Daily Life

Black women share selfies to show #WhatADoctorLooksLike, after flight attendant refuses help in an emergency

It's a situation nobody wants to find themselves facing on board a plane: A mid-air emergency with a passenger unresponsive, his wife screaming for help.

And then when help is offered, it's declined by a flight attendant who assumes the person with their hand up couldn't be a "real physician".

According to Tamika Cross, an obstetrician/gynaecologist who says her help was refused on board a Delta flight last week, it was because a flight attendant didn't believe she, a black woman, could be a real doctor.

Her story has not only gone viral, it has sparked a hashtag aimed at smashing racist, sexist stereotypes and assumptions about who can be a doctor.

In a Facebook post that has been shared almost 50,000 times, Cross said the flight attendant told her: "Oh no sweetie put ur hand down, we are looking for actual physicians or nurses or some type of medical personnel, we don't have time to talk to you".

"I tried to inform her that I was a physician but I was continually cut off by condescending remarks," she wrote. Eventually an older white male approached, Cross said, and his help was accepted.

Advertisement

"Another 'seasoned' white male approaches the row and says he is a physician as well. She says to me 'thanks for your help but he can help us, and he has his credentials'. (Mind you he hasn't shown anything to her. Just showed up and fit the 'description of a doctor') I stay seated. Mind blown. Blood boiling."

The story clearly touched a nerve with women of colour in the medical community, prompting the hashtag #WhatADoctorLooksLike to remind folks that being a doctor in 2016 doesn't mean being a white man.

It's not the first movement from women in the medical community using a hashtag to counter stereotypes about who can be a doctor. Last year, the hashtag #ILookLikeASurgeon took off to fight back against assumptions that women in hospitals are always nurses, and raise awareness of sexual harassment and discrimination women face in the male-dominated industry.

Likewise, the hashtag #ThisIsWhatWeLookLike also launched last year by two friends – a philosopher and an anaesthesiologist – who were frustrated with constantly being "confused for students, nurses, or other support staff, every day".

It seems that even in 2016, women, and especially women of colour, still have a way to go before the general public is comfortable with recognising their worth as professionals – particularly in male-dominated fields like medicine.