Jay B and the Tar Baby

A man consumed by revenge cannot grow.

Hi all,

Shortly after the election, I heard many conservatives talking of revenge against the Left. They wanted to burn it all down. They wanted people fired and jailed. They wanted the Left to pay.

I understand that impulse. My family has lived through and endured these culture wars since the 1980s. We have seen avenues close up, friendships disappeared, and opportunities vanish simply because of what we believed in. It wasn’t long ago that Amazon tried to cancel our “What Killed Michael Brown?” costing us tens of thousands of dollars in marketing expenses.

We vented in private. But we never sought revenge. My father has never uttered an angry word in public and neither have I. We continued our work and kept our eye on the prize: a better America.

That is why when I heard these angry conservatives back in January, I tweeted the following:

The response was split between those who appreciated it and those who cussed me out. To the latter, I argued that pursuing accountability and enforcing the law was the better route. Remake America by using the American principles and law. This position is far from sanctimonious — partisan revenge only betrays America.

Needless to say, there was not much reasoning to be had with the angry-minded. Many of them had stewed in self-protecting silence all these years, never speaking out because they feared for their jobs, and now they want revenge.

These revenge seekers have more in common with the angry blacks after the civil rights movement. Many blacks, including my family, wanted nothing to do with revenge. They only wanted their freedom which had been denied to their lineage for centuries. However, there were those blacks who wanted revenge. They wanted white America to pay and how do you think we all got into this racial quagmire of today?

America has never truly learned how to live without race. When will we ever start?

When I was a child I was bullied relentlessly for my deafness and often wanted revenge. My father would take me aside and tell me his unique version of the black folktale about the Tar Baby. In his telling, the Tar Baby was a doll covered in tar. It symbolized the one problem that was haunting and tormenting your mind.

You would be walking down the street on a mission to get to the garden of knowledge. You have your eye on the prize. You then arrive at that door that will lead you to the prize when you notice on the doorknob a Tar Baby.

You say to the Tar Baby, “Sir, I would like to go through the door.” The Tar Baby says not a word — just smirks. You grow frustrated, a bit angry. You say to the Tar Baby, “why can’t I get through and go about my business?”

The Tar Baby just smirks.

Well, this happens several more times. Finally, you explode and you hit the Tar Baby with everything you got and your hand gets stuck in the tar. You hit with your other hand — stuck in the tar.

The Tar Baby just continues to smirk.

You kick him with your foot — stuck. Enraged, you kick him with your other foot and now you’re completely stuck to the Tar Baby. You can’t get loose.

Revenge is a Tar Baby. A man consumed by revenge cannot grow.

When Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor, was recently sworn in as the Director of the National Institutes of Health, he could have easily sought revenge.

For those who may not know, Bhattacharya became famous for the October 2020 “Great Barrington Declaration,” along with others that challenged the prevailing narrative on COVID and the lockdown measures. They argued that the elderly and infirm should be given protections from the infection but that the rest of us should strive for “herd immunity.”

However, then director of NIH, Anthony Fauci, wanted no debate. He wanted his way only. He and others conspired to censor Bhattacharya. They spoke derisively of him in public and he was routinely mocked in social media.

But Bhattacharya never wavered and he now sits in Fauci’s seat. And now even the New York Times is questioning pandemic response.

In a recent interview, Bhattacharya was asked if he wanted some form of payback for what he endured since 2020 and this was his response:

“I don’t want retribution. What I want is for gold standard science to happen, and that means even people who disagree with me should have their say. We will never use this agency to censor scientists who disagree.”

Video:

This is the way. This is how you make America better. Even Fauci can’t deny this.

Have a great weekend,

Eli