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Married To Medicine star Dr. Jackie Walters is facing backlash after employing a stereotype about Black women in a resurfaced clip.
In the video, which was taken from a YouTube live broadcast from April 2020, Dr. Jackie claimed that Black women tend to exaggerate their health concerns and aren't always honest with their doctors.
“Sometimes as African American women, we’re a bit more dramatic and that you go to the doctor and you complain and you complain and you complain and you’re not taken seriously because you cry wolf the entire pregnancy,” Walters said. “As African American women, we want to also make sure you’re being serious with your doctor and not playing the game so I can take you off work. Because then, we see you 25 times in the pregnancy, it’s hard to believe that there’s a true problem when there’s a true problem.”
The comments came before Walters sat down with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this year to talk about racial disparities in health care, especially Black maternal mortality rates.
“In one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the United States of America, we have the highest rates of maternal mortality, that Black women in our country, in this era are three times more likely to die in connection with childbirth. I think it’s inexcusable,” Harris said. “We have been fighting for states to expand Medicaid coverage. We need all the states to sign on, and we need to let moms know that they’re actually entitled to Medicaid coverage for up to 12 months of postpartum care and that’s one of the things that we need to get the word out.”
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