Thread by @usnehal

The lack of empathy, or inability to feel pain the same when someone's skin is black/high malanin and you see them in pain, is literally documented in studies as well as a simply real life disparities.

Please stop with the "empathy" hogwash. We need to address systemic racism.

https://twitter.com/ShrimpBrokkoli/status/1379043974946680835

I *finally* figured out the whole "empathy" silliness and why I feel, increasingly this..

if somoene quotes brene brown at me on "vulnerability" - you think enslaved black women with babies were not vulnerable? Your WHOLE society/culture is designed to not see/feel black pain.

What I figured out is

by touting "empathy"
you can self-appoint yourself as "good"
with "but I am a good person"
or "but she was nice to so and so, therefore"
and deny racism and, more importantly

NOT CHANGE structures or policy
Do NOTHING and feel good about yourself

In cultures or communities that have been enslaved or Colonized we know no one cares about feelings and our feelings are not seen, even villified. But for others it is always about their feelings.

We need results. Measurable results. System change.

aamc.org/news-insights/…

What you do or don't feel is for your therapist to hear about. (it's good practice for everyone to have a therapist. Life is stressful.)

However, particularly in #healthcare context, what matters is delivering RESULTS

TO PATIENTS

In any #leadership position: deliver results

A few references to back up above.

When you hear talk of “empathy” & “vulnerability”
NOT budget, actions, measuring outcomes on dismantling structural & cultural racism

=racism
And egotistical denial of it
It may not be conscious
=implicit bias

npr.org/templates/stor…

“Measuring participants’ physiological arousal, we found that Caucasian observers reacted to pain suffered by African people significantly less than to pain of Caucasian people.”

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

“humans tend to empathize by default unless prejudice is at play," said researcher Salvatore Maria Aglioti, a cognitive and social neuroscientist at the Sapienza University of Rome in Italy.

livescience.com/8299-feel-pain…

NOT going away. Your white peer is likely (1:2 chance) discounting and not believing the black, POC patient

“survey of 222 white medical students and residents, about half endorsed false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites.”

statnews.com/2016/04/04/med…

@forbes seems more anti-racist than #MedEd #MedTwitter or #healthcare

We literally do not see/believe the pain of #CHILDREN

The more I learned of this the more issues I started to have with the practice of #pediatrics in hospitals

forbes.com/sites/davidkro…

There is SO much evidence, yet denial from peers, leadership, non-clinicians.

#MedTwitter #meded #healthcare #racism #antiracism

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Nurses were actively being taught this until this was identified and pulled. Misguided #culturalcompetency to leave non-white patients in pain

This is why I felt safest about my mother when my mom’s care was by a black nurse

#quality

insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/2…

My own field of #pediatrics has higher mortality rates by race of doctor. If doctors & nurses & general society all harm Black (and brown patients) of all ages

can I show up at work and honor “first do no harm”?

In “high empathy” fields..
....worse?

nature.com/articles/d4158…

I can say this to a #business #leader in a #podcast

but say any of this in a “high #empathy” #healthcare setting
I “offend” (“make ppl uncomfortable”) those around me
=make enemies
activate “female #bullying”

If I stay silent, tho, patients harmed

go.beckershospitalreview.com/scott-becker-i…

Then there is the battle cry of the closet racist “She called me racist!!!”

First, the whole system is racist, you can’t not be racist without being actively anti-racist

Second, your feelings matter more than actual babies dying?

Oh, right. “#Empathy” is about YOUR feelings

those offended by reality
harm spoken out loud or documented
+
hospital liability concerns seeking to protect optics/reputation

activates this

=the system removes/pushes out anyone identifying need for change

optics & narrative preserved

then #MedEd talks of leaky pipeline

Quite often person “offended” in hospitals *is* “the manager” tho

So if faced w/ impossible “choice”:

stay silent & be complicit to harm, that too as the only clinician on team held accountable/liable for malpractice

or speak up & activate institutional bullying

Go to c-suite

Turns out c-suite is not the place to do harm reduction to the most vulnerable

that too patients more likely on public insurance when the focus is to chase after more lucrative revenue streams

Rare institutions DO serve mission
Exist, but rare

forbes.com/sites/stephani…

Your #empathy is not changing: -individual patient care
-population scale or system level outcomes
-#MedEd pipeline

Is your “narrative”

Your “#boundaries”, also, just shut out reality of harm, that you prefer not to know

to *feel like*
“a good person”

labblog.uofmhealth.org/rounds/minorit…

You love @BreneBrown as YOUR opioid to avoid feeling pain of recognizing the myriad ways you are complicit on system harm

Meanwhile denying ACTUAL opioids to black #CHILDREN with appendicitis

I’ll stick to Toni Morrison & Malala for inspiration for
ACTION & OUTCOMES
(reality)

*pardon typos

@threadreaderapp please unroll