Counter Racist Discussion on Sheri Fink's Five Days At Memorial

From the very beginning of the book. Prologue, page 43:

“And Thiele was sure that another kind of “animal” was poised to rampage through the hospital looking for drugs. He later recalled wondering at the time: “What would they do, these crazy black people who think they’ve been oppressed for all these years by white people … God knows what these crazy people outside are going to do to these poor patients who are dying. They can dismember them, they can rape them, they can torture them.”

They got more compassion for dogs and cats than drowning black people.

Book is still pretty informative and entertaining, and I was able to make time to read on Monday. So on page 272 there's a blatant act of Racism. She's explaining how triage works in medical environment with a high number of patients. She provides historical context explaining how decisions were made about kidney treatment in previous eras:

“Before lifesaving kidney dialysis became widely available in the United States, some hospital committees secretly factored age, gender, marital status, education, occupation, and “future potential” into treatment decisions to promote the “greatest good” for the community.” 


Are we to believe race was not one of the factors that would have been considered? Fink leaving that out is a finking act of Racism.

I was researching Ethel Freeman (This black female lived through the 1927 flood, Hurricane Betsy in 1965, and Katrina) and I found this article on Five Days:

But responses from audiences with local ties haven’t been so positive. A commenter on a local news site writes that “Fink has effectively capitalized on this tragedy. I can’t figure out why she hasn’t been exposed. She’s a vulture, picking at the bones of patients who died and swooping down to sully the reputations of the doctors and nurses who stayed in hell to help.”


From what I heard, White people were generally not pleased about charges being filed against these doctors, so I'm not surprised that they would also be roiled about her book.

This is from the Times-Picayune where they are also critical of her writing the book and judging the doctors.

Hi caketheseries!

You're actually on schedule. We were supposed to do 200 pages a week, so you're right on pace, maybe even a bit ahead.

When you say, "Everything that happens inside the hospital is measured to a different standard of everything that happens outside of the hospital," do you mean because of the storm? That's a very common trend I'm noting when White people write about various abuses Whites committed during the flood. Ronnie Greene said the same thing about his book Shots On The Bridge - which is about the Danziger Bridge Shooting. He wants readers to sympathize with unarmed families who were shot AND the officers who did the shooting. Katrina made things so bad we can't possibly judge people by normal standards.

If I misinterpreted let me know.
 

Well Shiver me Timbers. I thought we were reading 200 pages a day. Now I can relax and take a little more time to let this information sink in. I am reading and listening to the audio for some of the book. It could be the writer or the tone of the voiceover actor that influenced my perspective. The doctors inside are discussing making important life or death situations and moments later the same doctors mention they are outside murdering each other. I'm like aren't you getting ready to decide who you are going to murder in the hospital?  The attitude and tone is very different when they talk about murder inside the hospital and outside.

In chapter six where you pulled that Dr. King and Dr. Wynn conversation about race they sandwiched that with lots of stories about pets. That reminded me of when the news will talk about a black person and the next story is about a watermelon patch or monkeys. Fink chose to go on and on about pets. Then she concluded with a patient who was once a nurse during segregation. I'm still trying to figure out the significance of being a nurse during segregation. I'm not sure if she was black or white. But she was given the RX for death regardless.

I found an interview with Dr. Bryant King and CNN's reporter Aaron Brown. The interview slightly reminded me of The Day Care owner in Memphis vs the reporter trying to get her to admit to blame for a criminal that her staff prevented from entering her place of business. I would love to for Dr. Bryant King to visit the C.O.W.S. however I cannot find a contact for him.

However here is the interview
www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/15/King/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Evening All...finally able to chime in on the book and I must say, the more I read this book the more it shows just how ill-prepared we are to "disasters" and even more vulnerable as non-whites.  I knew reading this book that it would disturb me because of the racism that is demonstrated and the very infrastructure we depend on during disasters are simply not prepared to care for those in need.  It was interesting to read how the disaster preparedness drills and hospital readiness were looked at as annoying and not taken seriously by hospital staff.  When it stated something to the effect that this company Jayco was to oversee hospital emergency plans but in truth had nothing to say about how realistic emergency plans had to be let hospitals off the hook with really being prepared and got away with just putting an elaborate plan on paper to get government off their backs but never with the intent on implementing it or never thinking they would have to actually implement it.  

I am reminded of how chaotic the city of Detroit was a few years ago (August 2003) when we had a "black-out" (a wide-spread power outage). We had no power for about 2 - 3 days and it was total chaos from people trying to get gas for their cars, people looking to get hotel rooms since they had no power at home, and the grocery stores jammed packed with people clearing the shelves.  Some had no water, transportation or communication.  I believe this "black-out" effected Michigan, Ohio, and a few other states.  

Thanks for allowing me to share as I am looking forward to sharing more on the board as I continue reading the book.