Delighted, I am, to see a show to so definitively take a stance to help educate, especially it seems, hoping to catch at least some of the privileged masses that are still under-informed and lack understanding as a result of their own privilege and choices, while also providing engaging personal stories and the juxtaposition of the variety of humanity, interests, talents, education, etc, that we humans have, to appreciate it as drama too.
Here in this episode is a bit more again outlined, on the spectrum of what race-based discrimination includes and how it affects its targets in specific settings and fact situations, for the previously unaware that might now be ready to hear it. That too many, as evidenced well by some existing ratings and comments, apparently remain ignorant of and head-in-sand about such issues and dismissing this as valid subject matter, simply also dismiss all their fellow humans' needs, welfare and quality of life subjected to various forms of (not only race-based) systemic discrimination. And that, to me, is deplorable, and a shame on them.
Notwithstanding portraying social-justice-raising awareness scenarios, how could you possibly not easily relate to the birth stories in this episode, at the critical and usually - but not always - joyful time of new life emerging? Babies and new life are what make us smile unreservedly, usually! Or, how could you not laud the continuing, sometimes faltering steps at New Amsterdam where even with goodwill and positive intentions, as shown well in this TV series, real life intervenes, human error happens. This show reminds us of how complex and challenging it is for even the best-intentioned persons of 'all stripes' to overcome generations of being ingrained to remain ignorant and wilfully blinded to race-based inequities, and to thus also ignore associated problematic control and domination behaviours, and things like the lack of appropriateness to many datasets currently deployed to justify human-rights-defying policies, and coercion and control in institutional settings.
This episode will therefore especially appeal to anyone with at least some little conscience, who has paid attention to #BlackLivesMatter issues and news even peripherally, and has heard of this week's murder conviction of Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd. I expect the show's creators could not have anticipated the episode's broadcast timing coinciding as it has, but lends emphasis to the import of the global messages in this engaging, thought-provoking plot. It's no real spoiler to say it contains, in welcome fashion, a spelling-out of how too man Black women and women of colour, even highly educated ones, can have little or no voice, are silenced, when it comes to the assumptions made that effectively mean disrespecting and disregarding her autonomy and agency to decide what she is willing to risk for herself and her fetus. That ending the wilful blindness and discrimination is needed now ... and not just in a weekly drama on TV, but in the real world for millions, is emphasized nicely, I would say, by this coincidence in timing.
This episode reveals that patient co-decision-making and autonomy can be actively prevented or dismissed by hospital and medical personnel using the excuse of flawed metrics and 'tools' that there is only the most highly interventionist way to go, no matter a mother's viewpoint and wishes and that skin colour s always a negative determinant. It also demonstrates the courage it can take to effect change, and I am grateful that the show tackled this theme, this week, even as imperfectly as a TV is in a 43-minute portrayal.
Well acted, engaging with heartfelt portrayal of several birth stories, and helping viewers understand and hopefully want to also contribute to elimination of racism, even if just by beginning to acknowledge the discrimination and challenges portrayed are real, allows me to rate the episode as one of their best yet. Kudos!
Here in this episode is a bit more again outlined, on the spectrum of what race-based discrimination includes and how it affects its targets in specific settings and fact situations, for the previously unaware that might now be ready to hear it. That too many, as evidenced well by some existing ratings and comments, apparently remain ignorant of and head-in-sand about such issues and dismissing this as valid subject matter, simply also dismiss all their fellow humans' needs, welfare and quality of life subjected to various forms of (not only race-based) systemic discrimination. And that, to me, is deplorable, and a shame on them.
Notwithstanding portraying social-justice-raising awareness scenarios, how could you possibly not easily relate to the birth stories in this episode, at the critical and usually - but not always - joyful time of new life emerging? Babies and new life are what make us smile unreservedly, usually! Or, how could you not laud the continuing, sometimes faltering steps at New Amsterdam where even with goodwill and positive intentions, as shown well in this TV series, real life intervenes, human error happens. This show reminds us of how complex and challenging it is for even the best-intentioned persons of 'all stripes' to overcome generations of being ingrained to remain ignorant and wilfully blinded to race-based inequities, and to thus also ignore associated problematic control and domination behaviours, and things like the lack of appropriateness to many datasets currently deployed to justify human-rights-defying policies, and coercion and control in institutional settings.
This episode will therefore especially appeal to anyone with at least some little conscience, who has paid attention to #BlackLivesMatter issues and news even peripherally, and has heard of this week's murder conviction of Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd. I expect the show's creators could not have anticipated the episode's broadcast timing coinciding as it has, but lends emphasis to the import of the global messages in this engaging, thought-provoking plot. It's no real spoiler to say it contains, in welcome fashion, a spelling-out of how too man Black women and women of colour, even highly educated ones, can have little or no voice, are silenced, when it comes to the assumptions made that effectively mean disrespecting and disregarding her autonomy and agency to decide what she is willing to risk for herself and her fetus. That ending the wilful blindness and discrimination is needed now ... and not just in a weekly drama on TV, but in the real world for millions, is emphasized nicely, I would say, by this coincidence in timing.
This episode reveals that patient co-decision-making and autonomy can be actively prevented or dismissed by hospital and medical personnel using the excuse of flawed metrics and 'tools' that there is only the most highly interventionist way to go, no matter a mother's viewpoint and wishes and that skin colour s always a negative determinant. It also demonstrates the courage it can take to effect change, and I am grateful that the show tackled this theme, this week, even as imperfectly as a TV is in a 43-minute portrayal.
Well acted, engaging with heartfelt portrayal of several birth stories, and helping viewers understand and hopefully want to also contribute to elimination of racism, even if just by beginning to acknowledge the discrimination and challenges portrayed are real, allows me to rate the episode as one of their best yet. Kudos!
