MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan Blames White Supremacy for White People’s Resistance to Covid Restrictions

White supremacy has been behind resistance to Covid-19 regulations, MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan claimed this week. Hasan backed up this theory with two comments pulled from Wisconsin and Georgia — as well as a new study theorizing racial disparities being highlighted in Covid-19 cases and deaths “can reduce support for safety precautions among White U.S. residents.”

Hasan highlighted Alpharetta, GA, a small town that in May of 2020 was opening up from Covid regulations far more than bigger cities like Los Angeles and New York. Hasan described the horror scene for viewers.

“Middle-aged men waltzed back into Starbucks, suburban moms, maskless of course, rescheduled their regular pedicures. After all, as one man explained to The [Washington] Post, when you start seeing where the cases are coming from and the demographics, there’s no reason to worry. The demographics. A curious sentiment,” Hasan said.

In the specific piece Hasan is referencing, the Georgia resident does mention “demographics” easing his worry, but his friend being interviewed with him then refers to the the disproportionate amount of older Americans at greater risk of death from Covid-19:

“I think you have to live life,” said Jeff Lampel, taking a sip of beer.

“When you start seeing where the cases are coming from and the demographics — I’m not worried,” agreed his friend Scott Friedel.

“I know what people are going to say — ‘Those selfish idiots are killing our old people!’ ” said Lampel.

The Post report does not say that Friedel was referring to racial demographics.

Hasan tied the comment directly to a statement from Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack responding to an outbreak of Covid-19 in May of 2020, mainly in a meat-packing factory. Roggensack said at the time that even “regular folks” are getting Covid.

“I guess that didn’t include those mostly Latino meat packers,” Hasan said before highlighting a new study from Science Direct.

The study correlates people’s awareness of racial disparities in Covid-19 infections — i.e. that minority Americans are more likely to be infected and negatively impacted — to their support for Covid-19 “safety precautions” and overall concern over the virus. The study reads:

We found that those who perceived COVID-19 racial disparities to be greater reported reduced fear of COVID-19, which predicted reduced support for COVID-19 safety precautions. In Study 2, we manipulated exposure to information about COVID-19 racial disparities (N = 1,505). Reading about the persistent inequalities that produced COVID-19 racial disparities reduced fear of COVID-19, empathy for those vulnerable to COVID-19, and support for safety precautions.

The study was the last bit of the puzzle for Hasan to declare that “white supremacy trumps all,” even during a “once in a lifetime global pandemic.”

“In short, for an alarming number of Americans, Covid isn’t a problem so long as it’s not a White people problem,” Hasan said.

While the premise of Hasan’s argument is that White people’s lack of care about Covid-19 is directly tied to the racial disparities of infections, he concluded that “the majority of the virus’ victims are still White people.”

White people, he argued, are not only motivated by white supremacy, but they are actually too stupid to know they are actually harming other White people.

“Here’s what I find so infuriating about this,” he said. “Yes, there’s the abject, vile racism of course, but also while Covid-19 disproportionately affects people of color, yes, the majority of the virus’ victims are still White people. So this strain of white supremacy- let’s call it what it is – is literally helping to kill hundreds of thousands of White people. This whole thing is just one more horribly depressing episode in White America’s long history of cutting off its nose to spite its face.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.