Delta -- discrimination against a black female doctor inflight

[MillauFr]

Are you serious? This story has been everywhere. The airline wouldn't have to release anything. As soon as these stories come out, people usually come out of the woodwork yet not a single person has spoken up.

Just a bit of advice... I would keep my mouth shut even I was sitting next to her. Nothing good come from speaking up. You will get hounded by one side or the other claiming you had some bias that was causing you to answer the way you do. Too many people would assume you had an agenda. Some crackpot may even come after you.

 

[Keli]

I haven't read all the replies to this thread. I no longer accept any stories like this without outside witnesses confirming the event occurred in the way represented by the accusers' point of view. I've been burned too many times by believing every waiter/waitress, parents of children accused of being unruly or folks that were supposedly discriminated against due to a disability, racism, agism, or whatever to even take any story at face value. Even when a company apologizes I take that to mean they want the story to go away, not that they are guilty. I'm just tired of people making false accusations and I need more evidence before I will believe any story like this again.

 

[CarolAnn856]

I haven't read all the replies to this thread. I no longer accept any stories like this without outside witnesses confirming the event occurred in the way represented by the accusers' point of view. I've been burned too many times by believing every waiter/waitress, parents of children accused of being unruly or folks that were supposedly discriminated against due to a disability, racism, agism, or whatever to even take any story at face value. Even when a company apologizes I take that to mean they want the story to go away, not that they are guilty. I'm just tired of people making false accusations and I need more evidence before I will believe any story like this again.

I agree! I'm a school librarian, and one of the things I teach is to check sources. Is it reliable? Can you find the same information elsewhere? Granted, I teach elementary aged kids, so we're not researching stuff like this (I'm more focused on using, say, Encyclopedia Britannica versus Wikipedia), but reading news on the web with a healthy dose of skepticism is part of my nature.

I've become jaded when reading self-reported wrongdoing stories because there have been so many that turned out to be either made up or exaggerated. I'm sure, as a result, that I've dismissed some that were legit.

 

[Magpie]

I agree! I'm a school librarian, and one of the things I teach is to check sources. Is it reliable? Can you find the same information elsewhere? Granted, I teach elementary aged kids, so we're not researching stuff like this (I'm more focused on using, say, Encyclopedia Britannica versus Wikipedia), but reading news on the web with a healthy dose of skepticism is part of my nature.

I've become jaded when reading self-reported wrongdoing stories because there have been so many that turned out to be either made up or exaggerated. I'm sure, as a result, that I've dismissed some that were legit.

For me, that internal conflict is solved with the simple line "if this is true...".

It allows me to hold an opinion on the story, without personally having to prove it one way or another.

Skepticism is a good quality to have. What often makes me skeptical are the very reasonable-on-the-surface sounding people who come forward in situations like this, whose primary motivation turns out to be a need to disprove the story. Not to withhold judgement, pending more evidence, but to discredit and deny. They'll suggest the person telling the story has something to gain. They're greedy. They want their moment of fame, or a buck, or they're trying to stoke the flames of racial tension for political or personal reasons.

Do unpleasant encounters like this happen between people? Absolutely. Did this particular one happen? That's not my job to figure out. I'm just here to discuss the story as it's been presented so far. My opinion may change if new info comes to light, but if it doesn't, then I'm confident holding the opinion I have now.

If she was a Disser who'd posted here, instead on Facebook, would we believe her? We probably would! We've believed personal stories shared on this site with zero evidence to back them up. We don't feel any need to sit on our opinions, just because the original poster hasn't provided witnesses.

 

[mom2rtk]

If she was a Disser who'd posted here, instead on Facebook, would we believe her? We probably would! We've believed personal stories shared on this site with zero evidence to back them up. We don't feel any need to sit on our opinions, just because the original poster hasn't provided witnesses.

Really? I think I see a healthy degree of skepticism here all the time.

 

[Magpie]

Really? I think I see a healthy degree of skepticism here all the time.

Unless someone is posting something that blatantly contradicts what they've posted before, what we see instead are statements like, "Are you sure you didn't misinterpret what the other person meant?" "Maybe you read more into the situation than was really there." Followed by a whole lot of people saying things like, "She was there! You weren't! How dare you question her!"

That will inevitably be followed by someone dramatically announcing "I'm done with this thread!" (yeah, you're not done with this thread), snarking, sarcasm, impassioned defences and hugs.

Given that the "OP" in this case was careful not to ascribe a particular motivation to the flight attendant, I think if she was a Disser, we would not be disputing the facts of the case. Instead, we'd be dissecting what the light attendant might have meant by what she said. (And arguing over whether the OP could have been being over-sensitive.)

 

[ronandannette]

Really? I think I see a healthy degree of skepticism here all the time.

Is that a nice way of saying there are DIS'ers who will sleuth out the most minor inconsistency over years of posting history just to try and "prove" a poster's story isn't true or that even if it is, a poster has no credibility? If so, then yes, the CB is kept on the straight-and-narrow thanks to a healthy degree of skepticism!

 

[disneyjunkie]

In my opinion, she doesn't look old enough to have a medical degree.

And if I had a choice, I would rather a neurologist look at me, than an ob, in an emergency.

In ,your opinion, anyone who thinks she doesn't look old enough to have a medical degree must have limited exposure to black people.

 

[ronandannette]

In ,your opinion, anyone who thinks she doesn't look old enough to have a medical degree must have limited exposure to black people.

Not being sarcastic - what exactly does this mean?

 

[ford family]

O. M. G.

You must almost have an apoplexy whenever the NACP gets a mention!

ford family

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Not being sarcastic - what exactly does this mean?

I was going to say anyone who doesn't think she looks old enough to have a medical degree must have limited exposure to teaching hospitals!

 

[disneyjunkie]

Not being sarcastic - what exactly does this mean?

What don't you understand???? Black women age slower than white women. If someone thinks she looks to young to be a doctor, then in my opinion, that person hasn't been exposed to a large number of black women.


http://www.essence.com/2015/06/24/olay-reveals-why-some-women-age-better-others

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

What don't you understand???? Black women age slower than white women. If someone thinks she looks to young to be a doctor, then in my opinion, that person hasn't been exposed to a large number of black women.


http://www.essence.com/2015/06/24/olay-reveals-why-some-women-age-better-others

Yeah sorry no offense but I'm not seeing where anyone was saying anything along the lines of "she looks young...but it's only because of the color of her skin makes her that way".

ETA:
"Exposure to black women?" yeah that's all I'm going to say for that statement.

 

[ronandannette]

What don't you understand???? Black women age slower than white women. If someone thinks she looks to young to be a doctor, then in my opinion, that person hasn't been exposed to a large number of black women.


http://www.essence.com/2015/06/24/olay-reveals-why-some-women-age-better-others

I know lots of black people but admittedly, I'm not a current as I could be on Essence magazine...

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

I was going to say anyone who doesn't think she looks old enough to have a medical degree must have limited exposure to teaching hospitals!

That's interesting. I do think she looks young. Very young. And no, not old enough to be a doctor.

And I am regularly at a teaching hospital.

 

[DopeyDame]

As someone who looked really really young when I was just entering the corporate world, i certainly empathize with the woman. I was on a flight to Asia for work when the flight attendant commented that this was a really long flight for me to be flying all by myself. It got old and frustrating.
And I wasn't a minority on top of that.
So, *assuming the story is true*, I absolutely believe she wanted it to go public to hopefully save a passenger's life in the future.

As for medical help on planes, my friend is a neurologist and a few years ago she was on a plane a few years ago when they called for help. She said it was terrifying to help, but of course she did. She commented on how at no point did the flight attendants ask her anything. She said "I'm a doctor" and that was it. No asking for credentials, no asking about background or education or specialty. And they basically put the decision to land the plane or not into her hands. She absolutely hated it and didn't feel at all supported by the airline. When she landed and talked to some other doctor friends about it, they all said that when they had responded, they were able to talk to flight doctors on the ground, and that the airline's ground doctors were the ones who ultimately decided if the plane should land or not, taking into account the info provided by the on-board passenger-doctor. So not sure if it's airline dependent or if my friend's FA's just messed up, but we all agreed we really just hope we never have an emergency in flight.

 

[Kiren]

In my workplace it's a running joke that we would rather have the first responders (me and others in my department) come and help us than the "Dr." because we have a more generalized training than specialists who don't do trauma or emergency work all that often. I was on a flight back in 2011 and they called for medical help. I volunteered and started doing my proper procedures when they brought a neurologist back to take over. I realized she had no idea what she was doing when she use the BP cuff wrong and couldn't check the pulse correctly.

Now I'm not saying she wasn't qualified but when you don't have "hands on" for a certain period of time you lose the skills. I have to take my full courses over again every two years in order to stay certified.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I think people are taking this woman's words out of context. At the end of her side of the story she clearly states she does not know if it was race, age, or gender but that clearly it had to be one of those three because when a clearly older, different race, and different gender individual offered assistance they were allowed to help with 0 questions asked.

Regardless which of the three it was, it was still wrong.

 

[wilkeliza]

Regardless which of the three it was, it was still wrong.

I never said it wasn't wrong. I said people were claiming the Dr. was just using the race card when in fact she wasn't. The original title of the thread even mentioned that it was solely based on race even though the article did not saw as such.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

In my workplace it's a running joke that we would rather have the first responders (me and others in my department) come and help us than the "Dr." because we have a more generalized training than specialists who don't do trauma or emergency work all that often. I was on a flight back in 2011 and they called for medical help. I volunteered and started doing my proper procedures when they brought a neurologist back to take over. I realized she had no idea what she was doing when she use the BP cuff wrong and couldn't check the pulse correctly.

Now I'm not saying she wasn't qualified but when you don't have "hands on" for a certain period of time you lose the skills. I have to take my full courses over again every two years in order to stay certified.

See, and I've had the exact opposite experience.

I came very close to passing out at a local fast food joint.

A friend called 911. Ambulance came. Yes, they could get my blood pressure, temp and even my blood sugar.

But they knew nothing about my medications. Or medical conditions.

"Why do you take this(medication)?" "Well, as I've said, I've had a hysterectomy, and that is a hormone." "So, you need to take this?" "Um, yes, my doctor gave it to me." To say nothing of the fact that I've been taking it for a year and half. And even if there is some rare side effect, don't you think the doctor should be the one to question or change my medications?

And then, "Oh, you have celiac. Maybe that is it"

At that point, I wanted so say, "Oh my God, please just get me to someone that has a clue."

But no, they had to have a discussion about what I took. Um, guys, I've been on these for months; some for years, you aren't going to come to some quick conclusion in the next 5 minutes. Maybe instead you could get me to an actual doctor.