As the Covid-19 vaccine rollout gets underway here in the hard-hit US, chaos continues to reign. Down in go-it-alone Texas – yes, that state with its own standalone, cheap energy-providing electrical grid (hey, you get what you pay for) – the governor, deflecting attention from his political troubles, decided to open up for 100% non-mask-wearing business. (And other states have blusteringly begun to follow.) Meanwhile, a recent Saturday Night Live skit titled “So You Think You Can Get The Vaccine” went viral. In it, a faux Dr. Fauci hosts a gameshow in which contestants compete for eligibility, spoofing the Hunger Games-style atmosphere currently hanging heavy in our national air. (A right-on-the-money quip even alludes to the fact that Americans only want something if they think no one else can get it.)
Which has lately got me thinking a lot about “American exceptionalism,” that quality perhaps best exemplified through the immortal words of the late, great, “Queen of Mean” hotelier Leona Helmsley, that “only the little people pay taxes.” But really, American exceptionalism – like Second Amendment “gun culture” – is a systemic sickness, an ingrained attitude that’s killing us most of all.
For the idea that those at the top of the food chain are somehow exempt from any social contract is exactly the magical thinking that got us into this pandemic mess in the first place. Simply put, too many straight white folks here have decided that mask wearing and social distancing just don’t apply to them. Which, truth be told, I find pull-my-hair-out infuriating. Then again, I came of age during a particular time in another global nightmare, the AIDS crisis – after we had learned exactly how the disease spread and, crucially, how to protect ourselves through strict condom use, but while it was still a very real death sentence. Because of this I learned to weigh risk and, equally important for health and sanity, not to whine.
As far as I can recall, no one in my cohort ever declared, “I can’t wait for this epidemic to be over with so we can throw all our condoms away!” No, we couldn’t wait for it to be over with so people would stop dying. My generation never knew a time before safe sex, before condoms were as common as undergarments. Rubber-wear was just our everyday (night) normal. And perhaps future generations in Western societies will see pandemic life-saving measures in this same spirit, in the way Eastern societies, that have experienced the likes of SARS and MERS, just shut up and take precautions sans complaint.
Luckily, as that SNL sketch celebrated, we in the US still have Dr. Anthony Fauci, who first earned his bonafides battling AIDS (and can’t wait for the pandemic to be over with so he can get back to his HIV research). Unfortunately, though, we lost his longtime fren-nemesis Larry Kramer in May of last year. And thus far, no one’s stepped in to fill the unapologetically queer activist-artist’s “fuck you” sensible shoes. Kramer, you may remember, was the thorn in all sides’ sides, unafraid to basically say to his own community, hell no, gay rights doesn’t include the right to not wear a condom, the freedom to kill your partner. Which is why I’m certain, were he here with us now, he’d be advising something along the lines of, “Stop your First World-entitled bitching and moaning and just put on the damn mask.”
Of course, the reason so many Covid-19 vaccines got developed so quickly (in stark contrast to the gaslighting of gays during GRID) is because the pandemic hit straight white people, right alongside the BIPOC they rely on for capitalism’s slave labor. And most ironic is the reason we also have a mad (Max) rush to vaccinate – because far too many straight white people consider themselves “above” changing their behavior.
In truth, saving American lives is less a priority than is a “return to normal.” Mask mandates and social distancing measures inspire not brotherly-love solidarity but hissy fits. Though I’m sure none of this would have surprised Larry Kramer in the least. The “audacity of caucasity,” the breeder drama forever eluding a cure.
Image credit: Bruno / Germany