I wouldn't ask my white doctor in America that because I would already know. I would have looked up my white doctor in the insurance company's book of doctors, which would tell me where they went to school, and I would have chosen accordingly.

I wouldn't ask my white doctor in America that because I would already know. I would have looked up my white doctor in the insurance company's book of doctors, which would tell me where they went to school, and I would have chosen accordingly.

NicoleK at July 7, 2020 11:05 PM

My Dr went to school at Creighton. However he understands the human endocrine system better than the three endocrinologists I saw before him.

His area of speciality? Sports Medicine.

The Army doctors I saw were uniformly good. A black Dr delivered my son. Great guy.

Had an acquaintance who was a Harvard grad, University of Colorado medical school. A psychological mess. I wouldn’t have let her treat my cat, never mind my family.

I know Flint had a giant quantity of Russian and ex-Soviet-bloc doctors in the 1990s. I remember hearing them asked all these same questions - and if they said they were still working on transferring their credentials from the original Cyrillic, you might just get up and leave.

She wants to pretend that the Caribbean or Africa or Eastern Europe is as good as a US hospital (or, for her, a Canadian hospital). They aren't; it's like going to Cooley Law School instead of University of Michigan.

Perhaps the giant chip on her shoulder makes her come across as a moron or somebody who did not get there by her qualifications, and asking where she did her residency is a proxy for asking, "Were you able to get into a local school, or were you so dumb you had to go to the Caribbean?"

People are rightly worried that affirmative action and fly by night foreign med schools have infected US medical practices. They are correct to be concerned.

A wealthy brown woman--a doctor living better than 95% of her patients--tells us about white racial blunders, including asking where she trained....

Would you ask a white doctor that question?

Yes, it's probably one of the first things you ask if you don't see the framed degree on the wall. It's the Guadalajara guys who don't display theirs.

"Oh, no, Guadalajara won't do."

Medicine is one of the few professions in which the practitioners frame their degrees and post them prominently.

FYI, my doctor, who is white, obtained his medical training from the University of Florida. His sheepskin is displayed in his examination room. I checked on my first visit. It also came up in our introductory conversation. Shands ain't Johns Hopkins, but it ain't Guadalajara either.

Being ready to take offense leads to absurd conclusions. A guy I know is big, black, bearded, and walks with a limp. He looks...odd. So people stare. They don't stare because he is black, but he thinks so.

If you are 400lbs, people are in fact staring. tough.

For docs, it is very hard to find a good one who won't rush you. The degree info helps but even then I may have to go to more than one. I asked one surgeon his success rate and he had exact numbers--I picked him. For the doc in question, if people are concerned because of where you are from, they are not being unreasonable, you are.

I meet people from all over the world and like to guess where they are from based on their accent. A few take offense at first but most are happy to talk about their home country and how they got here etc.

This tweet makes me think that maybe a doctor from Guadalajara is not such a bad idea:

https://twitter.com/lizstein_/status/1265071486638800897

"I think it's damaging to constantly identify as a victim and victimized."

You can restate this as fact. You won't think you're a failure if you're a success, will you?

What use are you to others if all you can do is cry?

I'll do the author and movie quote thing:

"In punishing yourself, you come to merit punishment." - Steven R Donaldson, in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

"Failure is the best teacher", and "They are beyond us. That is the burden of the master." - conversation between Yoda and Luke in The Last Jedi.

Many immigrant doctors to North America should be happy as hell they are here. They get the upper slice of life.

Instead of adopting a victim mindset, it would be better for non-white "racialized" people to cleave to a form of stoicism. You know, realizing that being offended is all in the mind and sloughing off all externals and going about your merry way.

Victim mindset works for a while, and then gets old. But, its human nature to take the easy path of crying and demanding unconditional acceptance.