Exposing Racism in Medicine

An excerpt from Today - 

How this Black doctor is exposing the racist history of gynecology

Dr. J. Marion Sims is known as the founding father of gynecology. He earned this title through contributions made by experimenting on enslaved Black women.

By Maura Hohman

There's one name Dr. Kameelah Phillips, an OB-GYN at Calla Women's Health in New York City, would prefer not to use in her operating room: Sims.

Depending on the context, the word can mean either a surgical tool, "Sims' vaginal speculum," or its inventor, Dr. James Marion Sims. Sims is known as the founding father of gynecology, but his legacy is fraught because of how he gathered much of his learnings — by operating on enslaved Black women without their consent or anesthesia.

Today, Phillips is "reclaiming" this story, she told TODAY. She prefers to call the tool "Lucy."

Lucy was an enslaved 18-year-old who almost died after Sims operated on her, attempting to fix her postpartum urinary incontinence, according to the Journal of the National Medical Association.

Phillips recalled feeling "shocked, appalled and disappointed," when she first learned about Sims' history over 10 years ago. In that moment, she said it was "a no-brainer" to stop using his name.

https://www.today.com/health/racism-gynecology-dr-james-marion-sims-t185269

Hamilton Mask-up Parody Medley

What Trump Won't Say

From the Associated Press - 

Analysis: What Trump leaves unspoken carries consequences

By NANCY BENAC

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump seems to rarely leave a thought unspoken.

Of late, though, it is increasingly clear there are things Trump won’t say — and they are tied to the most important issues of his presidency.

Among them:

— Knock it off, Russia.

— Wear a mask, Americans.

— Systemic racism must end.

None of the above are particularly bold or controversial messages.

https://apnews.com/c3251ce810aa70351e535430a48fcc50

Living in the State of Idiocracy

An excerpt from the Washington Post - 

Welcome to the United States of ‘Idiocracy’

Opinion by Max Boot

The presidency’s idiocy is matched by that of Republican governors in states such as Florida (where coronavirus cases increased by 277 percent in the past two weeks), Texas (+184 percent) and Arizona (+145 percent). They were slow to declare lockdowns and quick to end them. They also refused to impose statewide mask mandates — and, in the case of Texas and Arizona, tried to prevent municipalities from imposing their own rules — even though studies show that wearing masks can reduce transmission by as much as 85 percent.

This toxic imbecility is getting people killed. But recall the adage that “every nation gets the government it deserves.” Trump and the Trumpy governors did not seize power by force. They were elected by constituents who, in some cases, see masks as the spawn of the devil.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/30/welcome-united-states-idiocracy/

President Obama - Oh How We Miss You!

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Robert Gibbs, Jay Carney and Josh Earnest never had to hold a press conference to announce that the President reads.⁣ ⁣

A post shared by Pete Souza (@petesouza) on Jun 30, 2020 at 3:28pm PDT

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With the “President’s Daily Brief” aka the PDB back in the news, I thought it’d be a good time to re-post a couple of PDB photographs.⁣ ⁣ As I’ve mentioned previously, there are two components to the PDB: a written brief that is sent to the President every morning. And an oral brief by the Director or Deputy Director of the National Intelligence. ⁣ ⁣ President Obama received and read the written PDB early every morning in the residence. His first meeting every day in the Oval Office was almost always the oral PDB, every one of which I photographed during the eight years (I never said every aspect of my job was visually exciting.)⁣ ⁣ So here’s two photographs, one from each term, which shows the oral PDB with the usual people attending during that particular point in time.⁣ ⁣ Photo 1, Oct. 22, 2014: from left, Ben Rhodes, Lisa Monaco, Mike Dempsey (Deputy Director of National Intelligence), the Vice President, the President, Susan Rice, and Tony Blinken (Denis McDonough’s hand is shown at right; Avril Haines was usually in attendance as well.)⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Photo 2, Jan. 28, 2011: from lower left: Denis McDonough, John Brennan, Robert Cardillo (Deputy Director of National Intelligence), the Vice President, the President, Tom Donilon, Bill Daley, Ben Rhodes and Tony Blinken. ⁣ ⁣ Here’s an important distinction: any President that receives intelligence information has been briefed whether he received it in writing, in person or on the phone. So, for instance, if the President received the intelligence information only in the written PDB, it is a lie for the White House press secretary to then say the President wasn’t briefed on the information.⁣ ⁣ ⁣

A post shared by Pete Souza (@petesouza) on Jun 30, 2020 at 7:43am PDT

The Character of a Man

From Thread - 

A Rabbi's Story 

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1275429939597021184.html?campaign_id=93&emc=edit_fb_20200701&instance_id=19913&nl=frank-bruni&regi_id=38867499&segment_id=32334&te=1&user_id=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610

White Savior: The Movie Trailer

RESPECT Trailer (2020) Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, Biopic Movie

The Deadly Consequences of Karens

An excerpt from the Raw Story - 

Conservatives fume over Washington Post editor calling out the dangerous history of white ‘Karens’

By Sarah K. Burris

Conservatives are criticizing Karen Attiah, an editor for The Washington Post, because of a tweet she sent about the impact white women have had on the lynching of Black people.

In the case of the Tulsa massacre in 1921, the whole incident was caused when a 19-year-old Black shoe shiner named Dick Rowland was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white elevator operator. There was a rumor that spread throughout the city that Rowland would be lynched without a trial. Hundreds of white men gathered around the jail but a crowd of Black men wasn’t far behind. A shot was fired and the groups of men began a fight where over 300 died and over 800 people were injured.

In the case of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy allegedly “offended” a white woman, she said, because he flirted with her. Stories about the incident have been disputed, but the woman, 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant claimed Till made “advances.” Bryant’s husband and half-brother kidnapped the child, beat him, mutilated him and then finally shot him in the head and tried to hide the body in the river.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/conservatives-fume-over-washington-post-editor-calling-out-the-dangerous-history-of-white-karens/

In a Nutshell

An excerpt from the Boston Globe - 

The problem is white supremacy

‘Systemic racism’ conveys the pervasiveness of racial oppression, but white supremacy goes further by indicating that there is a rigid nexus of power that protects and enforces it.

By Barbara Smith

Why is this story, written almost 80 years ago, so relevant to what we face today? In 1943, the armed services had not been desegregated, Brown v. Board of Education had not been decided, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act had not been passed, affirmative action did not exist, and no Black person had ever been elected president. In 2020, all of these markers of racial progress and many more are part of the historical record, yet Minneapolis and the entire country have erupted for the very same reason that Harlem did in 1943: A white police officer cavalierly executed a Black man. The reason America’s pattern of racial terrorism keeps repeating is because the system of white supremacy that spawns the terrorism remains intact.

Despite the hand-wringing that occurs when the nation’s racial value system gets exposed, usually by unspeakable acts of violence, the reality is that this country has never done anything to eradicate the root cause of these atrocities. America abolished chattel slavery, but quickly instituted peonage, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration; it extended civil rights then proceeded to erode them, especially voting rights; it ended legal segregation but preserved widespread de facto segregation in schools, housing, and jobs; and despite initiating affirmative action, allowed employment discrimination and vast economic inequality to persist.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/29/opinion/problem-is-white-supremacy/

Body Cams & Dash Cams Can Help

An excerpt from Consumer Reports - 

Dash Cams Can Be Silent Witnesses During Police Traffic Stops and Other Incidents

From personal security to evidence for insurance claims, dash cams can provide peace of mind

By Benjamin Preston

Adam Osmond, a 52-year-old Connecticut resident, accountant, and runner, always wears a body camera when he’s running on trails around New England. And when he’s driving, he always has a dash cam recording everything that happens inside and outside of his car.

Osmond, who is Black, says he's been racially profiled by the police while he’s been behind the wheel. In fact, he leaves early for races in case he gets pulled over. Most of the time the police officers cite minor infractions, such as driving too close to the curb, and let him go with a warning. In one case he was pulled over and ticketed for using his cell phone while driving.

https://www.consumerreports.org/law-enforcement/dash-cams-can-be-silent-witnesses-during-police-traffic-stops-and-other-incidents/#:~:text=Cameras%20can%20be%20an%20impartial,notify%20occupants%20of%20your%20car.

A Powerful Message

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On my mind.

A post shared by Ian Desmond (@i_dez20) on Jun 29, 2020 at 6:53pm PDT

The 'Karens' of the World

An excerpt from Time - 

How the 'Karen Meme' Confronts the Violent History of White Womanhood

BY CADY LANG 

The historical narrative of white women’s victimhood goes back to myths that were constructed during the era of American slavery. Black slaves were posited as sexual threats to the white women, the wives of slave owners; in reality, slave masters were the ones raping their slaves. This ideology, however, perpetuated the idea that white women, who represented the good and the moral in American society, needed to be protected by white men at all costs, thus justifying racial violence towards Black men or anyone that posed a threat to their power. This narrative that was the overarching theme of Birth of a Nation, the 1915 film that was the first movie to be shown at the White House, and is often cited as the inspiration for the rebirth of the KKK.

“If we’re thinking about this in a historical context where white women are given the power over Black men, that their word will be valued over a Black man, that makes it particularly dangerous and that’s the problem,” says Dr. Apryl Williams, an assistant professor in communications and media at the University of Michigan and a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard who focuses on race, gender and community in digital spaces.

“White women are positioned as the virtue of society because they hold that position as the mother, as the keepers of virtuosity, all these ideologies that we associate with white motherhood and white women in particular, their certain role in society gives them power and when you couple that with this racist history, where white women are afraid of black men and black men are hypersexualized and seen as dangerous, then that’s really a volatile combination.”

Williams says the exposure is challenging this position. “That’s part of what people aren’t seeing is that white women do have this power and they’re exercising that power when they call or threaten to call the police.”

https://time.com/5857023/karen-meme-history-meaning/

Leadership Matters

An excerpt from NBC News - 

Why are similar countries experiencing COVID-19 so differently?

What do the United States, Russia, Brazil and India all have in common? Leaders who have downplayed the virus.

By Dante Chinni

The point is sometimes the data show that underlying economic and health factors have a smaller impact than you might think, even in a pandemic. One thing the U.S., Russia, Brazil and India share, however, is government leaders that have at times downplayed the impact the virus.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his people yoga could help build a “protective shield” of immunity against the virus as the country has loosened its rules to aid the economy. In Russia, Vladimir Putin declared victory over the virus this week and held a massive public military parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the country’s defeat over Nazi Germany. Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has belittled the virus and not worn a mask (though this week a judge ordered him to wear one or pay a fine). And, of course, President Donald Trump has begun to resume his large campaign rallies — which are mask-optional — as he mocks the virus.

None of this is to say those leaders are wholly responsible for their countries higher new-infection numbers. There is a wide range of societal factors in each country, from population density to the actions of local officials in each.

But as the pandemic continues and nations head down different paths, the politics and the data seem to be carrying a message. The voices at the top matter.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/why-are-similar-countries-experiencing-covid-19-so-differently-n1232358

Ken Burns on Monuments

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/23/ken-burns-our-monuments-are-representations-myth-not-fact/?arc404=true

Jimmy Fallon, the Original Hamilton Cast & The Roots Sing "Helpless" (At...

Alabama? Some Folks Are Turning Over in Their Graves!

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“In this moment in history, we can’t be silent.”

A post shared by Alabama Football (@alabamafbl) on Jun 25, 2020 at 12:01pm PDT

Black Academics - A Rallying Cry

An excerpt from the Boston Globe - 

#BlackintheIvory: a hashtag that became a rallying cry for Black academics

By Deirdre Fernandes

Since then hundreds of professors, graduate students, researchers, and doctors across the United States and around the globe have rallied around #BlackintheIvory, calling out their personal experiences of discrimination and racial inequality on college campuses. Their words and experiences are searing: Doctors and medical students mistaken for janitors. Researchers discouraged from focusing on issues related to the Black community. Tenure denials and assumptions from white colleagues that they earned admissions and funding because of their race, not their accomplishments. And the unpaid and underappreciated work of mentoring students of color.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/27/metro/hashtag-that-became-rallying-cry-black-academics/

Frederick Douglass Speaking Truth

An excerpt from the Washington Post - 

Frederick Douglass delivered a Lincoln reality check at Emancipation Memorial unveiling

By DeNeen L. Brown 

In his speech at the 1876 statue unveiling, Douglass exposed Lincoln’s legacy. “Truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory,” Douglass said, “Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man.”

Douglass, who had met Lincoln on several occasions at the White House, said that Lincoln was not a president for black people and that Lincoln’s motivation above all was to save the union, even if it meant keeping black people in bondage.

“He was preeminently the white man’s president, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men,” Douglass said, according to the speech stored at the Library of Congress. “He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/27/emancipation-monument-in-washington-dc-targeted-by-protests/

MAGA = Pity for America

An excerpt from the Atlantic - 

The Decline of the American World

Other countries are used to loathing America, admiring America, and fearing America (sometimes all at once). But pitying America? That one is new.

Story by Tom McTague

It is hard to escape the feeling that this is a uniquely humiliating moment for America. As citizens of the world the United States created, we are accustomed to listening to those who loathe America, admire America, and fear America (sometimes all at the same time). But feeling pity for America? That one is new, even if the schadenfreude is painfully myopic. If it’s the aesthetic that matters, the U.S. today simply doesn’t look like the country that the rest of us should aspire to, envy, or replicate.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/06/america-image-power-trump/613228/