Woke Yale physician demands doctors be forced to wear BODYCAMS to catch racist staff

• Dr. Amanda Calhoun made suggestion in a opinion piece for The Boston Globe
• Calhoun is described as an expert in mental health effects of anti-Black racism, despite still being a resident
• She said families ‘could consent to the release of body camera footage if they want to bring forward complaints of racism’

A woke Yale University physician said doctors should be forced to wear body cameras to catch racist doctors as she claims to have seen a black teen die in the ER as colleagues ‘chuckled’ and said ‘he’s just another criminal.’ 

Dr. Amanda Calhoun, 28, suggested mandatory body cameras in a recent opinion article for The Boston Globe. Calhoun is described as an ‘expert in the mental health effects of anti-Black racism’ – despite the fact she is still a third-year resident doctor at Yale. 

‘I have witnessed countless racist behaviors toward Black patients, often coupled with conscious and cruel statements,’ Calhoun, who is black, wrote in the piece. ‘I have heard White nurses joke that young Black children will probably join gangs and doctors describe the natural hair of Black people as “wild” and “unkempt.”’ 

As for patient privacy, Calhoun wrote families ‘could consent to the release of body camera footage if they want to bring forward complaints of racism.’

Yale officials have not said if they will implement body cameras – or even if they are entertaining the suggestion.  

‘If hospitals and medical institutions want to make good on those anti-racism statements made in 2020, prove it: Have health care professionals wear body cameras,’ Dr. Calhoun wrote in the Globe. 

‘As a patient, I would feel far more comfortable if they did. And as a doctor, I will volunteer to wear one first.’ 

In the article, Dr. Calhoun wrote she has heard ‘White nurses joke that young Black children will probably join gangs and doctors describe the natural hair of Black people as ‘wild’ and ‘unkempt.’ 

‘I have seen Black patients unnecessarily physically restrained,’ she continued. ‘I have stood in the emergency department as a Black teenager died from a gunshot wound while White staff chuckled, saying he was ‘just another criminal.’ 

Calhoun also wrote about the poor treatment by ‘white nurses’ of her sister, who was suffering from an allergic reaction.

‘Despite my mom’s insistence that my 9-year-old sister could be suffering from a deadly allergic reaction and seemed to be wheezing, White nurses refused to treat her with urgency, leaving them sitting in the waiting room, she wrote.

‘Without even properly examining my sister, the nurses informed my mother she would have detected a nut allergy earlier in my sister’s life if it was serious.’

Calhoun pointed out how body cameras can help in situations with the actions and behaviors of police in real time and that they can be accessed during police violence investigations.

‘Monitoring the actions of individuals can result in self-checking behavior,’ she wrote. ‘If we want to see a reduction in poor health outcomes for Black patients, we must hold health care professionals accountable in real time.’

‘Three years have passed since George Floyd was murdered by police, prompting the release of antiracism pledges across a myriad of national medical organizations,’ she wrote.

‘Yet Black Americans still are suffering from medical violence, which kills through delays in medical care, pain under treatment and misdiagnoses.’

Calhoun has spoke out before about being a black, woman doctor and claimed she has received death threats over what some perceive as controversial statements. 

After giving a speech for a White Coats for Black Lives demonstration at the Yale School of Medicine, she implored her colleagues to understand that socioeconomic status does not protect Black lives from racism.

Calhoun, in a 2022 HuffPost column, declared: ‘Before I was a doctor, I was a Black woman in America, and my white coat will not protect me.’ 

‘Status does not protect my physician father from being followed by police in his neighborhood. Status did not protect my 8-year-old sister from experiencing a delay in medical care because white nurses did not believe my pharmacist mother when she said my sister was wheezing from anaphylactic shock. Status does not protect college-educated Black women, like me, from being more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women who did not graduate from high school.’

Earlier this year, Calhoun wrote a piece for MedPageToday about how she, as a Black female physician, does not feel that Women’s History Month includes her. 

‘Each year, as the month passes, I am reminded of the fact that, as a Black woman, I am very hesitant to join women’s movements or initiatives without ample research into their background and reputation. Frankly, I don’t trust them.’

She wrote about how she saw her white female colleagues ‘publicly berating an extremely shy and incredibly knowledgeable Black female pharmacist.’

‘A few other female physicians — non-Black people of color with greater race privilege — observed silently,’ she added. 

But the ironic part, she wrote, was that ‘the same female doctors who belittled that female pharmacist are the first ones to talk about sexism and the need to uplift women, but they are also the first to exclude and belittle Black women, disregarding the “uplift all women” ideals they claim to have.’

‘So, I am hesitant to join women’s movements because, by default, they center white women, or women with greater race privilege, unless they are actively trying to disrupt that norm,’ she concluded.