My first RN job has lead me to a more rural part of the country. As a person of color, I have never experienced racism to this degree.
Some instances are subtle at work, but some are pretty blatant.
My first experience occurred when my preceptor mentioned repeatedly that I have a "black card" so I must be golden at my new position. (I never questioned her on what she meant.) My preceptor also mentioned things like "since you are black things will get stolen from you." Phrases like 'slave driver' have also repeatedly been mentioned in passing with my preceptor. Since I was on orientation, I let a lot of comments go and ignored them, due to fear of being let go or retaliation.
Now, the worst thing is that I have noted on several occasions, confederate flags waving from behind pick up trucks.
I'm not sure if I can stick it out for over a year in this place. What would you do?
It's not just that. all sorts of 'ism' exists in nursing. while the trademark of our diciplin is empathy and support, it is uncommon to see nurses apply it to each other.
Wow. I am a black pn nursing student and cannot believe that this blatant racism is still in the workplace. My heart goes out to you. If you are a Christian, I would first pray because it does change things. I would ask God what HE wants you to do. I can't imagine what you are going through, but Jesus does. I will keep you in prayer.God bless.
I am so sorry you are experiencing this........... Life is so short, I was so mad I just quit right there and I was out of work for about a month.......
Been there, done that. It is harder to find a job if you just up and leave a position, but like you ChutneyFries, it was the only thing to be done at the time. I did recover and found a new position. I pride myself on being a nursing professional. If the environment I am in doesn't allow me to be at my best, I will shake the dust off my feet and move on (to borrow a biblical metaphor). I am better than that, and I expect my employers to be better than that! I can't even imagine working in such a hostile environment as the founder of this post has. To add to it, it sounds as if it could be very dangerous working there. That adds even more fuel to "get me the H*** out of here" mode!
What it represents is in the eye of the beholder. What I was trying to explain is that many southern people (and in my opinion/experience, the vast majority of them) see the confederate flag as a non-racist cultural icon and a source of southern pride. They are not saying the south was right to fight for slavery, they are simply celebrating the right and ability for the American people to take a stand against the government when they feel mistreated.
Yes, the civil war was about slavery, but its important to remember that at the time, it was not clear among the average American whether slavery was right or wrong. Its not like all the northerner's were more evolved and knew it was wrong (many even traveled south to join the confederacy) its just that ending slavery would have a disproportionate negative effect on the southern economy which was mostly agricultural, so southerners had a lot more to lose. In the minds of the confederacy, African Americans were NOT human beings made in God's image, there were even official medical textbooks at the time that explained how African Americans were a different species.
Because of that, its really unfair to call the flag racist based on the events of the civil war because southerner's back then did not know what they were fighting for was wrong. Slavery really only because a racist atrocity later on once it became common knowledge that whites and blacks were biologically and ethically equal beings.
That said, to call the flag racist and be offended by it is itself a form of ignorance based on a shallow understanding of American History. We cannot apply modern viewpoints and understanding to past events any more than we can apply modern weather patterns to the ice age, it just isn't accurate and it inevitably leads to problems like this.
If anyone is offended by the confederate flag, I urge you to reconsider your understanding of its predominant meaning. Most people who fly it wish you no harm and are not racist. To them, its a very important cultural symbol representing self determination and the right/ability to fight for what is right (and what is "right" or "wrong" changes across time). Yes, some people are both racist and enjoy flying the flag, and some even fly it specifically to be racist, but they are a minority and its wrong to stereotypically judge everyone who flies the confederate flag and call them racist just because a few ignorant people are abusing and misusing the flag.
I will even go one step further that its posts like the one I am replying to here that make the problem worse. By reinforcing the interpretations that the flag is racist, you are only increasing the likelihood that people will be offended by it (by providing support for an offensive interpretation of its meaning) while at the same time, any flag waver who reads your comment is only going to feel even more strongly about the flag and its significance For one last example, when the flag was in the news after that shooting in Charleston, it quickly became sold out on almost every web site that sold it. Those people obviously did not suddenly become racist and decide to fly the flag in support of racism, they choose to fly it because its true meaning was being challenged by the media and they wanted to fly it in support of said true (non-racist) meaning).
Posts like yours unfortunately have the same effect. While you are clearly well intentioned, I believe you are actually doing more harm than good. People are not going to stop flying the flag anytime soon, and the more the flag is challenged, the stronger they feel about flying it. If the problem is that people are being offended, then the solution should be to support the interpretation that does not involve racism. That is what people who fly the flag want, so they win, and at the same time it dissociates the connection to racism so less people are offended and thus everybody wins and there is no fighting.
As for the OP, I hope her issue gets resolved and I hope she finds a place she is comfortable. She experienced a lot of things, several of which were clearly racist, but that doesn't mean we should always assume everything that seems racist is intended to be so, that only gives us an inaccurate picture and makes finding real solutions that much harder. Good luck!
@jaybuzz are you actually kidding us? If not, I think the word for your posts is "whitesplaining." SMDH.
No am I not kidding you and if you took the time to really read my post, there's no reason you or anyone else should be offended by anything I said.
I am not supporting or justifying racism, I am simply explaining what the "other side" thinks. Cultural differences are very important to consider in a situation like this, especially for the OP or people in a similar situation otherwise they are going to have a much harder time finding a life they can enjoy living.
Racism does exist and although things have slowly improved, its still a significant problem. That said, being offended is a personal reaction and not necessarily indicative of what happened. People can be more of less offended by something based on how they interpret the situation and their reaction does not necessarily correlate with the intended meaning.
In a nutshell, all I'm saying is that its important to think about situations like this critically and withhold judgement until the facts are clear. Not doing so will lead to even more misunderstanding, offensiveness, and poor decisions.
jaybuzz, If you're white and you have based what you are saying/explaining on the fact that you have been in the South several times, pardon me for saying so, but you are talking through your hat. Prejudice? "It's not as big a deal" in the South anymore? Interesting. That may seem so on the surface, but start talking with black people here and you'll be disabused on tht notion pretty quickly.
Several months ago my middle-aged black female coworker, my 98-year-old patient and I were talking about racial problems r/t some recent news stories. Prior to all this, I had thought a lot of racial things had changed for the better, but my co-worker gave us examples of things she and her husband and family encounter every single day. My eyes were really opened by things I never thought happened anymore. This coworker is a fine , lovely,church-going woman with a quiet/calm demeanor... and things she recounted to us...made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I wanted to slap some of the people she told us about, for their perversely self-righteous ignorance, hatefulness and unwarranted superiority-complex. Honestly, it would scare me to be a black person in these days and times, and I don't think fear is too extreme a reaction, given the supposedly 'random' thinks that happen when you happen to be black..
Granted not everybody in the South, or North ( I am a retired New Englander) are racist, but there are people who revel in their sly, verbal "death by a thousand cuts". One or two cuts are not a problem, but cumulatively they can bleed you dry. They say things in a way that make them deniable, and snicker with their like-minded friends behind their closed front doors.
"There is so much bad in the best of us,
And so much good in the worst of us,
That it hardly behooves any of us
To talk about the rest of us."
This is good advice regarding gossip, but I think there is still a lot to be talked about. On either 'side' are the people who can't or won't listen to the legitimacy and emotions...what's behind the words, and instead, grow more and more heated and then hostile. I don't know the answer. If we could all realize and focus on the humanity beneath the skin, but how can we help create that epiphany within each individual, black or white, yellow, red, etc....I dunno. History and personal experiences are often held up as shields AND weapons.
SMH. I have met many supposed loving, tolerant people who are happy to proclaim their love for all humanity...as long as they are clean, polite and 'know their place.'
We've got Baptists, New Agers, Daughters of Dixie, Vegans vs Meat-Eater, Mexican/Latinos, pro-Gay and anti-Gay, ad infinitum, where I live. Each group preaches that the other group(s) need to practice tolerance, all the while holding themselves as being 'better' than the ones they say aren't tolerant of them and theirs.
All you can do is stop, look and listen. You can't NOT be struck by the intolerance.
You misunderstood me. Or maybe I didn't explain it clearly enough. Either way, I am NOT saying prejudice is not as big a deal, I'm saying there is a discontinuity between implied and expressed racism between the north and south. Furthermore, I was referring to the perceptions of those involved and the role that culture plays in those perceptions. All racism is wrong and the ethical seriousness of a specific act is context neutral, but when passing judgement on a specific instance or specific individuals we do in fact need to consider context and competing perceptions because what we experience is a product of what happened and our own personal "filters". This can be good or bad depending on the situation, but since we are talking about the OP leaving a job, that is abig decisions that warrants a critical examination of the facts, and in the realm of sociologial and cultural issues, the facts can be very difficult to discern.
Again, I am not supporting or defending racism. I also am fully aware that racism still exists. Furthermore, I am not downplaying the OP's or anyone elses feelings. I realize the feeling is real regardless of the intent of the person who hurts you, but I also think its important to consider other factors if we are to pass judgement, generalize, or make big decisions (like quitting a job!).
Good luck to the OP! And to everyone else, please do not misinterpret what I said as racist, or an attempt to downplay the seriousness of what happened to the OP or racism in general. Personally, I think its important to look at everything critically and consider all the options. I realize there are those who think its beneficial to highlight anything that might be perceived as racist, but in my experience and opinion having a "zero tolerance" policy towards racism ends up doing more harm than good because it inevitably leads to generalizations which inevitably lead to tangential arguments.
I've done my homework on these things and I'm not just giving my blind opinion. I've looked at sociology studies about how culture evolves and have a good understanding of many of the psychological cause and effect factors that shape public opinion about controversial issues.
That said, I realize I could be wrong. All I ask is that you understand my intentions are good and respect the fact that the "right" interpretation/approach here is not in any way clear, and that your interpretations and opinions can be different from mine even if we share the same goals and fundamental beliefs.
jaybuzz, the issue is not what white people claim to mean by flying the stars and bars.
The issue is how black people understand their own Southern Heritage and the symbolism of that battle flag. Behaving as though the only real Southern heritage is the white one is pretty much the definition of white privilege.
Perhaps you need to check your own ignorance of the African experience, including the civil rights struggle, before you rail on us and our ignorance.
The swastika is an ancient Pagan sun symbol
and the "whirling logs" motif - kind of a backward swastika - is an old motif in Dineh(Navajo) art. Would I be justified in insisting that, since I mean to honor the sun, it's the job of European Jews to just get over it because they don't know history?
After WWII, Dineh artists pretty much stopped using that motif in their art - out of respect for the experience of those who suffered under Nazi rule. Think about that.
The issue is how black people understand their own Southern Heritage and the symbolism of that battle flag. Behaving as though the only real Southern heritage is the white one is pretty much the definition of white privilege.
Please do not put words in my mouth and then criticize me on them. I never said the only "real" southern heritage is the "white" heritage, in fact I gave a specific example of a shared southern experience involving the confederate flag that involved both whites and blacks (when I spoke about the frat house).
Furthermore, your claim that the issue is "not what white people claim to mean" but "is how black people understand their own southern heritage" is factually false. I acknowledged very clearly that there were competing interpretations of the meaning of the flag, using the Swastika as a similar example. The point I made was that its wrong to assume one interpretation over the other based solely on the perception of the person viewing the flag. In other words, just because someone sees the flag and gets offended because they think its racist does NOT mean that the person flying the flag is racist. Whether or not the situation is an example of racism depends on the reason the flag is being flown.
Again, everyone has equal rights. People have just as much right to fly the flag as a symbol of non-racist pride and culture as others have to consider the flag a symbol of racism and choose not to fly it. Furthermore, the good non-racist people who fly the flag are just as offended when others claim they are racist and organize attacks on what they consider to be an important cultural symbol. If you consider the flag racist, then don't fly it. Assuming that everyone who flies it is racist is wrong and its just as ignorant to assume YOUR interpretation of the flag is "right" and to disregard an innocent southern cultural icon.
That said, there are people who do connect the flag to racism and choose to fly it for that purpose. Those people are wrong and if you want to attack them, go ahead because they deserve it. What people don't deserve is to be judged by the assumptions of those who hold a different opinion.
Perhaps you need to check your own ignorance of the African experience, including the civil rights struggle, before you rail on us and our ignorance.
I never "railed" on anyone for their ignorance. I pointed out that its equally ignorant to disregard legitimate non-racist interpretations of the flag as it is to disregard the very real fact that some people see the flag as racist. I do know the history of civil rights and that struggle highlights the fact that we are all equal and one person's opinion or even the majority opinion does not determine what is and what isn't true or right.
Would I be justified in insisting that, since I mean to honor the sun, it's the job of European Jews to just get over it because they don't know history?
No you would not be right, and once again I never said anything along the lines of people needing to "get over" the racist interpretation of the flag. What I said was people need to respect BOTH interpretations of the flag and understand that neither is "right" or "wrong", its only wrong when the flag (or swastika) is used to promote hate or racism. In the swastika example I gave, I acknowledged that some people may be offended by the monk's tattoo but that it would be wrong to call that monk a racist or tell him to get it removed because its just as offensive to him when others are claiming an important ancient religious symbol has a different, racist, meaning when he regards its meaning as something good.
In short, the point is that many symbols have alternative meanings and sometimes, depending on intent and context, that meaning can be offensive to some. What we need to recognize is that one opinion or interpretation is not the deciding factor, what determines when someone is right or wrong for displaying a symbol is their intention. In the case of the flag, its not right to assume that people who fly it are racist just because certain people in the world see it as racist. Its also important to acknowledge that doing do is just as ignorant of one version of southern culture as the ignorance you are claiming me and people who fly the flag are displaying.
I'm not racist, that's a fact. You can believe me or not, I have no control over that and I respect your right to have an opinion, but I am not okay with you claiming I said things that I didn't say. In regards to the flag, the simple fact is a lot of people fly it as a symbol of self determination (or something along those lines) and do not intend any offense. There is nothing wrong with that. The civil war was horrible and 200 years of slavery was even worse. Yes the confederacy was originally pro-slavery and that was the main concern of the war, but that doesn't mean the confederate flag still stands for slavery or racism in modern times. Symbols evolve over time, just like the swastika went from being a well intentioned religious symbol to a reminder of the holocaust (in certain parts of the world), the confederate flag went form being a symbol of the pro-slavery confederate army to a symbol of things unrelated to racism or ill intent. It doesn't mean other interpretations don't exist, but it also doesn't mean one interpretation is any more valid than another and definitely does not mean its accurate or right to generalize one interpretation to everyone and use it to call them racist just because your interpretation leads to you being offended and you think your interpretation is the only "right" one THAT is ignorant.
Please do not put words in my mouth and then criticize me on them. I never said the only "real" southern heritage is the "white" heritage, in fact I gave a specific example of a shared southern experience involving the confederate flag that involved both whites and blacks (when I spoke about the frat house).
Furthermore, your claim that the issue is "not what white people claim to mean" but "is how black people understand their own southern heritage" is factually false. I acknowledged very clearly that there were competing interpretations of the meaning of the flag, using the Swastika as a similar example. The point I made was that its wrong to assume one interpretation over the other based solely on the perception of the person viewing the flag. In other words, just because someone sees the flag and gets offended because they think its racist does NOT mean that the person flying the flag is racist. Whether or not the situation is an example of racism depends on the reason the flag is being flown.
Again, everyone has equal rights. People have just as much right to fly the flag as a symbol of non-racist pride and culture as others have to consider the flag a symbol of racism and choose not to fly it. Furthermore, the good non-racist people who fly the flag are just as offended when others claim they are racist and organize attacks on what they consider to be an important cultural symbol. If you consider the flag racist, then don't fly it. Assuming that everyone who flies it is racist is wrong and its just as ignorant to assume YOUR interpretation of the flag is "right" and to disregard an innocent southern cultural icon.
That said, there are people who do connect the flag to racism and choose to fly it for that purpose. Those people are wrong and if you want to attack them, go ahead because they deserve it. What people don't deserve is to be judged by the assumptions of those who hold a different opinion.
I never "railed" on anyone for their ignorance. I pointed out that its equally ignorant to disregard legitimate non-racist interpretations of the flag as it is to disregard the very real fact that some people see the flag as racist. I do know the history of civil rights and that struggle highlights the fact that we are all equal and one person's opinion or even the majority opinion does not determine what is and what isn't true or right.
No you would not be right, and once again I never said anything along the lines of people needing to "get over" the racist interpretation of the flag. What I said was people need to respect BOTH interpretations of the flag and understand that neither is "right" or "wrong", its only wrong when the flag (or swastika) is used to promote hate or racism. In the swastika example I gave, I acknowledged that some people may be offended by the monk's tattoo but that it would be wrong to call that monk a racist or tell him to get it removed because its just as offensive to him when others are claiming an important ancient religious symbol has a different, racist, meaning when he regards its meaning as something good.
In short, the point is that many symbols have alternative meanings and sometimes, depending on intent and context, that meaning can be offensive to some. What we need to recognize is that one opinion or interpretation is not the deciding factor, what determines when someone is right or wrong for displaying a symbol is their intention. In the case of the flag, its not right to assume that people who fly it are racist just because certain people in the world see it as racist. Its also important to acknowledge that doing do is just as ignorant of one version of southern culture as the ignorance you are claiming me and people who fly the flag are displaying.
I'm not racist, that's a fact. You can believe me or not, I have no control over that and I respect your right to have an opinion, but I am not okay with you claiming I said things that I didn't say. In regards to the flag, the simple fact is a lot of people fly it as a symbol of self determination (or something along those lines) and do not intend any offense. There is nothing wrong with that. The civil war was horrible and 200 years of slavery was even worse. Yes the confederacy was originally pro-slavery and that was the main concern of the war, but that doesn't mean the confederate flag still stands for slavery or racism in modern times. Symbols evolve over time, just like the swastika went from being a well intentioned religious symbol to a reminder of the holocaust (in certain parts of the world), the confederate flag went form being a symbol of the pro-slavery confederate army to a symbol of things unrelated to racism or ill intent. It doesn't mean other interpretations don't exist, but it also doesn't mean one interpretation is any more valid than another and definitely does not mean its accurate or right to generalize one interpretation to everyone and use it to call them racist just because your interpretation leads to you being offended and you think your interpretation is the only "right" one THAT is ignorant.
If there is a part of the community you can assimilate to or feel comfortable in, I may try it for a while. However, if you are in the back woods, and your safety is at risk simply due to racial ignorance, I say NO job is worth it. Period. The fact that you are in a professional setting and getting racial subliminal messages makes me worried for you. What happens on the streets?
Just like when a white person goes to a big city, he/she might feel threatened. Not trying to offend, but you being black and going to a small town is the same as a white person from the midwest going to a big city.
wolf9653
209 Posts
It's not just that. all sorts of 'ism' exists in nursing. while the trademark of our diciplin is empathy and support, it is uncommon to see nurses apply it to each other.