According to AlterNet on Feb. 15, a racial discrimination lawsuit is brewing in Michigan, stemming from an African-American nurse being removed from caring for a baby at the father's request and only for the reason that she's black. You would think we've come a long way from this type of thing in 2013, but apparently not.
Tonya Battle, an experienced neo-natal nurse at the Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Mich. since 1988, says she was removed from her job because a parent requested that his daughter not be treated by any African-Americans. It wasn't just Battle; it was “any African-Americans.”
Allegedly, the father, who was sporting a tattoo of a swastika, told the nurse in charge that “he did not want any African-Americans taking care of his baby.”
"She [Battle] was shocked, offended and in disbelief that she was so egregiously discriminated against based on her race and re-assigned," the court documents read.
And while the case hasn't gone to court yet, the evidence is solid. Besides Battle being removed from the case, she later found a note in the infant’s chart that read, “No African-American nurse to take care of baby.”
The baby was in the hospital for a month. No nurse of color was ever allowed to take care of her. The hospital now faces a lawsuit for complying with the father’s wishes.
So what do you think? Should the father’s wishes be respected to the detriment of a nurse with 25 years in her job? Is it the “customer is always right” or is this a gross miscarriage of everything we hold dear in this country? My vote goes to the latter answer.
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