Coronavirus: How distorted thinking will kill us and what that has to do with slavery

I was heartbroken by the front page of the Times today:

These headlines outline the crisis of bad thinking that we are in, but let me draw your attention to a few indicators.

1. The government knew that something like this pandemic could happen and that the nation was unprepared.  We did not get prepared.  
2. Health care workers have been decrying the shortage of personal protective equipment, but the nation has not revved up production.
3. Unemployment claims are surging, but President Trump asked the states to suppress the numbers.
4. People are working to find a "silver bullet" but not employing proven "magic strategies."
5. And (not shown) a story about rightwing people in Louisiana who scoffed at the coronavirus until one of their own got seriously ill from it.  

I could go on, as could anyone who's been following the news and updates from public health and medicine.  I think, however, that I've proven the point that we are managing this pandemic in a fashion that will increase its devastation to our population.  

I promised to say how this bad thinking is related to slavery, which might have puzzled you as a claim. 

For the past four years, I have worked with a consensus group of organizations on a project called, "400 Years of Inequality."  Our project issued a call in 2018 for the nation to observe 2019 as the 400th anniversary of the first Africans landing at Jamestown to be sold into bondage. Observances were carried out all across the US, in small churches and large concert halls. 

We focused on "inequality" because we saw that as an egregious and enduring harm of slavery that entrained the whole nation.  We were honored to have the Reverend Dr. William Barber II offer the homily at a solemn occasion held at Riverside Church, called "Stolen Lands, Stolen Hands."  He centered his homily on the identification of "seven sins" committed to justify slavery.  These include: bad biology and sick sociology.  He emphasized that we have not scrubbed these distorted ways of thinking from our schools and universities or from our government or our population.  

Philosopher Robert Fullilove had this to say about distorted thinking:

Logicians teach us that, if the premises of thinking are incorrect -- for example, if people postulate that some are not the equals of others -- then they will make conclusions based on these premises that are logically correct (they will have formed a "valid argument"). But here is tricky part: "valid" is not the same as "true."  That does not mean, in other words, that their conclusions will be illogical.  People can make logical arguments beginning with false premises, but sound logic does not make the conclusions we derive from untrue premises to be true.  

And that is the trap that we find ourselves in at this moment.  We are working from false premises and arriving at "valid" but wrong conclusions. It is killing us.  

One immediate step: sign the Poor People's Campaign petition for a "Moral Response to COVID19." Led by Reverend Dr. Barber, this "moral fusion" campaign invites all of us to recognize that inequality harms us all and to fight against it.