The key thing (whether black, white or brown) is the white coat and
stethascope.
I have one more "doctor story".
In 1978, I severed a tendon in my little finger of my right hand. I had it operated on by a local "board qualified" doctor. The exercises he told me to do after the operation led me to break the tendon agaon. Second operation, same doctor.
Several monthe later, I got up my gumption to go to where I should have gone the first time: The Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC. There I had an India Indian doctor: Chitchranjan Ranawat, who, at the time, was apparently one of the best hand surgeons.
Dr. Ranawat showed no emotion and spoke in monosyllabic sentences of short word length -- indeed, he moved his body parsimoniously in general.... After he operated on my hand, he said one sentence to me, which was entirely clear and definitive. I didn't write it down, but it was something like: "If I could have known before I operated what I found when I operated, I would not have operated, because there was not much I could do for you."
Which reminds me of something from the work world. A man I worked for, describing another employee to a vice-president: "If I am ever in line with that man and above him I will fire him because he is a traitor."
Je me souviens (So what?)
\brad mccormick
-----Original Message----- From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2003 7:57 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Futurework] ) Hue and Cry on 'Whiteness Studies' ~ "Class acts" and not
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
[snip]
BTW, they did a study a number of decades ago to see if White and Black kids preferred White or Black dentists. The result was that each felt most comfortable with a dentist of their own ethnic group. When the ran the same test with Hispanics [remember that this was a number of decades ago and things, I assume have changed greatly since then], they found that Hispanics favored the Anglo dentists because they believed that the 'Hispanic' dentists were actually actors since they 'knew' that there was no such person as a 'Hispanic' dentist.
[snip]
Personal story: When I was about 26 years old, I needed a sigmoidoscopy (back when they used rigid tubes...).
My caucasian doctor said he could do it in half an hour at considerable discomfort to me, or he could send me to DR.X who did the procedure really well so that it would be fast and much less pain for me.
I chose Dr. X (not really knowing who he was). My appt was at 2 in the afternoon, and after the enemas and fasting all day, I could scarcely walk the last few blocks to Dr. X's office in a black neighborhood (this was Baltimore, 1972). In the door I went. Dr. X turned out to be a very "classy" looking black man. I suppose I related more to his suit than to his skin color, so I didn't feel too concerned.
Dr. X did the exam, and, indeed, I hardly felt any discomfort. It was a "class act" and I went away feeling blessed for the day.
I did, however, some years later, have a similar experience with a caucasian oral surgeon. I had a "wisdom tooth" (dumb tooth!) that needed to come out. I reclined in the chair, and the doctor came in dressed in a very expensive suit. Soon enough, he was telling me it was all over. I said to him [who had not, I believe, worn any smock in the interim...]: "that must have been an easy one?" He replied: "No. That was a hard one." Once again, I felt blessed for the rest of the day.
I think there are two "colors": the "class acts" and the rest (the latter subdividing into those who don't pretend to be what they are not, who are not *so* bad, and those who pretend to be what they who are not, who are very dangerous to my [and yours too, dear reader?] well being). The former are, metaphorically, the sources [of light...] and the latter are the sinks [black bodies -- in a physics sense!].
"Yours in the thought of a world where everyone is facilitated to live a "class act" life...."
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
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