for which his foundation has been funding research) are going to be crucial to returning the world to “normal operations” post-pandemic, and how the world cannot go back to normal without them. But how does a retired software guy with more money than he can ever hope to spend in his lifetime get to advise world leaders on how to govern the affairs of the populations they lead? Is Gates an epidemiologist? No. A virologist? Nope. Is he a medical doctor? No Sir or Ma’am. Is he an elected official? Again, no. And yet, he is calling the shots: telling our elected officials how we all get to return to business. Why do you think that is? (Got an opinion? Leave it in the comments section below). Now here is where the race issue comes into play…
Vaccines
Bill Gates, a Caucasian-American billionaire software force du jour, stood on stage at a TED Talk some ten years ago, and proceeded to tell the world that the biggest contributor to global warming (based on his four-variable equation:
CO2 = P x S x E x C), is people. (For reference sake, CO2 = carbon emissions, P = people, S = services used per person, E = units of energy per service, and C = amount of CO2 per unit of energy.)
People, the biggest contributors to CO2 emissions (aka global warming)… Seems reasonable right? Well, when you consider the very next thing that comes from his lips is, “One of those numbers is going to have to get pretty close to zero,” you start to sit forward in your seat and wonder what he’ll say next.
He continues…
“First we’ve got population. The world today has about 6.8 billion people; that’s headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, healthcare and reproductive health services, we could lower that number by about 10–15%.”
Now, I’m not sure what you gathered from that, but by using simple mathematics, I define the above as decreasing the world’s population by between 680M – 1B people. To me, that’s an alarming proposition… so much so that were I there in the audience, I might have stood up and asked two questions:
1.) Within how many generations do you expect to achieve that type of decrease and
2.) Do you expect to achieve that population reduction evenly across all six, well-inhabited continents?
But alas, I was not there, so I can only speculate where he plans to achieve the steepest decline in the world’s population.
Eugenics:
…The practice or advocacy of controlled selective breeding of human populations (as by sterilization) to improve the population’s genetic composition (–Merriam-Webster Online)
…The science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavor only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazis. (–MacOS built-in dictionary app)
(If you don’t want to watch the entire TED Talk below, simply skip ahead to the 3:56 mark for the relevant portion.)
Again, because I was not present at the above TED talk which might have allowed me to ask my questions to the man himself, I can only speculate based on anecdotal evidence. If you have any type of Internet search savvy about you, it won’t take long to find out where the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested heavily in vaccination programs: The Mother Continent: Africa.
Now for some segments of the world’s population, this may seem like no big deal… “Well, Africa has more people and is one of the poorest continents Matt; it’s where we can do the most good for the most people.” Still for other segments, the interpretation might be different, “Here they go again… Trying to get rid of Black folks the world over!” So with those things in mind, I’d like to end on the following note…
Summary
Let each of us truthfully look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves… If Bill Gates were a self-made, billionaire Afro-American named Tyrone Latrell Jenkins, who stood on a stage in front of a packed audience, or even audaciously addressed an auditorium full of leaders and dignitaries from a collection of European nations, and intimated that the number of people on Planet Earth was unsustainably high, and that the best way to handle the problems caused by that number, not the least of which is climate change, is to reduce the population by, at minimum, 680M people by using vaccines, health and reproductive services, and that he would put special focus on pushing said vaccines and reproductive services (in efforts to achieve the desired population reduction) to Caucasian populations of Europe, North America and Australia, how would YOU feel about that? Would you look the other way and let it fly? (Altogether now… “HELL NO MATT! WHO IN THE HELL DOES SOME BLACK BILLIONAIRE THINK HE IS TO MAKE SUCH A SUGGESTION??” is the response, or one similar, that I’d expect to hear on the radio, see in video and read in print.)
Furthermore, as a so-called Black man myself, I can also, honestly and accurately say, that most Black folks would be the first to bark on Billionaire Tyrone Jenkins and proclaim how wrong he was for even suggesting something like that. So with that being the case, why does Bill Gates and his “self-funded panel of experts” get to dictate the affairs of the entire world, let alone the melanated portion? Who from Hell does he think HE IS? Does having exorbitant amounts of money mean you get to set the rules for the existence of all sentient beings? God forbid.
So, where does that leave you, the reader? Where does it leave me? Are you comfortable with some rich guy setting the course of the rest of your existence on this planet? You might answer, “Well, the scientists know best,” but would you, Mr. Blue Collar employee from Middle America whose grandparents were European immigrants, still be good with my fictitious character example, self-made billionaire Afro-American Tyrone Latrell Jenkins telling you that your blonde-haired, blue-eyed children need to take his company’s vaccine if you ever want a hope to return to a normal life? How about you, the sons and daughters of Ivy League elites who work in banking and other white collar executive positions? You don’t have to answer that for me; I just want you to be honest with yourself.
If your answer is “No,” then that answer should be an all-encompassing, even-across-the-board “No” for everyone across all sectors of humanity: from every country and all walks of life. Hell, Bill Gates is a software genius, which tells me that he is smart enough to find a better and less people-destructive solution if he truly believes that people are the biggest cause of global warming (unless of course this is the vaccine iteration of early versions of MS-DOS, which were rather bloated and unstable by comparison to operating systems like Apple’s Macintosh OS and IBM OS/2). But I digress. Believe it or not, I just might agree with Gates’ notion that too many people are the cause of global warming, but not for the same reasons (I share my thoughts in the video link at the bottom of this article).
Finally, if you believe in the existence of the Almighty God, then you must also believe that this world was created and designed to be self-sufficient, and that it is impossible to have “too many people,” which would ultimately suggest that somehow the Creator’s design was flawed, and that He needed “His creation” (mankind) to help Him figure out how to fix that design. (Sound ridiculous? Yeah, I thought so too.)
So, Mr. Gates, if you really want to help the world… If you really want to do good for your fellow man (not just the ones who look like you and share the oxygen in your economic strata), how about taking a page from Africa’s son, performing artist Akon, and asking how you might use your foundation to help him with his “Lighting Africa” initiative. He is a native-born African and would have a far better sense of how best to help the inhabitants of his continent than you could ever hope to.
Thanks for reading and all the best!
—MT
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Disclaimer: The name “Tyrone Latrell Jenkins” is a product of my imagination and is not intended to depict any persons living or dead. Any similarities in name or description between my fictitious character and any real persons (living or deceased) is purely coincidental.
—Matt D. Talford
Matt D. Talford is a writer, narrator, and author of three books: “Stuck In An Elevator” – a fictitious tale of passion and self-discovery; “Captain’s Mate: A Practical Guide for Tennis Captains, League Players and High School Coaches”; and his award-winning debut title: ”From Fear to Faith: A Survivor’s Story” – a memoir about overcoming a rare form of what he calls “the C-word.” All three books are currently available in paperback at www.talfordarts.com or at Amazon; and in eBook format on Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks. “From Fear to Faith: A Survivor’s Story” is also available in audiobook (narrated by Talford himself) at iTunes, audible.com, and at many other sites where audiobooks are sold. For information on these and other products, click the “shop” link in the menu.
