RFK Jr.’s Legacy of Inflicting Severe Damage on Black Communities

Aside from being the scion of a famed American political dynasty, Democratic presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is perhaps best known for what might generously be called a history of outspoken “vaccine skepticism.” (And more recently, I guess, also for being a “Do you even lift, bro?” type bro.)

To be clear, Kennedy has repeatedly insisted he’s “not anti vaccine;” he’s in fact “pro-vaccine”—even “fiercely pro-vaccine.” It’s just that he’s also a “vaccine safety advocate,” which Kennedy apparently defines as a person who, lacking either medical or scientific credentials, spends two decades rejecting peer-reviewed scientific consensus in favor of his “own research,” from which he draws his own conclusions, which are then disseminated by his own multi-million dollar revenue-generating anti-vaccination nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense.

All too often, Kennedy—designated one of the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s “Disinformation Dozen,” to whom 65 percent of online vaccine pseudoscience is attributed—has made a concerted effort to spread his misinformation to black people. Doing so has meant exploiting a mistrust of the American medical system engendered by a history of racist medical mistreatment and brutal experimentation.

Read more at The Daily Beast.