cestelle

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  • in reply to: Black Man in a White Coat, 54-102, 105-152 #960
    cestelle
    Participant

    In Black Man in a White Coat, race is recurring theme. Race has affected how Damon Tweedy M.D. sees himself compared to his peers as well as how his peers and patients see him. One good example of this is on page 92. Tweedy brought up a good point about how being black affects the way he thinks about his race and its relation to his work, but also how he perceives people think about his race and its relation to his work. Tweedy asks if when looking at injured black patients, white doctors would ask “’What’s wrong with these people?’ Or were we projecting our own insecurities onto them?” At first, I thought it might be silly to think that other doctors and peers might judge him by race but I am ignorant to this as a middle class white woman who has not been in his experience. I think it is a tricky topic because although there are many people who do not believe race matters in a person’s ability (such as myself) there are still people out there who think there is a difference. One example that really stuck out to me was the passage about the patient who did not want to be seen by a black doctor (page 108). It honestly blows my mind that there are still people out there who have such negative opinions regarding people of a different race – especially when they have gone through school, training, are obviously qualified to do any of the work expected of them. This passage really opened my eyes that there is still so much discrimination, both obvious, like the example above, and subtle such as how the doctor viewed the black women who was on crack and had a miscarriage earlier in the book.

    in reply to: 5B #815
    cestelle
    Participant

    Wow, this film was so incredibly powerful. Though I knew some about AIDS before watching this film, I was no aware of the level of importance it also had socially. One of the most powerful quotes at the beginning of this film was “You have to get out of the mode of you are going to cure people, you have to get into the mode of caring for people.” I think this sums up the entire movie very well, the most important thing you can give to someone is showing that they matter, are loved, and are cared for. One of the most heart-breaking parts of this film was seeing all of the patients struggling and hurting without their family or friends beside them, just because it was seen as a “gay” disease. If it was any other disease, unrelated to being a homosexual, I feel like the amount and support and love they received would have been much greater. As one man with HIV who was being interviewed put it, “people look at the condition and lose sight that there is a person there.” This is an incredibly important statement because in the beginning people with AIDS were not treated like human beings, they were being refused treatment by some and other would completely gown up around them even after they knew it was spread through bodily fluids and not just touch or through the air.

    Because AIDS was stigmatized so much, the fact that so many nurses came to help out and treat them as human beings with feelings and emotions was really moving. It was incredibly powerful that they changed the rules so that AIDS patients could define family in their own way and have visitors, even pets come and comfort them. The biweekly dinners and entertainment created a since of community and joy in a time of uncertainty and pain. These nurses and doctors made their patients experience as pleasant as it could be given the circumstances. I loved that the film focused so much on touch and hand holding. As human beings, we all need contact with others and it is not the same when someone is wearing gloves and masks around you, it is not genuine. This really struck me personally because my grandfather passed near the beginning of the semester and the last week he was in hospice, all he wanted to do was hold people’s hands. Though he could no longer talk, this was his way of communicating to us that he loved us; and it was our way of showing him that we were there. All people need love and support no matter what sexuality they identify with, what race or age they are, or their socioeconomic status. People are people no matter what. People should be cared for and shown compassion no matter what.

    in reply to: The Masque of the Red Death #814
    cestelle
    Participant

    Angel, you had a really insightful post about the Red Death and comparing it to HIV/AIDS. Though I noticed some similarities between this piece and the AIDS epidemic, I did not make all of the connections between the violence of the people towards the masked figure and the violence towards homosexual men who were presumed to have AIDS. It is interesting to think that the people in the story thought they were above getting the Red Death because of their prestige, it reminds of class last Friday and learning about the politicians wife. She was seen as “too good” to get AIDS because she was a straight woman in a relationship. Her being diagnosed with AIDS was a real shock to people. I also think that it is interesting that this piece was called Red Death and that the color to support AIDS is red. Much like the people who wanted to avoid the red and black room, people tried to avoid individuals who had AIDS or were presumed to have AIDS.

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