"little more than contempt for those whose lives are at risk"

Adam Serwer on how America's history of racism is a feature, not a bug, when it comes to why black and brown folks suffer more than whites do under a pandemic:

"The frame of war allows the president to call for the collective sacrifice of laborers without taking the measures necessary to ensure their safety, while the upper classes remain secure at home. But the workers who signed up to harvest food, deliver packages, stack groceries, drive trains and buses, and care for the sick did not sign up for war, and the unwillingness of America’s political leadership to protect them is a policy decision, not an inevitability. Trump is acting in accordance with the terms of the racial contract, which values the lives of those most likely to be affected less than the inconveniences necessary to preserve them. The president’s language of wartime unity is a veil draped over a federal response that offers little more than contempt for those whose lives are at risk. To this administration, they are simply fuel to keep the glorious Trump economy burning."

The whole thing is worth reading.

Plenty of other folks have pointed out that the mystical Trumpian "open it and they will come" idea is bullshit.  A large majority of Americans prefer to stay in than take a risk on their health or that of their kids, despite what white terrorists would have you believe.