And apparently, it's so bad that it almost caused a race war in the Greenwood Mental Health Clinic today.
We were having our annual All Staff today, where ... well, all the staff in the seven county cachement area ... comes to the central clinic for a state of the clinic address, and the odd training here and there.
Our end of the day lecture: "Meth and Its Effects On The Community"
We got to the part about user demographics, which followed the "physical effects of meth" information - the rotten teeth, the picked-to-the-bone lesions on the skin (from the bugs under the skin sensation), the hair falling out, the tweaking that sometimes involves pulling hair out, all that.
The demographics info started thusly:
"The majority of meth users are white. The black population hasn't gotten involved in the use and distribution of meth. Not a lot of information is out there that explains this -"
A black female blurts out, "That's 'cause we don't want to look all messed up when we're getting high." (Yes, this is a mental health professional.)
An older white guy responds, "Yeah, that's why you people have crack." (Yes, this is a mental health professional.)
And the rest of this discussion went this way:
"'You people?!'"
"Well, yeah, you black people. Don't you use crack?"
Another black individual, a male: "I'm black, and I don't use crack."
Another black female: "Me either ... does that mean I'm one of 'you people.'"
Different white guy, friend of the first: "You mean, white people? I don't think that's possible."
First black female responds with some kind of response about how white people think that they're better than black people. Which in turn causes dissension amongst the white people. The clinic director had to call a 10 minute break that quickly turned into a 20 minute break.
I expect a mass email on Monday that we're going to have a required Cultural Competency training before the month's out.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Meth is bad, mmkay?
3 comments:
That's hilarious.
"You mean, white people? I don't think that's possible."
Seriously, though. The racial demographics of drug use is probably largely irrelevant, but the response "we don't want to look all messed up when we're getting high" is as ignorant as you can possibly get. But, a professional doesn't bother bringing up the "crack" point even though it has clearly escaped the first speaker entirely. You just let it hang in the air, quietly ironic. And then "I'm black, and I don't use crack" guy should know better than to get even deeper into the stereotyping debate with that response. Not to mention indignance at the phrase "you people" has become as stale and tired as old white people.
I hope you were laughing loudly at them.
That's incredible. Absolutely incredible.
When you have to go to DiVersity training, let me know. The DiVersity regimen at Office Ghetto was outstanding.
I did have to chuckle quite heartily, in between shocked, wide-eyed reactions directed at my supervisor.
But, I have (well, had) a co-worker - a black nurse - who used to always tell me that, if I wasn't social enough for her, would say, "you don't feel like hanging around the coloreds today?" When I was leaving for the new clinic, she told me that I was transferring because I "don't like working with a colored woman as my supervisor" (since my former supervisor was a black woman, and my new supervisor is a white guy).
Maybe we all do need cultural competency after all.
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