If only Dr. Seuss were still with us, he could write a sequel to “Horton Hears a Who,” entitled “Brian Hears a Whiff.”

On MSNBC this afternoon, Brian Williams, after claiming that the government always mentions co-morbidities when discussing COVID-19 deaths among black Americans, wondered:

“Am I alone in hearing at least a whiff of victim-shaming?”

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Williams was reacting to a New York Times article reporting that Latinos and African-Americans are three times more likely to contract coronavirus, and nearly twice as likely to die from it, compared to whites. The Times was so anxious to confirm their suspicions of corona-racism that they sued the Centers for Disease Control. 

So just as Horton the elephant could perceive the residents of Whoville on a tiny speck of dusk, so the exquisitely attuned Brian Williams can perceive racist victim-shaming that less sensitive souls might not see. 

Question: how does Williams manage to “hear” a “whiff?” Could poor Brian be suffering from a rare form of synesthesia, in which he hears odors? 

And why does Williams object to the mention of co-morbidities such as diabetes and obesity? The liberal media loves to boast that it believes in science. Isn’t this important, scientific, information which helps people better understand the nature of the disease and explain some of the disparities?

Fortunately, his guest, Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker, was there to assure Brian that he was not alone in his astute detection of victim-shaming.

Here’s the transcript.

MSNBC
Deadline White House
7-6-20
3:41 PM EDT

BRIAN WILLIAMS: As our nation grapples with issues of racial injustice, new federal data is giving us the clearest picture yet of the deep racial disparities of the coronavirus pandemic. The New York Times analyzed CDC data from over 900 counties across the nation. Again, our federal government didn’t lay this out. It took a newspaper. 

. . . 

On the rare occasion when our government talks about the death toll from coronavirus in the black community, they never fail to mention the co-morbidities. Am I alone in hearing at least a whiff of victim-shaming?

JALANI COBB: Oh, absolutely. You’re not alone. And so, what we’re looking at is not really COVID. I mean, COVID is not telling us anything that we didn’t know already. It has had tragic consequences, but what it has done is highlight the map of inequality in the United States.