Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed in an April 2024 podcast that “every Black kid” is routinely put on ADHD/autism medication “known to induce violence,” and suggested they should be sent to a “wellness farm” to be “re-parented.” He later denied making that statement at hearings on April 11 and April 22, during National Autism Acceptance Month.
Consequently, that statement reminded me of caricatures that white propaganda authors and legislators used to describe Black men as savage, animalistic, and terrifying predators, which was used to justify lynching, systemic and institutional brutality, and the Atlantic Slave Trade. At the same time, Black women and girls were referred to as Jezebel and Sapphire for sexualization and abusive purposes.
To this day, Black women and girls are number one in almost every adverse category, for instance, being “Pushed Out” of school, missing, sexually assaulted, experiencing institutionalized racism, and intimate partner violence (IPV). Black infant mortality and morbidity records are higher than those of any other ethnic group. In other words, Black Children are being held under the standard of law and punishment, even though they are innocent, and they need medical attention.
Clearly, this screams anti-Black Derange Syndrome.
In fact, Black children aren’t the only ethnic group on the medication, but the only one that should be placed on a wellness farm. I’m livid with that inhumane statement that has an accusatory history that warrants unearned consequences and repercussions for Black children, especially Black boys.
Nonsensical!
Historically, Black children have been over-represented in government-run reform schools and juvenile detention centers. In the past and presently, physical and sexual abuse, forced labor, and the death of children are rampant. I reflect on the 2024 movie The Nickel Boys, which depicted the horrors of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Florida. For 111 years, the school was known for its convict leasing, school-age boys as young as five years old in chains, severe beating, and numerous students in unmarked graves on the property without their families’ s knowledge. Those Black boys were viewed as violent for small infractions and needed to be redirected and made whole, but at the cost of their childhood.
The secretary’s assertion is nothing short of medical apartheid, federal boarding schools that forced assimilation among Indigenous students, and modern-day interment camps.
Similarly, it echoes Nazi-era “race hygiene” in Vienna, where disabled children were removed from their families under the rhetoric of neurological “need” and “reform,” propped up by pseudoscience about danger and “psychopathy.” Within that system, Dr. Hans Asperger—later the namesake of “Asperger syndrome”—has been documented as aligning himself with Nazi authorities and, at times, cooperating with policies that harmed disabled children, including referrals to Vienna’s Am Spiegelgrund clinic. Many of those children were then killed through overdoses, starvation, and neglect—covered up with euphemisms and falsified causes of death.
According to the scholar James Q. Whitman, the Nazi regime used America’s blueprint of systemic segregation and the dehumanization of Black Americans to construct their violent rhetoric.
In the 1960s, a University of Mississippi neurosurgeon admitted to performing 30-40 lobotomies on institutionalized Black children, some as young as six, causing lasting harm and exemplifying medical racism. Woefully, the medical treatment was worse than the diagnosis.
These blunt racist practices are all too familiar to the Black community; it’s usually disguised as policy for the sake of a moral civilization, which is a false equivalence.
“One thing for certain, two things for sure,” since the secretary mentioned wellness and re-parenting in public. A strategy and agenda are likely in place to execute. For instance, the Mandate of Leadership: The Conservative Promise Project 2025 aimed to dismantle the Department of Education and eliminate the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) protections for all students, and Black students experience the most impact. The plan was successfully executed 60 days into the new administration.
Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, the author of “Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys,” warned the Black community of the dehumanization of Black boys by white male supremacy and inequitable systems, such as education. Dr. Kunjufu’s staunch solution and legendary quote, “Our children don’t need charity, they need investment!”
To illustrate, the Color of Autism Foundation reduces stigma associated with autism spectrum disorder and enhances Black families’ efficacy and empowerment to reduce isolation. Black Autism Coalition invests in resources that lead to a robust quality of life. As part of its legal consult program, the National Black Disability Coalition (NBDC) provides families with intake, assessment, and guidance. Most importantly, these organizations ensure cultural competency advocacy, advance education, and healthcare equity for Black Children.
Furthermore, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) produce 80% of Black judges, 70% of Black doctors, 50% of Black teachers, and 40% of Black engineers.
Moreover, Roy L. Clay Sr. has been coined the “Godfather of Silicon Valley, Nvidia’s Blackwell Architecture is named after David Harold Blackwell, a Black mathematician and statistician. Sherilyn Ifill is the founder of the 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy at Howard University. During World War II, Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black fighter aviators in the armed forces, were also known as “Red Tails.” They flew over 1,400 missions and received three Distiguished Unit Citations. Additionally, Black women responsible for launching NASA Artemis II/III include Vanessa Wyche, director, Amber Alexis Taylor, and Kiarre Dumes.
If you invest in Black kids, these are the results.
In essence, I will share a quote that my Black parents frequently emphasized: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
Let me close with a second quote from Morgan Freedman- “Attacking people with disabilities is the lowest display of power I can think of.”