Anti-Creedance Front

(Reuters) - An outbreak of monkeypox that has affected 81 people has been traced to a giant Gambian rat and assorted other small rodents imported as pets from Africa, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed monkeypox infection in one Gambian giant rat, three dormice, and two rope squirrels shipped to the United States in April. "This shipment is believed to be the source of the current U.S. outbreak of monkeypox," the CDC said in a statement.

This reminds me of that cartoon in Bowling for Columbine. Holy hell. Not only is the rat from Africa, it's GIANT and carries a disease called "monkeypox". I know the monkeypox couldn't be avoided, but could the media please try more to make Africa look like a continent where there are giant rats and mosquitos, the whole place is infested with AIDS, and people run around eating bugs and throwing spears? This is how racist stereotypes get started.

id.s

At least they weren't great big black rats. Yeah,that 's one of many ways bogotry and racism starts This could be construed as a micro aggression in the media and usually avoids scrutiny by pretending to be newsworthy. Good eye.

jman0904

This is old, and I mean REALLY old news. Like, two weeks.

Sakpo

Are you serious? The monkeypox story got big before there was a definite connection to Africa. So it turns out it came from giant a African rat and some other African rodents... I hardly see how this will result in any racial stereotypes being created. I mean, Africa is a continent where there are giant rats and mosquitos, where there is a problem widespread HIV/AIDs, where people do eat bugs in some places (I don't see how that's bad if it's healthy), and where there's a lot of violence (admittedly more often with Ak 47s or whatnot rather than with spears). Most of the news coming out of sub Saharan Africa that's big enough to make it onto American television is bad news. The place is in a period of severe crisis and turmoil. I don't see what some pet rats that spread monkeypox have to do with any media attempt to create racial stereotypes about blacks (I presume this is the "race" that stereotypes are supposedly going to be created about due to this). There's lots of big bad news stories out of Africa (AIDS, wars, starvation, severe poverty, etc)... this was just one minor American story that happened to end up with an African connection.

Loren Pechtel

Africa is notorious for kicking up new diseases--it's tropical after all. New diseases generally come either from the tropics or areas where people and animals live in very close proximity--think SARS & China.) That says nothing about the people that live there, though.

Sakpo

Agreed. I don't think monkeypox is new though, it's been around Africa for a good while. Anyone who would form a racial stereotype based from this sort of thing is going to be a racist anyway, anyone thinking halfway logically will understand that a monkeypox infected rat does not reflect anything about people in Ghana. In fact, the existence in America of a market for giant rat pets is far more disturbing to me.

lunachick

I was just thinking the same thing.

And the bio-security issues in general.

id.s

"This could be construed as a micro aggression in the media and usually avoids scrutiny by pretending to be newsworthy".
You people know what a micro aggression is- where even a look or a roll of the eyes can project meaning to a member of a minority(like a smiley) Like ,if they said it was black rats, it would be more obvious? When the green monkey story started it was assumed a black person did the dirty deed. Loren is right about keeping giant rats. How do Americans like chinese carp now, zebra mussels, west nile etc. It's a great big beautiful world and everything is now being shared.

Darwin26

what kinda pets can i get from New Zealand? something soft 'n furry 'n Smart ? Although BABE would be kewl as long as it doesn't give me trichinosis when i eat it... NO Snakes
What kind of people in todays economy can afford to buy 3rd world rats....sheeeeeesh Or Prarie Dogs for that matter. This is not only Politically INcorrect it's just plain WRONG.

lunachick

You're welcome to all the possums and rabbits you can catch.
Babe's an Aussie.
We don't have none o'them round here.
Fookin' eejits.