Coronavirus daily update: Tuesday, June 9

White folks talking

Here’s hoping that, after more than a week of protesting police brutality against black people, white folks have been talking about these issues, recognizing their roles in white-supremacist systems and acknowledging their collective privilege.

Here’s hoping that we can get a handle on the coronavirus in North Carolina, where things are not going all that great.

Here’s hoping for change, because we can’t do this forever.

Some news

• Gov. Roy Cooper has officially shut down Ace Speedway in Alamance County after events of more than 2,000 people were held there, directly against the executive order.
• He also created the state Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. They’ll be studying the problem of racial disparities from a number of angles. Worth a skim.
• We’ve got another bill proposing to open bars and gyms. And also a lawsuit.

The numbers

• North Carolina counted 676 new cases today, which is now considered a low number. They came on 15,598 tests, 4.33 percent, which is not bad.
  • But the recent surge may soon tax our hospital capacity — we’re currently using 75 percent of inpatient beds and 83 percent of ICU beds.
• Forsyth County continues to accelerate: 90 new cases today, for a total of 1,898 diagnoses.
  • According to county data (which seems incomplete, as there hasn’t been a recovery posted since April 18), there are 1,785 active cases.
• Guilford County reports 108 new cases today, for 1,779 total. With 928 recoveries and 87 deaths, that leaves 764 active cases.
• We are fourth in the nation in terms of case acceleration, leading me to believe that we suck at this.

A diversion

Jimmie Walker’s career could have gone a lot of different ways. He was there at the dawn of black Hollywood, moving effortlessly from DJ to stand-up to television, though he always ended up in stereotypical roles that accented his awkward, gangly frame and penchant for rhyme. But Jimmie Walker is a legend, not because of his catchphrase, “Dy-no-mite!” but because of Let’s Do It Again, a feature film from 1975 also starring Bill Cosby (now disgraced) and Sydney Poitier (not). Bootney Farnsworth, the boxer, is the best role Jimmie Walker ever played. I found it on YouTube for a fine diversion.

Program notes

• From the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s public-domain collection, tonight we’ve got a Central African power figure from the Kongo people, from the 19th Century.
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