AMA releases document on appropriate language and health equity

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My residency has decided that the term "black cloud" to describe an unlucky resident is racist and have banned us from using it. Here I thought it referred to the weather, as in black clouds bring rain while white clouds don't. I guess I'm a closeted white supremist instead ....
And it doesn't have to mean you're a "white supremacist." Couldn't it be as simple as choosing to abandon a binary white equals good black equals bad that could be promoting subconcioud bias or hurt feelings in some ppl?
 
DudeI cannot see why you don't understand what makes blacklist and whitelist a problem. Who ever decided white should always stand for good and black for bad? Do you not see how this could come to be an issue for a society that labels people as black and white?
It's based on a grayscale? Not everything white vs black has to have a racial meaning. That's a very recent reinterpretation of language that's largely hypothetical. If people are legitimately upset by these words, then replacing the words is necessary and justified. Show me the people actually offended by the language in clinical settings and not just in hypothetical scenarios.
 
And it doesn't have to mean you're a "white supremacist." Couldn't it be as simple as choosing to abandon a binary white equals good black equals bad that could be promoting subconcioud bias or hurt feelings in some ppl?
Does this actually happen? This is my point. Words like diabetic or asthmatic or even ***** are clearly stigmatizing and damaging with real negative patient outcomes. The whole racial reinterpretation of black vs white in words with nonracial meanings is hypothetical with no clear instance where this language is actually damaging in clinical settings.

You know what is more effective in tackling subconscious bias? Stop using white as a prototype or gold standard for medical decision making, which still happens pervasively with disastrous health outcomes for Black patients. The pulse oximeter example is one but there are many many more instances where medicine is still stuck in the 1950s
 
Although tbh the very act of blacklisting or blackmailing someone is much more devastating than any underlying racial connotations. Changing blacklist to deny list doesn't affect the underlying impact. If anything, it can make things worse
 
I’m sure a lot of kids have been scared of the dark but never been frightened by a flash light. And when things die and rot they usually turn black. Considering we’re in medicine, well…
 
Hearing the adjectives "diabetes" or "asthmatic" used to refer to oneself can cause anxiety because it is incongruent with what one would rather be. Unless we are trained to tolerate anxiety, people find anxiety to be intolerable and want to get rid of it, its source. The easiest way to do that is to dictate to the source that they need to stop causing them anxiety, even if they didn't mean to.

The problem with going too far when telling a speaker what they can or cannot say, is that content of their speech will become less and less aligned with what they actually mean, because their brain will always be checking whether or not what they are about to say is OK. Instead of investigating their own thoughts and formulating their speech, part of their focus has to be diverted to checking "is what I am about to say going to cause someone else anxiety."

Suggesting to someone hat they cannot say something, is transferring the experience of anxiety from the listener to the speaker. At the end, it makes both parties weaker. Strength is the ability to accept thoughts and feelings without trying to prevent them or avoid them.
 
My residency has decided that the term "black cloud" to describe an unlucky resident is racist and have banned us from using it. Here I thought it referred to the weather, as in black clouds bring rain while white clouds don't. I guess I'm a closeted white supremist instead ....
In western culture, black has been associated with death for far longer than when westerners started the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
 
So is betting on green while playing roulette the only PC way to play? You can't bet on black or red any more

Anyone who has earned a yellow, brown or black belt in karate needs to turn in their rank as well
 
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So is betting on green while playing roulette the only PC way to play? You can't bet on black or red any more

Anyone who has earned a yellow, brown or black belt in karate needs to turn in their rank as well
Green is good because green represents climate friendly

Also a black belt is a good thing
 
My residency has decided that the term "black cloud" to describe an unlucky resident is racist and have banned us from using it. Here I thought it referred to the weather, as in black clouds bring rain while white clouds don't. I guess I'm a closeted white supremist instead ....

Blacklist.
Blackmail.
Black sheep.
Devil’s food cake.
Grandfathered in.
Chairman.
Fireman.

Do we still use “sinister” for left?

LOTS of race/sex/minority related verbiage in our current usage.

Needs to change
 
In western culture, black has been associated with death for far longer than when westerners started the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Perhaps..but once it got taken over and now is problematic, I see no harm in changing it.

Do we still call kindling used to start a fire “fa$$ot”?
 
Blacklist.
Blackmail.
Black sheep.
Devil’s food cake.
Grandfathered in.
Chairman.
Fireman.

Do we still use “sinister” for left?

LOTS of race/sex/minority related verbiage in our current usage.

Needs to change
I dunno why you quoted me, as you didn't address my one and only point. Black clouds bring rain and storms. White clouds don't. It is a great analogy to describe someone having a storm-filled call night vs having an easy call night and has nothing to do with genders or minorities.

It's the weather.

Not everything is offensive in life.
 
As a white male, I can say that medicine is a profession that epitomizes societal issues with privilege, race, and gender.... and we need to work on how to improve that and be more fair to everyone.

That being said I now have no idea how to calculate the CrCl of a trans patient, have no way of quickly communicating someone's hypersensitivity reaction to vanco and have no idea if I should use ACE/ARBs first for treating black patient's HTN...
This is not what I would call progress....
 
I dunno why you quoted me, as you didn't address my one and only point. Black clouds bring rain and storms. White clouds don't. It is a great analogy to describe someone having a storm-filled call night vs having an easy call night and has nothing to do with genders or minorities.

It's the weather.

Not everything is offensive in life.

Just call them unlucky… it will not be a loss
 
Perhaps..but once it got taken over and now is problematic, I see no harm in changing it.

Do we still call kindling used to start a fire “fa$$ot”?
Taken over when? And problematic to who? Are people actually offended by the supposed racial connotations of blacklist/blackmail or are we discussing hypotheticals?
 
As a white male, I can say that medicine is a profession that epitomizes societal issues with privilege, race, and gender.... and we need to work on how to improve that and be more fair to everyone.

That being said I now have no idea how to calculate the CrCl of a trans patient, have no way of quickly communicating someone's hypersensitivity reaction to vanco and have no idea if I should use ACE/ARBs first for treating black patient's HTN...
This is not what I would call progress....
AMA doesn't care about any of those. Their priority is on rewriting the language which they think is the easiest thing to do.
 
Moderator note:
Emotions are running high. Here's a picture of a cat to cool things down.
33326dcddbf15c56d631e374b62338dc.jpg

Let's keep the discussion civil and on-topic. It's possible to disagree without being disagreeable. Thank you.
 
Moderator note:
Emotions are running high. Here's a picture of a cat to cool things down.
33326dcddbf15c56d631e374b62338dc.jpg

Let's keep the discussion civil and on-topic. It's possible to disagree without being disagreeable. Thank you.
This is not a fruitful discussion. Honestly toxic and going nowhere. Surely everyone's time here is worth more, both financially and figuratively, than this crap.
 
Oh gosh. If they only knew how people really talk about others and their pathologies in indirect interactions.

I mean, we often call mitral valve vegetations “dingleberries” as a straight up afront to dingleberries the world over. And don’t get me started on “golden weekends”, the worst of the precious metals mind you.
 
Some of my posts got removed for "being political" but come on. These are directly from the document:


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You could craft a reddit commie manifesto with excerpts from these screencaps alone. They aren't just saying "hey be respectful to patients." They quote and use definitions according to self-identified Marxists. They don't just tell you how you should speak and what you should do, in the 2nd section "why narratives matter" they tell how you should think. It's all a backdrop for what they're too afraid to outright say.

The condescension in this is also particularly astounding. I don't need "diversity" or "gay" or "lesbian" defined for me, AMA. The authors all deserve the gulag.
 
Some of my posts got removed for "being political" but come on. These are directly from the document:


View attachment 345780View attachment 345779View attachment 345778

View attachment 345775View attachment 345777View attachment 345776


You could craft a reddit commie manifesto with excerpts from these screencaps alone. They aren't just saying "hey be respectful to patients." They quote and use definitions according to self-identified Marxists. They don't just tell you how you should speak and what you should do, in the 2nd section "why narratives matter" they tell how you should think. It's all a backdrop for what they're too afraid to outright say.

The condescension in this is also particularly astounding. I don't need "diversity" or "gay" or "lesbian" defined for me, AMA. The authors all deserve the gulag.
The document is incredibly political. It reads like a sloppy version of Marx's manifesto. If the document strictly focused on how to improve patient interactions, it wouldn't be this bad. It'd still be irritating regardless because the AMA is a completely hypocritical organization that doesn't give a crap about physicians or med students other than insincerely virtue signaling, and the AMA telling anyone what to do is a problem in itself for reasons stated earlier
 
Some of my posts got removed for "being political"
So to be clear, there was a subset of posts which were clearly political, ie directly bashing on political party by name, and those were deleted. We also removed a few posts which quoted the explicitly political posts. I believe a few of your posts were deleted because they were quoting the political posts, and sort of didn't make sense out of context.

It's totally fine to discuss this document, but as a general message to everyone we don't allow explicitly political posts in the med student forums.
 
Some of my posts got removed for "being political" but come on. These are directly from the document:


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You could craft a reddit commie manifesto with excerpts from these screencaps alone. They aren't just saying "hey be respectful to patients." They quote and use definitions according to self-identified Marxists. They don't just tell you how you should speak and what you should do, in the 2nd section "why narratives matter" they tell how you should think. It's all a backdrop for what they're too afraid to outright say.

The condescension in this is also particularly astounding. I don't need "diversity" or "gay" or "lesbian" defined for me, AMA. The authors all deserve the gulag.
Lol most of this makes sense to me. Seems like people just don't like the abuses of unbridled capitalism being challenged and discussed.

Hard to support this system and strive to maximize health, and seek to diminish differences in healthcare outcomes due solely to economic factors.
 
Lol most of this makes sense to me. Seems like people just don't like the abuses of unbridled capitalism being challenged and discussed.

Hard to support this system and strive to maximize health, and seek to diminish differences in healthcare outcomes due solely to economic factors.
Except why is the AMA the one to challenge this? That's coming across as hypocritical unless the organization explicitly calls for an end to legacy admissions and points out the problem of med school class sizes being largely of upper class backgrounds
 
Lol most of this makes sense to me. Seems like people just don't like the abuses of unbridled capitalism being challenged and discussed.

Hard to support this system and strive to maximize health, and seek to diminish differences in healthcare outcomes due solely to economic factors.

Socialist countries sure have a great track record of health and longevity.
 
Except why is the AMA the one to challenge this? That's coming across as hypocritical unless the organization explicitly calls for an end to legacy admissions and points out the problem of med school class sizes being largely of upper class backgrounds
Eh. Talking the talk without walking the walk is a favored tactic amongst most of the large organizations. Actual change especially regarding entrenched hierarchies is hard. Placating or pretending or lip service is common.
 
How dare anyone post direct quotes from the document in question

It would be better if you just assimilated peacefully with the Borg and didn’t bother thinking for yourself
 
Some of my posts got removed for "being political" but come on. These are directly from the document:


View attachment 345780View attachment 345779View attachment 345778

View attachment 345775View attachment 345777View attachment 345776


You could craft a reddit commie manifesto with excerpts from these screencaps alone. They aren't just saying "hey be respectful to patients." They quote and use definitions according to self-identified Marxists. They don't just tell you how you should speak and what you should do, in the 2nd section "why narratives matter" they tell how you should think. It's all a backdrop for what they're too afraid to outright say.

The condescension in this is also particularly astounding. I don't need "diversity" or "gay" or "lesbian" defined for me, AMA. The authors all deserve the gulag.
Yup; this was not written by clinicians.

The ONE caveat to all of this is that structural medicine is a valid thing to learn about. Racism does make POC literally sick. Just think of the field as an outgrowth of epidemiology.

But it's a lot easier to just say "poor people" as opposed to "people oppressed by the entrenched ruling classes blah blah blah."
 
What does the AMA suggest calling someone from India if Indian is inappropriate?
Why can't you say "of Indian descent" if it matters or skip it altogether until social history where you can write where they were born and/or still live?

It's racializing the words that didn't otherwise have a racial meaning. There's gray too, which doesn't have a clear racial equivalent. The idea behind this is just a gradient based on a grayscale. The key to reducing implicit bias is to learn to stop following through the stereotypes and treating people like individuals. There's a much bigger problem that needs to be addressed of subconsciously viewing a Black person as bad just by looking at them that imo has little to do with the ordinary uses of the words black and white and more to do with the long standing negative societal portrayal of Black people. That requires changes deeper than trying to redefine/replacing words

Some of these DO have racial underpinnings or are related to race relations. Blacklist was supposedly used during slavery to describe "suspicious people". Regardless, I see a lot of people up in arms on this thread over something that they even claim isn't a big deal and others who clearly can't grasp that just because it doesn't bother them, doesn't mean it shouldn't bother anyone. That's...curious.
 
But it's a lot easier to just say "poor people" as opposed to "people oppressed by the entrenched ruling classes blah blah blah."
Exactly.

I think this document/thread is making me feel really frustrated at the AMA. I get the discussions on mindful language and probably changed my mind over the blacklist/whitelist stuff over thinking about it more. But the AMA is looking like a massive hypocrite to me and that makes it really frustrating
 
Why can't you say "of Indian descent" if it matters or skip it altogether until social history where you can write where they were born and/or still live?



Some of these DO have racial underpinnings or are related to race relations. Blacklist was supposedly used during slavery to describe "suspicious people". Regardless, I see a lot of people up in arms on this thread over something that they even claim isn't a big deal and others who clearly can't grasp that just because it doesn't bother them, doesn't mean it shouldn't bother anyone. That's...curious.
Indians should by definition refer to people from India without any further explanation.

Ok if blacklist actually originated from slavery use, the term needs to be replaced. I was thinking in the grayscale notion of morality.
 
That's exactly my point

No it wasn't. You kept harping on about lack of racial meanings to these words when there actually are racial undertones.

And so it follows that the AMA should not exist. It can't even fulfill it's actual mission and yet it has the audacity to ask for money and blow up inboxes with this. If I wanted to read this type of stuff I would do so by reading the emails I get from my political donations which would be at least appropriate and using my money for what I donated it to achieve.

I mean, you do have the option not to read. But the AMA is allowed to send whatever it wants and this actually does support its mission, even if you found it irrelevant to your practice.

Reading this thread was infuriating because it was hook line and sinker arguing about stupid stuff instead of recognizing we have a real problem here.

And for some, this is one of the real problems. I don't get why people can't see that. Words matter. Do you still use the F word to describe a gay male? Or the R word to describe someone with developmental delays? Or the N word? My guess is no, yet in recent history all of those words were commonly used and no one thought anything of it until we evolved as a society. And yes, there were people just like you and others here who had a fit because they didn't think it was important. Guess what? It was.
 
I've said this before on here. If you can't mentally take the trauma of hearing a word like "whitelist" then how can someone count on your to perform in healthcare in a moment of real life crisis?

BS. That's a lazy argument and one that completely minimizes and insults the people who legit have a problem with these words. No one is "traumatized" by whitelist. If that's what you took away from all this, then you just proved why the AMA document is necessary.

I think it’s fine to suggest that people use certain terms in professional contexts, but if the AMA started sanctioning members or something based on their non adherence to these recommendations, I would strongly object to that.

Has there been any hint of that? Has the AMA ever sanctioned members for these things? Has the AMA ever even sanctioned members? I'm not aware of them having any sort of power in that department.
 
No it wasn't. You kept harping on about lack of racial meanings to these words when there actually are racial undertones.



I mean, you do have the option not to read. But the AMA is allowed to send whatever it wants and this actually does support its mission, even if you found it irrelevant to your practice.



And for some, this is one of the real problems. I don't get why people can't see that. Words matter. Do you still use the F word to describe a gay male? Or the R word to describe someone with developmental delays? Or the N word? My guess is no, yet in recent history all of those words were commonly used and no one thought anything of it until we evolved as a society. And yes, there were people just like you and others here who had a fit because they didn't think it was important. Guess what? It was.
I know you're catching up and responding to old posts on first page of the thread but you missed the example i listed from the document i quoted earlier. I don't want to go in circles by revisiting 4 pages of discussion again so will just leave it at that
 
I know you're catching up and responding to old posts on first page of the thread but you missed the example i listed from the document i quoted earlier. I don't want to go in circles by revisiting 4 pages of discussion again so will just leave it at that

I read all pages before responding. Your post about that being your point was on page 1 and had nothing to do with your stated point. You even bolded the sentence you were referring to which was that the document would give commentators something to talk about. Your stated point, even as it evolved, centered around the words.
 
Because that's how they are defined. Just because Columbus came and got lost in the journey and miscategorized a group of people doesn't mean the original meaning needs to be replaced.

So language can't change? I don't really have a problem with calling people by where they're from, but my respons ewas to your question "how else would I refer to them?" and I feel like this is likely something that's pretty self-explanatory.
 
Table 5: Contrasting Conventional (Well-intentioned) Phrasing with Equity-focused Language that Acknowledges Root Causes of Inequities

Conventional:

For too many, prospects for good health are limited by where people live, how much money they make, or discrimination they face.

Revision:

Decisions by landowners and large corporations, increasingly centralizing political and financial power wielded by a few, limit prospects for good health and well-being for many groups.

That AMA document is starting to read like political propaganda.

I read all pages before responding. Your post about that being your point was on page 1 and had nothing to do with your stated point. You even bolded the sentence you were referring to which was that the document would give commentators something to talk about. Your stated point, even as it evolved, centered around the words.
See above
 
So language can't change? I don't really have a problem with calling people by where they're from, but my respons ewas to your question "how else would I refer to them?" and I feel like this is likely something that's pretty self-explanatory.
Because we're on the topic of language change, calling Native Americans as such (or also Indigenous Americans) improves the clarity while retaining the word Indian for people from India. The AMA made a right suggestion but incorrectly stated the word was stigmatizing.
 
And for some, this is one of the real problems. I don't get why people can't see that. Words matter. Do you still use the F word to describe a gay male? Or the R word to describe someone with developmental delays? Or the N word? My guess is no, yet in recent history all of those words were commonly used and no one thought anything of it until we evolved as a society. And yes, there were people just like you and others here who had a fit because they didn't think it was important. Guess what? It was.

Are you serious? You are comparing words like "blacklist" which doesn't have any recent racial connotation to the N-word and F-slur which are still actively used as insults?
 
Has there been any hint of that? Has the AMA ever sanctioned members for these things? Has the AMA ever even sanctioned members? I'm not aware of them having any sort of power in that department.
Most professional organizations will sanction members for failing to adhere to whatever they consider to be appropriate conduct based on their published standards, provided that they think the offense is serious enough. The APA will certainly do this, and it looks like the AMA will, too: CEJA rules for review of membership

But knowing the way that you’ve responded to similar issues in the past, I predict your retort will be that none of this is real because what the AMA calls sanctions aren’t really sanctions.
 
Most professional organizations will sanction members for failing to adhere to whatever they consider to be appropriate conduct based on their published standards, provided that they think the offense is serious enough. The APA will certainly do this, and it looks like the AMA will, too: CEJA rules for review of membership

But knowing the way that you’ve responded to similar issues in the past, I predict your retort will be that none of this is real because what the AMA calls sanctions aren’t really sanctions.
Wow my opinion of the AMA just got a lot worse.
 
No it wasn't. You kept harping on about lack of racial meanings to these words when there actually are racial undertones.



I mean, you do have the option not to read. But the AMA is allowed to send whatever it wants and this actually does support its mission, even if you found it irrelevant to your practice.



And for some, this is one of the real problems. I don't get why people can't see that. Words matter. Do you still use the F word to describe a gay male? Or the R word to describe someone with developmental delays? Or the N word? My guess is no, yet in recent history all of those words were commonly used and no one thought anything of it until we evolved as a society. And yes, there were people just like you and others here who had a fit because they didn't think it was important. Guess what? It was.
Sorry, I don't get my plumbing advice from my electrician and my electrical advice from my plumber. They should advocate for physicians against corporatization, increasing bureaucracy from insurance and government, and mid-levels yada yada yada. We are all more effective doing our jobs.

In the hospital, I don't expect Ortho to take care of medical problems. I expect them to fix msk problems. It's a bad use of their time and is best left to others. That doesn't mean I don't think diabetes is important because I don't think every doctor in the hospital needs to make a comment about a patient's diabetes. The things in that article can be "real problems" just like global warming is a real problem. Doesn't mean they AMA should be using finite resources to talk about it instead of more pertinent topics to the AMA. Me saying that I think the AMA should do their primary job (that they continue to ignore) doesn't mean that I'm minimizing racism or whatever you want to try to mischaracterize my position with today. I can agree with some aspects of the document (or their inspiration if nothing else for others) and still think it's dumb as hell and frustrating from a systems standpoint. But that's fine, call me a dirty racism minimizer or whatever without me even stating a political opinion lol. It's just not the correct channel.

Let Ortho fix the bones before doing extracurricular moonlighting on the IM wards. let the AMA advocate for physicians before going off on sociopolitical tangents. You don't get to do hobbies until you get off the clock at your day job.

Edit: And wow... Equating what I said to me "having a fit" that people got mad about cancelling the N word or R word? Really? You either misunderstand my position or mistated it on purpose. There are X number of groups advocating for racial and classist problems and Y number advocating for physicians. Y is a number approaching zero and X is large and rightfully growing larger. How about we let X organizations/parties do their job overall for all people so at least someone is left to do Y? Resources are finite. We aren't operating under a do both scenario apparently at the AMA. My position is that groups better trained and situated to deal with these sociopolitical issues should deal with them because that's a better and more efficient allocation of resources but go ahead and say that makes me a racist that wants to bring back the R word and that I stand in the way of progress because I think we don't have to behave like a cloud of 4 year old chasing a soccer ball every time a new hip thing to advocate for comes about.
 
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Most professional organizations will sanction members for failing to adhere to whatever they consider to be appropriate conduct based on their published standards, provided that they think the offense is serious enough. The APA will certainly do this, and it looks like the AMA will, too: CEJA rules for review of membership

But knowing the way that you’ve responded to similar issues in the past, I predict your retort will be that none of this is real because what the AMA calls sanctions aren’t really sanctions.
I mean, I fail to see the pearl clutching issue that an group of private optional group membership has at its disposal revoking membership, especially given the dim view many seem to take of membership in said group, and the fact that likely if you manage to piss off the AMA to that point likely you don't value membership in it that much to begin with
 
I mean, I fail to see the pearl clutching issue that an group of private optional group membership has at its disposal revoking membership, especially given the dim view many seem to take of membership in said group, and the fact that likely if you manage to piss off the AMA to that point likely you don't value membership in it that much to begin with
Except that many, perhaps most, applications for a medical license ask about whether you have ever been sanctioned by a professional organization. So, being sanctioned by a professional organization can have implications for your ability to continue to practice.

Why do you think the link I provided has information about hearings and potential lawsuits? Do you think that physicians are attending disciplinary hearings and filing lawsuits because they are worried they’ll stop getting emailed the minutes from the latest meeting? No, they’re worried about the implications for their license.

As a reference, see the below example:

Georgia Medical License Application, Applicant Questionnaire, Item 11:

 
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