There’s a certain segment of the woke left that is always on the lookout for racism, and if these leftists can’t find it, they’ll make it up. The latest example of this phenomenon comes to us courtesy of an op-ed in the Boston Globe.
The editorial by a doctor named Amanda Joy Calhoun comes with the headline, “What if doctors wore body cameras?” The subheadline is even more provocative: “Black people face racism and worse health outcomes in hospitals. It’s time to document it.”
Calhoun’s bio says that she is “an adult/child psychiatry resident at Yale School of Medicine/Yale Child Study Center. She is an expert in the mental health effects of anti-Black racism, with a focus on medical racism.” And you’d better believe she focuses on whatever “medical racism” is.
The good doctor and “expert” claims to have seen egregious examples of racism with her own eyes, and she shares these extreme examples of racist behavior among her colleagues:
“As a physician, I have witnessed countless racist behaviors toward Black patients, often coupled with conscious and cruel statements,” Calhoun begins. “I have heard White nurses joke that young Black children will probably join gangs and doctors describe the natural hair of Black people as ‘wild’ and ‘unkempt.’ I have seen Black patients unnecessarily physically restrained. I have stood in the emergency department as a Black teenager died from a gunshot wound while White staff chuckled, saying he was ‘just another criminal.’”
Flashback: Woke Health Insurer Claims to See a Racist Behind Every Stethoscope
She also tells the story of a time when her sister was young and had an allergic reaction to a Brazil nut. In her recounting, nurses allegedly didn’t believe that the girl was suffering anaphylaxis until a doctor listened to her heart. The doctor then berated the nurses for not believing the mother and daughter — which is what any good doctor should do to call out improper behavior.
These are horrendous incidents, and those doctors and nurses should be held accountable. At the same time, Calhoun doesn’t relate any examples of times when doctors and nurses made judgmental comments about people of other races — surely that happened, too.
These claims bring to mind a commercial from a couple of years ago in which a black man claims that white doctors accused him and his family of making up symptoms. In the ad, a man named Oscar Williams says, “Know what really hurts? When you go to the doctor and they don’t believe you’re in pain because of the color of your skin.”
Of course, we all know that anecdote is not data, so Calhoun brings in some statistics that should give any of us pause.
“Black women are more likely to die in childbirth than White women, regardless of socioeconomic status,” she writes. “Black children are more likely to be physically restrained than White children, with those aged 5 to 12 twice as likely to commit suicide than their White peers. In contrast, Black infants are more likely to survive when cared for by Black physicians, and Black patients live longer when they have access to Black primary doctors, though that option isn’t always available, particularly in emergencies.”
These are sad statistics, but they don’t serve as proof that doctors and nurses are inherently racist. Still, this doesn’t stop Calhoun from claiming that physicians should wear body cameras to root out the racism she claims is rampant in the medical establishment. (Naturally, George Floyd gets a name-check from Calhoun as well.)
Calhoun is no stranger to ringing the bell for racial grievances. The Daily Mail reports that the doctor took part in protests as part of an organization called “White Coats for Black Lives.” She has also written other columns asserting that even black doctors and other professionals are subject to racist behavior from everyone else and that she doesn’t take part in women’s empowerment events because of — you guessed it — racism.
“Racism in hospitals is underreported, in part because the burden of proof often falls on the patient or witness reporting it, and risks of retaliation can be high,” she writes, again with no proof beyond anecdote. “While racism reporting systems exist in some hospitals, the ability to hold health care professionals accountable for that treatment, in particular, is questionable and inconsistently enforced.”
“If hospitals and medical institutions want to make good on those anti-racism statements made in 2020, prove it: Have health care professionals wear body cameras,” Calhoun concludes. “As a patient, I would feel far more comfortable if they did. And as a doctor, I will volunteer to wear one first.”
Oh, Dr. Calhoun, you’re so brave to agree to be the first doctor to wear a body camera. But I can’t help but think you need to do better to prove your point than with some stories. If the medical establishment is as rife with racism as you claim, you prove it. Then others might listen.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member