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Saturday, January 13, 2018

Medical Treatment of Black Women

An excerpt from Vox -

What Serena Williams’s scary childbirth story says about medical treatment of black women
Black women are often dismissed or ignored by medical care providers. Williams wasn’t an exception.
By P.R. Lockhart

A new Vogue profile of Serena Williams sheds light not only on the health risks that can come with childbirth, but also how those factors — coupled with racial bias in the medical field — can have dangerous, even life-threatening results for black women.

In Vogue’s February cover story, Williams recalls dealing with serious complications shortly after the recent birth of her daughter, Alexis Olympia. Williams explains that the problems started the day after her daughter’s birth by Cesarean section, when Williams felt short of breath. Due to her history of pulmonary embolisms (Williams underwent emergency treatment for a life-threatening embolism in 2011), the tennis star quickly alerted a nurse about her symptoms.

But the response wasn’t what she expected. Vogue writer Rob Haskell explains:

She walked out of the hospital room so her mother wouldn’t worry and told the nearest nurse, between gasps, that she needed a CT scan with contrast and IV heparin (a blood thinner) right away. The nurse thought her pain medicine might be making her confused. But Serena insisted, and soon enough a doctor was performing an ultrasound of her legs. “I was like, a Doppler? I told you, I need a CT scan and a heparin drip,” she remembers telling the team. The ultrasound revealed nothing, so they sent her for the CT, and sure enough, several small blood clots had settled in her lungs. Minutes later she was on the drip. “I was like, listen to Dr. Williams!”

Williams adds that she continued to have problems after this scare. Williams coughed frequently due to the embolisms, and the coughs were forceful enough to cause her C-section wound to rupture. When she went in for surgery, doctors found that a hematoma had filled her abdomen, a result of the blood thinners. A filter was placed into one her major veins to keep more blood clots from traveling to her lungs. When she finally returned home, Williams needed six weeks of bed rest.

https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/1/11/16879984/serena-williams-childbirth-scare-black-women


Friday, January 12, 2018

The new US tax law, explained with cereal

Yes Indeed!

From Very Smart Brothas -

10 Reasons I’m Glad I Was Raised in a Black Household
By Panama Jackson

https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/10-reasons-i-m-glad-i-was-raised-in-a-black-household-1821891589

Bless Your Heart

A New Low

An excerpt from the New York Times -

‘The Lowest White Man’
By Charles M. Blow

Trumpism is a religion founded on patriarchy and white supremacy.

It is the belief that even the least qualified man is a better choice than the most qualified woman and a belief that the most vile, anti-intellectual, scandal-plagued simpleton of a white man is sufficient to follow in the presidential footsteps of the best educated, most eloquent, most affable black man.

As President Lyndon B. Johnson said in the 1960s to a young Bill Moyers: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

Trump’s supporters are saying to us, screaming to us, that although he may be the “lowest white man,” he is still better than Barack Obama, the “best colored man.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/opinion/trump-immigration-white-supremacy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed

Trump Calls Non-White Countries "S**tholes": The Daily Show

Thursday, January 11, 2018

The Rugged Training Methods of Fiji’s Best Rugby Players

The Cast of Sesame Street Reads Famous Movie Quotes | Vanity Fair

Soar Alongside Migrating Birds—and the Man Who Flies With Them | Nationa...

Again?

From USA Today Network -

School's homework asked for 3 'good,' 3 bad reasons for slavery
By Darryl Enriquez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WAUWATOSA, Wis. — Administrators at a Lutheran school here apologized Wednesday for a fourth-grade homework assignment that asked pupils to write "3 'good' reasons for slavery and 3 bad reasons."

Trameka Brown-Berry shared the assignment Tuesday on Facebook asking if others found it offensive. Her son, Jerome Berry, is a fourth-grader at Our Redeemer Lutheran School.

The post set off a cry from Facebook respondents and a community leader that the assignment was insensitive and offensive.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/01/10/slavery-homework-assignment/1022098001/

1968

From The Atlantic -

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/01/50-years-ago-in-photos-a-look-back-at-1968/550208/?utm_source=&silverid=MzEwMTkwMTQ4ODk4S0

Clip: Why President Obama "stays in the pocket" with his dad moves [HD] ...

The Reason Britain Loves Tea