Boston University has joined the rest of elite academia in hiring a two-fer: Melissa Gilliam, a black woman, takes the presidency in July [Boston University Names Melissa L. Gilliam 11th President, by Doug Most, Bostonia, October 4, 2023]. All the big-time schools have been hiring blacks to run campuses since the Floyd Hoax.

Yet the cover story in the print version of black-obsessed Bostonia is rather more interesting. It’s yet another installment in the communist Mainstream Media’s blacks-are-unhealthy-because-of-racism narrative. 

Jillian McKoy’s Racism, Sexism, And The Crisis of Black Women’s Health [October 31, 2023] opens with a hoary MSM anecdotal lead about a woman who died at 43 years old, and whose doctor was “dismissive” about her side effects from blood pressure medicine. The reader is invited to conclude that the woman was a victim of the doctor’s “racism” and as well the “structural racism” in medicine:

One observation is becoming increasingly clear: racism and other stressors may be much stronger predictors of poor health than individual choices or genetic differences.

The psychological trauma of racial discrimination may increase cortisol (the body’s stress hormone) and weaken the immune system, potentially leading to elevated blood pressure, memory problems, and other conditions.

Occasional questionnaires asked participants to recount “past experiences with interpersonal racism, including daily, one-off encounters of perceived slights—such as poor service in a store or restaurant—as well as discriminatory treatment at work or in school, healthcare, the court system, housing, and interactions with police.”

Right. None of that is related to blacks’ poor-tipping, poor work habits, defaults on loans, school violence, or violent crime. 

But let’s go on:

Experiences of racial discrimination may lead to increased weight gain, for example, as detailed in a 2009 study by Yvette Cozier (SPH’94,’04), SPH’s associate dean for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice and an associate professor of epidemiology. About 60 percent of Black women experience obesity compared to 40 percent of white women. Cozier says her findings underscore the role of racism in the US obesity epidemic and the need for continued antidiscrimination efforts across the country. The researchers have also linked racism to increased risks of diabetes, hypertension, accelerated aging, asthma, and most recently, heart disease.

Of course, none of this is evidence of “structural racism.”

Added to this mega pint of codswallop is the put-upon “LGBTQ” narrative: Don’t Say Gay: Speaking Out on Book Censorship [by Alene Bournaova, November 16, 2023]. It includes interviews with three “BU queer authors.”

Here is a gem from that offering:

I also hear exposure to those concepts referred to as “indoctrination.” As if reading a picture book about a prince and a princess is not “indoctrination” to heterosexuality! Kids are constantly exposed to heterosexuality and cisgender gender identity at school: using “Mr.” and “Mrs.” for teachers; the enforcing of boys and girls bathrooms, etc. So, banning a book about a prince loving a prince while saying another book about a prince loving a princess has “nothing to do with sexual orientation” is so clearly just discrimination.

Another day, another example of the insanity in higher education.