The Angry Heart

Older Comments on The Angry Heart

• Posted 11/30/10 by Rebecca
  As a nurse in community public health I was very disappointed and discouraged by this documentary. The entire film was about racism-nothing mentioned about all of the other risk factors of heart disease like fried foods, smoking, etc. that are prevelent in the African American community. And the claims of racism leading to heart disease lacked evidence-nothing more than anecdotal examples and a couple of weak studies. I don't deny that racism does play a role in health disparities but there are so many modifiable risk factors that can be easily changed. Attributing it all to racism is not only innacurate but it gives the false impression that it's outside of anyone within the black communities control. That is a dangerously counter-productive message to send. Also when I was an ER nurse I occasionally had black patients accuse me of racism because I wasn't giving them the level of attention they felt they deserved. What they didn't realize was how understaffed the hospital was, and that I was juggling up to 5 other patients-but they just saw that they weren't getting the care they wanted and that I was white and decided it must be racially motivated, even though nothing could be further from the truth. I wonder how many of these reported instances of medical discrimination are based on these types of mistaken assumptions.