black death – The Concordian

“The one from ancient times?” my friend asked across the table. “Why write about that?”

Because, old friend, the plague lives. It never left.

Only three weeks ago, a hunter from China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region north of Beijing caught and ate an infected rabbit, and also caught the bubonic plague.

A week later, in the same region but in unrelated circumstances, two people were diagnosed with the pneumonic plague.

The plague has a long and terrible history of killing people and rodents. It has killed 10s to 100s of millions of people over three pandemics. Estimates say that up to 50 million people may have died from the plague over a seven-year period nicknamed the Black Death in the 1300s.

So … should we be worried today?

Meh. Maybe.

An average of seven people a year are infected in the southwest of the United States according to the Center for Disease Control. And the Canadian government says that the first and only case up here was in 1939.

And apparently, it’s easily treatable with antibiotics if diagnosed early on, according to the World Health Organization.

That said, the two main forms, bubonic and pneumonic, are pretty nasty.

You catch the former from an infected flea or louse or by eating raw, infected meat. Bacteria in infected fleas create a biofilm that blocks food intake. When the fleas bite you, they regurgitate your own blood back into you with plague bacteria. Over a few days, you develop swollen, pus-filled lymph nodes before you start vomiting blood and developing gangrenous extremities. People can survive this form without treatment, but lowkey, I don’t think that’s recommended.

You catch pneumonic plague like you catch a cold, through droplets in the air. It’s 100 per cent fatal if you don’t get treatment within the first day. As the saying goes, “If you’re coughing up blood … go to the doctor.”

So it’s probably wise to check beforehand if plague bacteria are present in rodent populations in a region your visiting.

Anyway, the plague has been in the news recently, which might have worried some. From 2010 to 2015, an average of 100 people a year around the world died from the plague, and that’s awful.

But it’s not Black-Death-horrible, which is something.

Graphic by @sundaeghost

Dare Every Soul to Achieve (DESTA), a non-profit organization in the Montreal area, held a “Real Talk”—an open discussion, on Oct. 18 to discuss the social and psychological impacts of social media on the black community.

“Sometimes people say to me: ‘I don’t see colour, I see you for who you are,’” said Zeinab Kahera, a DESTA volunteer who led the open discussion. “When people say this to me, they are erasing who I am—I am a person of colour.”

The increase of images depicting violence and death of African Americans on social media has expanded exposure to content of this nature and it has transformed into an unfortunate norm, said Kahera.

The group discussed how they felt affected by the increase of social media exposure regarding black deaths and violent viral videos of police brutality against African Americans. Some participants talked about different strategies for coping with racism on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr.

“The first thing people do when they wake up, even before they have eaten breakfast, drank coffee or gotten out of bed, is check their phone and scroll through their Facebook timeline,” said a participant. “The pictures we see or the racist comments we read on social media therefore affect our whole entire day.”

The group also discussed how videos posted on social media of police brutality and shootings of African Americans—including Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Minnesota—have influenced their day-to-day lives and strengthened the reality of racism.

“Social media has desensitized and dehumanized so many of us from these brutal attacks on African Americans,” a participant said. “Social media has completely disconnected us with what is happening in the U.S.”

Other participants voiced how there is real racism in Montreal and how under-acknowledged it is.

“In Montreal, we learn from a young age that we have it a lot better than people south of the border. However the reality is, racism exists here as well,” said a member of the group.

“There have been an increasing amount of people who have been recorded to have symptoms similar to PTSD, as a direct response from these violent videos,” said Kahera. “We need to advocated for support and victimization for African Americans.”

DESTA organizes monthly Real Talks to provide a safe environment where members of the black community can freely discuss issues that impact their daily lives. The organization offers a variety of programs and services for marginalized youth such as an after-school program for students and tutoring services, according to their website.

The organization welcomes Concordia students to participate in the Real Talk discussions and other DESTA services.

DESTA’s mission is to help mentor Montreal youth and provide them the resources to strengthen their identity, promote a excellence in marginalize youth and empower young adults to succeed, according to their website.

DESTA has asked that members of the discussion remain anonymous due to the touchy nature of the subjects discussed. We have left their names out to maintain a safe environment where they can talk openly.

“The one from ancient times?” my friend asked across the table. “Why write about that?”

Because, old friend, the plague lives. It never left.

DESTA discusses the influence of social media on African Americans