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Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
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11 Dec, 47 tweets, 32 min read
Those of us with immigrant backgrounds have NO idea what debt we owe these women for risking their lives so some of us can shop at Whole Foods with other suburban moms, then drive a Lexus home to ride on a Peloton, & think only our own hard work created this access to success.
Those of us who are Muslim have a partial experience of what it is like to be made the face of threat and danger and vilified.

…But “the West “still wants to “save” Muslim women… make us a token or mascot of saviorism & evidence of being a shining city on the hill.
In comparison, the black woman doesn’t have that opportunity to be paraded around as the most recent woman “saved” & celebrated - the tropes are universally harmful & exploitative/pejorative vs Black women in society/media + centuries of economic barriers/being exploited.
The trope Muslim/“Eastern” women can fulfill it’s not respectful at all.

It *is* monetizable.

When wars fought vs countries there is a fetishization of those women, sometimes marriage: East Asian, Middle East, South Asian.

Formerly enslaved women get treated differently tho.
By choosing NOT to accept the easy/fast to monetize my identity or being a mascot to justify imperialism or exploitation

*then* also learning from Black women, centering Black women, and acting for justice…

yes, I “make it harder for myself” vs:

nytimes.com/2020/09/10/us/…
Like @Ilhan I get called a terrorist & have my picture posted because I did #GOTV in marginalized, Muslim, Black communities.

My having a voice & saying “implicit bias” gets a lot of fragile academics upset & organizing against my voice.

I get cajoled…just be quiet Umbereen.
While I’m not saying it is easy, I know that offer is there: be quiet, come to the “model minority” side & be “proof” there is “no racism” because look at how successful you are: Harvard, MIT, Baylor, C-level role, White House visits, international speaking engagements, etc.
For me, once I started listening, learning, seeing, recognizing, there is no unseeing American justice issues

I am proudly American

I also know where my intellect & confidence & role models come from: Pakistan & Pakistani women. America wants to “save” me? No saving needed
As for “saving” me…okay, Black women keep saving America…and yeah, still have a LOT to learn from #BlackExcellence. I could accept that framing, save myself by learning their wisdom of navigating America with their identities & justice struggle.

brookings.edu/essay/to-prote…
Sorting things out in b-school, managing to NOT schmooze with those most resourced 🤦🏻‍♀️ (they don’t like justice language) & trying to find a way to work on this… & support myself. (I’ve done a TON of unpaid advocacy while my peers were moonlighting.)

epi.org/blog/black-wom…
It’s not that I am against people with resources. It’s just that I’m going to speak truthfully. And some (official/unoffocial) “club” memberships require studiously avoiding certain realities.
I am not in any way discounting the hardships that immigrant communities experience and a lot of abusive workplace conditions. That said, there is more upward mobility over generations.

nytimes.com/2019/10/28/ups…
That upward mobility of immigrant communities is used to “prove” the “pull yourself up by the bootstrap” idea …when in fact this is true for Black communities.
Making this “comparison” cuz our original Constitution encoded ras the basis of who was a slave/property/not human, who could vote, own property, hold office, even who you could marry. “Interracial” marriage was banned.

Immigrants sought to be “white”

aaregistry.org/story/united-s…
The other ethnicity with racial pride & defines self as “Aryan” to be the same as European/“white” are Persians.

There is Persian-Arab rivalry vs “Semitic” that imperialism has oft exploited for power (divide & conquer).

Remember the Iran-Iraq war?

Aryanism = supremacy
➡️many from these two ethic communities vote with the men in khakis & tiki torches, yearn for acceptance in “their own” Aryan race

feel pain of rejection when labeled “brown” & not “white” as see self

They seek to earn acceptance via “model minority”

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/08/12…
Why terms “white adjacent” or “white passing” exist

There is a concept of “code switching”

but among some immigrants there is literal race switching

There is a strategic choice to become “of color” to access justice movement resources & power for self

wbez.org/stories/renewe…
Strategy? 👍🏽But do immigrant groups value & respect Black women?

Let’s take a look at how the most marginalized get treated & what culture & discourses at home may inform “POC” beliefs towards marginalized?

“forced labor, forced separation of families”

hrw.org/news/2013/11/2…
Justice movement & #BLM *should* vet “POC” who are sudden allies & assess their actual actions

I know I have to prove myself to Black women & men over & over again

yes, it exhausts

yet I respect the reason is valid, to ensure safety of justice mov’t

pbs.org/newshour/show/…
As a Muslim-American I can tell you there are some who have been recruited to spy on fellow Muslims

& they happily expand their paid consulting services to surveillance & “security” entities to infiltrate & spy on #BLM as well.

Your distrust is valid.

npr.org/2021/11/08/105…
While some of us bust our bottoms, others, caught in fraud, tax evasion, visa violations, get converted to informants/surveillance

➡️There are *no* safe spaces for the genuinely rule-following Muslim American

The most vile are sicced on our communities

theintercept.com/2020/12/29/fbi…
This “tracking” as a “safety threat” was first developed vs Black activists

So called “cancel culture” is not new, the difference is past version was surveillance, manufactured charges, or vigilante lynching to silence, “disrupt” & “destroy” civil rights
Entrapment done to ‘60s civil rights leaders or planting evidence that has come out in some court cases (drugs planted during “stop & frisk”

has been getting practiced on Muslims, vs those with #mentalhealth issues but stigma blocks their getting therapy

nytimes.com/2021/04/15/mag…
Educated Black women’s power: feared. Literally #drsusanmoore was accused of “intimidating” for having a “social media voice” and for being “knowledgable”

She was literally dying
Yet “scary”?

This is #georgefloyd and every Black person killed by others’ fear

Voices are feared
I deconstruct/analyze a lot of what I read in “SciComm”

Above=false empathy, manipulative, Hospital #marketing & #legal team for reputation management: Blame the victim/patient but sound “hurt.”

Below=positive empathy by frontline #HCW, not to save “optics”
to save a life.
Words matter:create fear or calm

fear if centered on self
“protect” vs “activists”

This on “USN” (me)
medium.com/@smojarad/onli…

starts w/ 14 paragraphs on male stalker “ex”➡️evoke emotion

once reader outraged/fearful
➡️switch to #BLM as “threat”
More in #:#docsagainstdoxxing
This is a new front/struggle for justice

an awakening among those who previously embraced “model minority”
who listen➡️respect the work of Black women
vs
those “POC” protecting power, privilege
+
“POC” doing surveillance
vs activist, students, BLM, Muslim…& vs patients too
Infiltrating #education & #EdTech, accelerated by #pandemic where “academic integrity” (a good thing) monitored by slapped together new #tech sold to #school & #HigherEd to do #surveillance of students but puts students, especially Black students at risk

news.elearninginside.com/learning-or-su…
🧵 on #surveillance in #education, monetized, policing, harmful, low #quality, unreliable.

If having a “voice” & being “knowledgable” was so threatening in #drsusanmoore…while she was dying…

then how is #EdTech used in #academia #AcademicTwitter #school vs Black & POC?
As someone American + Muslim, it is my community a target in schools

it going to be someone who has my exact identity, maybe a paid informant, who can further monetize spying skill set for new #education #surveillance & #edtech

Distrust of “POC”? Valid.

courant.com/news/connectic…
This is yet again a mechanism that has long been employed against the Black community, also like foster care system has

which I did NOT learn as a #pediatrician

I only know cuz I started listening not to “#DEI” in #academia but to justice & #blackexcellence

#school
This is what Audre Lorde meant.

You will always live in fear.
Surveilled
“intimidating”

Master’s house. Master’s tools.
No belonging. Conditional presence when useful & monetizable.

So embrace the fear.
Do not deny it: the danger is real.
Do not allow it to rule you.
Words fail to express my gratitude to Black women…like @gradydoctor

I had followed all the rules
I didn’t understand
I was exhausted, feeling broken

What did this “center Black women” mean? Don’t I experience harm in my identities too?

Started listening to #BlackExcellence
Because of my having learned from Black women or seeing how #DrSusanMoore was treated, I was prepared for how my mother and my family or me, as a WOC doctor-daughter, would be treated during her #endoflife from #COVID19 when (no #vaccine yet available in her #Texas zip code)
“The rules” is what “model minorities” think make us safe or succeed➡️we are pawns playing “police” in other’s chess games of power

No, the rules are only somewhat safer (vs complete exclusion & not even human)
because of these Black women who risked their lives for all of us
Mom of Ruby Bridges in pearls?
Spit on

When I wear pearls & to a committee overseeing $300m in #research?
Not that different from my white male co-chair

I can “pass” in many spaces
Police not called on me

Mom taught me to be perfect
Following the rules did not protect her
A long 🧵 on Mom, her stoicism, an extension of her perfectionism. The struggles, isolation, guilt of women who immigrate. My mother was not there when either of her parents died, buried. Traumatizes.

In recent years she tried to learn self compassion & encourage me as well
Perfectionism, which is an internalized shame & constant self criticism, is the psychological lever supremacy uses to make “the model minority”

When you already hate & punish yourself, you can be used to harm Black, other POC, anyone negatively labeled.

psychologytoday.com/us/blog/minori…
To be clear, Mom was more complex than I describe above. She was affirming to me.

She taught me to have confidence as my messy, verbose, creative self in a world that resented me when my gifts & talents were identified (others’ parents felt I had taken their sons’ spots?)
Childhood peer bullying➡️adult perfectionism

➡️internalized belief
if you critique self enuf, be “perfect”
then avoid attacks by bullies

Which race is “perfect” & the “standard” in the U.S.?

Childhood bullying➡️white adjacent model minorities

researchgate.net/publication/63…
An #ethics & #psychology issue. Do you become who/what harmed you?

Believing self “Aryan”/white but treated as “other” motivates some via confused identity +/- self hate

e.g.: fire them all
on POC doctors & nurses smiling in #pandemic
➡️Non-existent rule to harshly punish
As counter harm *by* “POC” vs Black & other POC

exposing #surveillance or manipulative “optics”
especially in #education used to threaten/bully activists

I get engaged in more messiness in public

Requires overcoming Asian & doctor perfectionism wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insi…
Those seeking to offer SAFE authentic collaboration & allyship
on justice
centered on Black women

MUST stay aware of NECESSARY internal work
1-perfectionism
2-colorism

former=self-hate & impossible inhumane standards

latter sets standard as white. jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1j…
Self-hating “POC”/model minority bullies try to keep you in toxic fear

Losing perfection actually saves lives
It may even save your own

“According to the World Health Organisation, someone takes their own life every 45 seconds.”

#SuicidePrevention

digest.bps.org.uk/2017/07/27/per…
Is very, very hard to live in a world with so much hate

where it feels like choice
1-hate self & fear loss of conditional approval
2-be hated/feared as your authentic self with a voice

Too many, likely trying to be perfect, leave the world of that “choice”

#SuicidePrevention
NOT charity we are doing for Black women.

BOTH

1-pay back debts we owe (but may be ignorant of, pursuing knowledge that can be monetized or per some “prestigious” standard)

AND

2-how when our mothers lie dying in hospitals, NOT built for our moms, protect our own loved ones
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More from @usnehal

Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
12 Dec
At every critical step past the early life & career stage (then rewarded for just delivering)

when protecting loved ones from harm
or #leadership

listening to #BlackExcellence/Black women gave me the framework to understand & the tools to be effective.

time.com/5869662/black-…
“Model minorities” chase impossible standards? Then let’s try to match of achievement level set by Black women

…who accomplish so much while mislabeled, hated, un-/underpaid, killed, losing their children to violence of others’ fear/anti-Blackness

wbur.org/cognoscenti/20…
This is NOT the standard:
-keep your access/proximity to power via a politician
-stay in spotlight
-use your credentials (& frowns/soothing tone) to gaslight a nation that deaths occurring not a concern to you

known for a collection of Hermès scarves…& now >700K American deaths
Read 32 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Dec
When I see this, and think of how a Muslim woman was denied a soda can given other passengers on the flight, out of fear of her look & belief she would harm people…

then look at this & school shootings

the double standards are SO clear.

These ppl likely were violent before
Is a question of who is given a pass?

what kind of violence is “acceptable” to American society?

towards whom violence is “acceptable”?

We already know who is dangerous. It’s just that “domestic” violence (vs women) is “acceptable” in American society

bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-…
The same is true about maternal mortality

Judging by outcomes, compared to peer nations, we’re a nation where women’s lives are not valued

This is indirect societal violence vs women

Still surprised Americans get violent vs flight (female) attendants?

npr.org/2017/05/12/528…
Read 4 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Dec
Court of public opinion
"defendants…willfully destructed the evidence by deleting the webpages and social media accounts," Hanna wrote. "Plaintiffs cannot continue to be blindsided by the defendants by having to search for what evidence is being destroyed or altered”

LinkedIn is personal, not school’s
This is a really fascinating case as a lot of what I see happening in #MedTwitter (Twitter presence of the legal minefield that is #healthcare #MedEd, etc):

faculty, consultants, #hcw deleting content & accounts

My prior 🧵 on this & potential legal implications.
Read 11 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Dec
Anybody who says “the #data don’t lie” either is ignorant or manipulative or both. The data are merely a tool that must be used responsibly & ethically to try to approximate “the truth” …some of which is unmeasurable (yet?). There are MANY #datascience methods & varying results
Everybody gets super excited about this new #AI #ML #machinelearning technique or that

You cannot build a RELIABLE house with low #quality bricks

First, look at the building blocks… meaning, how the #data fields are even defined & how the data are obtained

Who defined them?
I can’t tell you how glad I am that I have done coursework at both @MITSloan AND @StanfordGSB - Former immerses you in a ton of hands on analysis & options for analytic techniques useful in a #datascience job. Latter steps back to frame questions, assess missing data, biases.
Read 13 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Dec
This 🧵 resonated. Trained in Houston, #asthma central, I was in this scenario SO many times.

I had the best #pediatric training at @TexasChildrens & @bcmhouston - you see it all.

Amazing that mere tweets can transmit humane, quality #MedEd teaching across the globe.
After moving to Boston I found myself surrounded by highly anxious doctors. We have an over abundance of resources and a healthier population. I saw people quick to overreact and manage (poorly) their own anxiety & need for control, with harmful aggressive overintervention.
I also do get being “Harvard” makes one a target. Juries are not going to understand “at the brink of death” and not intubating or the equivalent action in another scenario. “Jury of peers” is not present in a malpractice case. Good care can seem negligent, paradoxically.
Read 14 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Dec
Doing a 🧵 of @EM_RESUS’s thread with screenshots.

We see a lot of screenshots of what is wrong in #SciComm.

What went right here? How can one doc transmit knowledge & confidence to another so well via a series of tweets?
First: what was the outcome of the #SciComm? Intention matters little as communitarian happens on the terms of the listener/reader. How was your #communication received/understood?

A doc:
recognized similar scenario
calmed team
avoided overaggression
achieved a similar result
The fact that the #MedEd teaching allowed an EQ & #leadership outcome (staying course despite others’ anxiety), not merely medical knowledge/journal club, is striking. How was this achieved? Let’s look at the thread. How do you transmit courage AND knowledge via tweets in a 🧵?
Read 15 tweets

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