Hidden Discrimination

Mr Carson's presentation really opened my eyes more to the behind the scenes discrimination African Americans (especially women) are facing today. Before his presentation, we were asked to watch two videos talking about the discrimination in the medical field. Doctors all around the world take an oath to provide and care for their patients but these videos provided me information otherwise. Kyra and Charles Johnson were a happy couple expecting their third child. Charles noticed there was blood in Kyra's catheter before her routine c-section. It wasn't until 10 hours later that someone came to check it out. Kyra died shortly after in surgery. This was not the only thing that shocked me. Out of the 400 deaths due to pregnancy or child birth, African American women have a 4x higher rate of death than white women, and I highly doubt that it is simply a coincidence. Health care professionals and doctors are supposed to be focused on one thing and one thing only, the care and safety of their patients. In the Johnson's case, this was not portrayed by the doctors.

After the videos, Mr Carson provided us with a presentation about the acceleration of oppression of black women in the world. The one thing that stood out to me most, surprisingly was the Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup. Aunt Jemima was, in Mr Carson's opinion, no more than a maid, serving whiteness. She represented a nanny of color and cheap, inexpensive labor. This reminded me of a movie I watched a few years ago called the Help, starring Emma Stone. Emma Stone is a white, college student who comes home and writes about all the nannys of color and what it is like serving for the wealthy, white people. Just like Mr Carson stated, all the nannys were strong, thick, and had very little education. By being a maid/nanny, they sacrifice themselves, their families, and especially their health. Aunt Jemima is exactly that. People today eat the Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup and don't even think twice about the hidden discrimination and why there is a black lady's face on the cover.