Father Makes Charming Request Of Neonatal Hospital Staff: Don’t Let African Americans Care For My Newborn

Here is some super offensive racism to start your Friday morning off. A nurse in Flint, Michigan is accusing Hurley Medical Center of race discrimination and is seeking damages. Last October a nurse, who had worked at the hospital for 25 years, was caring for a newborn baby in the neonatal intensive care unit. Now, one would think that if your baby needs intensive care, you would want a nurse with a lot of experience, and 25 years seems like a long time, and one would also assume that a nurse that had worked for that long knew what she was doing and was probably quite good at her job. If I had a baby who needed special care I would be so thankful my child was being cared for by someone with a lot of experience. But nooo, this new father wasn’t happy with that, because the nurse caring for his child happened to be an African American, so this lovely new father made a special request to the hospital staff: “No African America Nurses To Take Care Of Baby.”

So the hospital put a nice big note on the baby’s medical chart stating this.

Yeah, in America, in the year 2013.

When the nurse, and presumably others, complained about this happy little notice the hospital removed the sign, but never assigned any other nurses of color to care for the baby.

From The Daily Mail:

A Michigan nurse is suing the hospital she works for after she was allegedly  barred from caring for a child because of her skin color. 

The nurse, Tonya Battle, claims that she was caring for a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit of Hurley Medical Center when the baby’s father asked to speak with a supervisor.

‘The father told the [nurse in charge] that he did not want and African Americans taking care of his baby,’ the lawsuit states.

During the exchange, the man allegedly pulled up his sleeve and revealed a tattoo believed to be a Swastika, according to the lawsuit. 

The baby was immediately reassigned to another nurse.

The worst part about this story is that this baby actually has to go home and be raised by this Racist McRacist asshole father. If I try super hard and try and think what was going on in this jerk’s head when he made this request I can’t even begin to fathom it, I mean, your new baby is in the NICU and instead of being all worried and concerned about the heath of your child you are instead focusing on whatever racist nonsense you have curdling in your brain. Ugh. It’s even worse that the hospital met his demands. Couldn’t a senior staff member just take the creep aside and explain very slowly to him that they don’t adhere to the KKK Manual Of Child Care?

The hospital refused to comment on the lawsuit and the nurse is still employed at the hospital. No word on whether the new baby received any tiny white bed sheets and pillowcase hoods at his baby shower.

(photo:  Everett Collection/shutterstock)