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Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
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1 Feb, 25 tweets, 29 min read
If you want to understand a woman, look at her mother - at least true of me

My mom? As a new immigrant to America, when she encountered an unfair Eurocentric rule from her English Lit grad program? She wrote a paper & got the rule changed

Smart
Owned her power
Effective
Ethical
My mom and I are the same in core values but opposite externally. She uses maybe 1/100th of the words that I do and is intensely private. I am out climbing literal mountains while she prefers to stay in and read books and my dad’s #engineering journals.

My mom is an introvert who thinks 10x before speaking w/ surgical precision, educated by German nuns & British educational system
We are Urdu-speaking

She is fearless in face of patriarchy

It runs in the family. Have strong, activist #womeninleadership role models in #Pakistan
I don’t find it at all surprising that by leaving @Wellesley at age 19 to go to #Pakistan instead, to attend @AKUGlobal..I relate more to @KamalaHarris in my mindset than HRC.

Kamala had “made it” solo in her career vs being half of a “power couple” nytimes.com/2021/01/20/us/…
What does being “Urdu speaking” mean?

How much time do you have?😂

I’ll probably judge your biryani & unless your grandmother was from UP you’ve never worn a real gharara
Culture snobs

Despite Pakistan’s concept born in Aligarh, some call us “refugee”

cultureready.org/resource/urdu-…
No accident I:
-design @AAMCtoday #refugee #health #curriculum
-my pic: @PASMeeting talk on displaced
-publish on crosscultural #communication
-do #vaccines #SciComm in marginalized communities
Yet tweeting, on OWN expertise, labeled “harassment” by @USC #SciComm @sarah_mojarad?
I have never been able to pretzel my brain enuf to follow this logic. I do know impressionable young professionals are misled, misinformed, wrongly trained by my age peers who do #Medbikini #cyberstalking. I have attempted to address this via @USC standards & #ethics processes
#SciComm divided:
1-elite universities
(like two Boston universities where I myself have received education -including places that took money from #Epstein)
2- #safetynet where CEOs post this dancing #TikTok. (I was an #FQHC Chief Medical Officer)

# 1 has #ethics failures
I know the system is imperfect, full of unfairness. Some, if frustrated & if lack emotional regulation or judgment, try vigilante justice - like we just saw with the #CapitolRiot #insurrection. Am my mother’s daughter: work thru system processes to break silos even if seen as:
My experience not unique - seen with @ayshakhoury @timnitGebru @uche_blackstock @londyloo @LadyDoctorSays etc

is not always intentionally sinister but lack of understanding drives harm
& drives out like

Why, as much as I will offend some, I keep asking “whose culture?”
@COCoQC
I know I will continue to offend people by

asking #MedTwitter to be factual
&
my use pro-accuracy terms like:

“verify”

wish #facts were not so offensive to some
but this is critical now

We need trustworthy #SciComm
Mistaken identity can get black & brown men killed #BLM
I am pretty equal opportunity in my critiques. My threads are not 4 you if intolerant of debate or “spice” 🌶 Have hot takes on @BreneBrown, on #ethics professors, #WomenInSTEM I am intensely 1st amendment
I rarely block
I have not (yet) sought any libel vs me to be erased either
My Muslim identity & my work in marginalized communities invites hate & smears from alt right w/ militia ties. The #CapitolRiot #insurrection was a violent response to Black women successfully organizing #GOTV

Choice:
1-Focus on my goals?
2-Fight to erase others’ libel?

# 1 ✅
A #MedTwitter friend wanted to know if I had any weapon for self defense, even a keychain alarm

I have always had to live & function while a target or in danger

Have empathy for those with #PTSD

Don’t understand those who call trauma a “club” tho - not everyone’s scars show
Those years in #Pakistan were tough. My American accent could make me an attractive target for kidnapping. One friend describes those years I spent by an Urdu phrase: glass that passes thru fire becomes kundan or a type of gem common in Moghul/Urdu-speaking culture style jewelry
Examples of kundan, up close & worn

This analogy is not to be ableist on resilience cuz I have not always been able to balance stress vs internal resources - like the years I was monitored for 4 possible cancers simultaneously (all false alarms)

Needed therapy for #mentalhealth
Rather

-this has taken me YEARS & still on this journey-

some of us find a way, each time sorrow, loss, fear, pain carves deeper

to see that as increasing our capacity for joy

Why I reject, see as hubris, anyone who tells me/others they “know” how I/we feel
or
labels me

No
Likely why I love these single minute videos on #TikTok that I cross-pollinate & share here on #Twitter & #LinkedIn

I learned in #mindbody:
Seeking control is illusion
“Safety”: not possible
So grab every moment of random joy
Smile
Dance
Live

This isn’t my mom at all. ❤️ this:
I live in a country w/ a 1st & 2nd amendment. Change agents like MLK, RFK, JFK, Malcolm X, Abraham Lincoln were shot dead

If:
I exercise my 1st amendment rights lawfully

someone:
may exercise their 2nd amendment rights unlawfully vs me

Equally true in America or Pakistan
I have a healthy respect for that risk does not shut me up tho

Data reveal: a hierarchy of American womanhood
WOC are ranked “less than”
Who is “victim”?
Who is “criminal”?

Mothers teach girls to navigate systems
I watched my immigrant, brown Muslim mom fight fair & factual
Win
@KamalaHarris, a prosecutor & now the highest ranking woman in the U.S. describes something similar from her mother

“My mother had been raised in a household where political activism and civic leadership came naturally.”

Relate
My family: civil servants

townandcountrymag.com/society/politi…
Why should some of us get certain mothers. Why are some mothers be able to momma grisly (“Karen” meme)?

How do we respect/address unique barriers some face - Black women in America - while supporting each other, be factual, disagree, coexist, heal?

What is it that black women and BIPOC women know and, as mothers, pass on to their daughters? What can we all learn from @staceyabrams on what it takes to overturn centuries of voter suppression & lynching to be nominated for a Nobel Prize? #womeninleadership
“I have thousands of daughters. You are Black, White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Native American and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all.”

readingontherun.com/post/letters-t…
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More from @usnehal

Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
2 Feb
Also, if you notice a pattern of certain women who are very concerned about “cancel culture”, these are often women whose income, power, position comes from those men who avoid/fear accountability.
There is no reason to be afraid of women if one already was doing the right thing. Have good ethics yourself and have a good radar for that yourself. I have NEVER had problems with male mentors as we align on values/mission first. We work through trust.

hbr.org/2019/03/advice…
If you are playing a dirty game or don’t have standards to who you hire, do business with, etc (or no standards to own behavior), yeah, I get why you are paranoid.

Drain your own swamp then.
Not all women are pawns in a man’s game like:

apnews.com/article/donald…
Read 4 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
2 Feb
Those of us who affirmed our own agency and power by learning from and with our moms. My mom’s stories are her own but she and I together have unpacked many cultural myths to learn better self compassion, willingness to identify racism, less perfectionism.
💪🏽💪🏻💪🏿 @DrvanTilburg
This is a type of trauma many WOC/POC experience. My mom’s hair is extremely thick, textured. I recall her being very fixated on making sure her own hair & our hair was always incredibly neat.

More recently I’ve come to understand this matches an experience of having black hair.
The so-called “model minority “is taught to align with white culture, to suppress oneself in order to layer under & serve white supremacy.

I have worked to remove internalized racism, colorism, self hate & learned from #blackexcellence on:

chalkbeat.org/2020/1/16/2112…
Read 20 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
2 Feb
This 👇🏿👇🏼👇🏾
Many feel professionally unsafe, especially those working in academia & hospitals, too. If you look at the stories of @ayshakhoury @uche_blackstock @timnitGebru you see this over and over. This exists on a spectrum and tolerating “mild” hate, racism, & bigotry is a slippery slope Image
It can also kill. Look at how #drsusanmoore was treated in the hospital

then posthumously called “intimidating” by same nurses who should have been caring for (not Karening) her

clinician at your bedside to care may be of #insurrection beliefs

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 9 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
1 Feb
"As QAnon influencers and their followers are pushed off mainstream platforms.... There, they may be exposed to more extremist content, like that of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups."

So what is the right approach? No right answers.

npr.org/2021/01/31/962…
..soooo.. usually seek facts & ideas ...rather than go down rabbit holes of others’ 🤯

..but wow, some remaining QAnon-posting accounts are within 1-2 degrees of separation..

To FB’s credit, misinformation/disinformation posts get covered with a grey filter & this warning: ImageImage
Since I am a Muslim woman on the highly armed alt right’s radar myself now

am curious to understand what kind of 👹 they perceive me to be - tho prefer to only a quick peek, not a deep dive

(Obviously @IlhanMN was not actually at any such training camp)

usatoday.com/story/news/fac…
Read 32 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
1 Feb
Have ~ quarter million followers on #LinkedIn & use that space to speak truth to power. Use the power of my voice including on sexual harassment vs women.

In one #healthcare setting, the board hired marketers to cyberstalk employees. Creepy. #MedTwitter

linkedin.com/posts/usnehal_…
My current institution & my alma mater have taken money from #Epstein. #Science & #academia is full of creepy types in positions of power.

It is shocking those who woo a human trafficker donor also cross the line, hire ppl to #cyberstalk own staff? #MedTwitter #AcademicTwitter
When will we start to listen to the students paying substantial tuition?

Why do students have a superior understanding of #ethics and #traumainformed #education as compared to administrators who earn millions between salary & consulting gigs?

thetech.com/2019/10/23/set…
Read 5 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
31 Jan
Keep in mind the phrase “shattering” the glass ceiling is a violent phrase associated with riots or “anti-social” activities. #womeninleadership conferences or books don’t prepare you for reality of how perceived/treated when “smashing” the patriarchy, especially as a WOC.
There are two ways past the barrier: 1-align with/serve patriarchy and have the door opened.
= mere optics of change while perpetuating status quo & structural inequity
Or
2-shatter it the glass ceiling. The latter will cause you to be a threat to the system & leadership
On rare occasions, the person opening the door past the barrier is truly seeking progress at scale rather than tokenizing you.

More often than not, your role when on the other side is to be token and sign off on perpetuation of inequity while providing the right look/optics.
Read 22 tweets

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