SPEAKING UP IN BLACK AND WHITE: "Perhaps upspeakers' brains are fried after being fed a steady diet of DEI, ESG, and BIPOC".

• Author: Singleton, Marilyn M.
• Position: MEDICINE & HEALTH

THESE DAYS, more and more apparently intelligent people seem to upspeak. That is the irritating "Valley Girl" inflection where every sentence sounds like a question. Don't these people trust their own thoughts and words?

Perhaps upspeakers' brains are fried after being fed a steady diet of DEI, ESG, and BIPOC. For the uninitiated, these initials stand for "diversity, equity, and inclusion"; a corporate stock/investment rating based on environmental awareness: "environmental, social, governance"; social justice and (right-minded) governance to enhance the lives of "Black, Indigenous, People of Color."

"Privilege" gets the full word. White people must "check their privilege at the door" and shut up under the current era of Stalinesque cancel culture.

Black American slaves used to have some version of Simon Legree as their master. Now the woke white liberals have assumed that role. Even Pres. Joe Biden views BIPOCs as helpless morons whom only the government can rescue.

Of course, little BIPOCs are the perfect unsuspecting targets. Despite parental objections, new school curricula include Marxist inspired critical race theory that teaches children to hate others based on skin color. Instead of learning the 3 Rs, kindergartners are encouraged to explore their gender identity and question the family structure.

The latest data shows that only 35% of fourth-graders are proficient in reading and a mere 41% in math. Instead of learning the necessary skills to race to the top of the ladder of success, they have the tools to win the victim triathlon. The prize: dependency on government resources.

COVID-19 added a new ingredient to the melting pot. Brown-skinned Americans fare more poorly with the coronavirus than whites. Some reasons are sociological, such as crowded living conditions, working in service jobs that cannot be done from home, and inconsistent access to health care.

Some reasons may be physiological. Studies have shown racial differences in the body's ACE-2 receptors. These receptors help control inflammation, especially in cells lining the blood vessels. These are the sites where the "spike" protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (that causes COVID-19) enters and infects healthy cells throughout the body. Notably, there may be more ACE-2 receptors in patients with hypertension, diabetes, and coronary artery disease--conditions plaguing black Americans. Moreover, people with brown skin have lower levels of Vitamin D, a factor in the risk of...