Louisiana ranks 47th out of 48 states in maternal mortality. But not really, according to Louisiana's Republican senator, Bill Cassidy.
"About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear," said the physician lawmaker at a Harvard Chan School of Public Health panel discussion.
Obstetrician Veronica Gillispie-Bell had to explain the facts of life and death to Cassidy: "Race is a social construct, it is not a biological condition. To say that 'because we have a lot of Black people in Louisiana, that’s why our outcomes are bad' is out of context."
It is also, of course, damned stupid and fucking racist. But more than that, it reveals that in the Republican mind, Blacks still aren't really equal to Whites. They are instead a kind of phantom or obscure silhouette in legitimate society, worthy of being erased from the record whenever convenient.
Next week, Sen. Cassidy will eradicate all racial problems in Louisiana by simply "correcting" the states's population for race.