The COVID-19 daily briefings yesterday gave us some fireworks between President Trump and Jim Acosta. You may have thought you saw the last of PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor.I know, we could only be so lucky.

You may remember Alcindor from a few weeks back:

In fact, ventilators are being returned and reallocated. But that is another story for another time. This time, Alcindor’s attack was focused on U.S. Surgeon General, Jerome Adams. She accused Adams, who is black, of racism.

You’ve said that African-Americans and Latinos should avoid alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. You also said don’t do it for your own wallet, do it for ‘Big Mama’ and ‘Pop Pop’.

There are some people online that are already offended by that language and the idea you’re saying behaviors might be leading to these high death rates. Could you I guess have a response for people who might be offended by the language that you used?” –Yamiche Alcindor

Such language! How dare he use “abuela“.

If you’re offended, maybe you should go back to pre-school.

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) April 10, 2020

Yamiche Alcindor cannot see past the great divide she is trying to sow-deeper and deeper she goes. Adams responded in-kind:

I used the language that is used in my family. I have a Puerto Rican brother-in-law. I call my grand-daddy, ‘Grand-daddy.’ I have relatives who call their grandparents ‘Big Mama.’ So that was not meant to be offensive. That’s the language that we use, and that I use and we need to continue to target our outreach to those communities.”-Jerome Adams

Alcindor walked her comments back on her Twitter page last night to imply that Adams meant no offense to these remarks, that “he used his family’s language” and that “all Americans should be avoiding substances”. How, pray tell, can we avoid the occasional adult beverage after watching the petty children of the press go in for the daily attack? Honestly, this is getting harder by the day.

In Adam’s and the task forces’ attempt to remedy the “lack of equity” and “structural deficits” in cities populated with residents of minority groups, who may possess other pre-existing conditions and have living conditions that make them more susceptible to contracting COVID-19. Let’s do the math here. Alcohol impacts individuals with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes. Smoking impacts individuals with asthma. A weaker immune system increases susceptibility to COVID-19. If minority neighborhoods become infected, the spread continues. The task force is trying to mitigate this. Heck, even the President does not want to see this devastation. The task force, though cannot seem to win. Either they are doing nothing for minority communities (ergo, they are racist) or they’re getting a black man to meet with the NAACP and discuss his partnership with the CDC in doing something to help these communities in a pandemic and the response is still…yep, you guessed it…racist.

Social distancing and teleworking we know are critical. And you’ve heard Dr. [Deborah] Birx and Dr. [Anthony] Fauci talk about how they prevent the spread of coronavirus, yet only one in five African Americans and one in six Hispanics has a job that lets them work at home. They are more likely to live in multi-[generational] housing that creates high-risk for the spread of a highly contagious disease like COVID-19. We tell people to wash their hands. 30% of the homes of the Navajo nation don’t have running water, so how will they do that? People of color experience more likely exposure to COVID-19 and increased complications from it.”-Jerome Adams

Strangely enough, while Jerome Adam’s language sparked a knee-jerk reaction from Alcindor yesterday, the former New York Times reporter sat silently while Hillary Clinton faked a southern accent years back in part, to sway the black vote. In fact, Alcindor went after Bernie Sanders during that time, calling him a “sexist” for not stepping out of the ring for a woman presidential candidate. That woman was Hillary-Hot-Sauce-In-Her-Bag-Swag-Clinton. Race baiters gonna bait.

Photo Credit: FlickR/LBJ Library photo by Ralph Barrera/Public Domain Mark 1.0