# Should nursing homes honor patients' racist requests? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 26, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586 "2010-08-26T20:56:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/61 "2010-08-27T18:47:54Z")
> [@godix](#): > > Nor do you have to happily pronounce you love a story of someone experiencing mental trauma to be a tolerant person. So I’m wondering how taking joy in others suffering is tolerance because I honestly don’t understand how being gleeful at others agony is tolerance. So I ask you, yet again, explain to me how celebrating another persons pain, as you did, is tolerance. > > and that’s the last post before my lunch is over so… Their only “suffering” is entirely self inflicted and stems from their own moral failings. Their “agony” at being forced to watch a person of color performing a needed service for them is without rational basis. Calling a racist person’s hatred of someone else “pain” or “suffering” or “agony” is not justified. It is hatred, and should simply be treated as such. The only person who has a justifiable right to be uncomfortable in this situation is the poor cleaning lady who is in a situation where she is cleaning for someone who clearly hates her based only on the color of her skin. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/62 "2010-08-27T19:41:02Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > My knee-jerk reaction is that this isn’t discrimination at all. The government, landlords, and some businesses aren’t allowed to discriminate. Customers can. (Note to self: leave instructions to only be touched by female nurses under 30.) In this case, the nurse did not lose her job, did not have any sort of effect on her job, nor was her earning ability harmed in any way. I’m rather surprised the court ruled in her favor. The hospital would get in trouble if it changed hiring practices to reflect patient preferences. > > But, the court _did_ rule in her favor. Therefore, it is by definition discrimination. I wonder if they will force people to eat at restaurants where they don’t like the food. Personally, I don’t like Mandarin-style Chinese food, so I avoid those restaurants. Am I discriminating? I was wondering where the harm was, too. And then I found the actual court decision which has information that wasn’t in any of the articles, including the fact that Chaney hasn’t actually won her case yet, ( the district court’s granting of summary judgement to the nursing home was overturned and the case is remanded for further proceedings ), that Chaney was in fact fired and she claims that it was for racially motivated reasons, and that Chaney claimed that the patient preference policy created a hostile work environment including racial comments made by coworkers. [http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?submit=rss\_sho&shofile=09-3661\_002.pdf](http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?submit=rss_sho&shofile=09-3661_002.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/63 "2010-08-27T20:03:14Z")
I’ve had experience with something similar. I used to drive a van to transport wheelchair clients, including a lot of folks in nursing homes. Sometimes the clients or families would ask the company not to send black drivers. The requests were met with a blanket refusal, not just because of the discriminatory aspect, but because there was no way they could rearrange the schedule to guarantee anybody a white driver, or a driver of any specific color. In order to get the work done, and remain profitable, they had to schedule trips with the available drivers on shift. I suspect that there’s no way to consistently schedule staff at most nursing homes to guarantee no black staff caring for particular clients. I just don’t think it’s practical. Someone calls in sick, takes vacation, quits on short notice, has an on the job injury. When you have to staff, you staff with whom you have available. If you can find me a mid range nursing home in the lowland south that doesn’t have a substantially black staff, well, I’ll take my hat off to you, because it won’t be easy. As the owner or manager of such a facility, I’d just refuse any such requests. It’s hard enough to keep fully staffed and provide quality care as it is. Why add on irrelevant extras that might get you sued? ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/64 "2010-08-28T00:20:50Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > > [@Superhal](#): > > > > My knee-jerk reaction is that this isn’t discrimination at all. The government, landlords, and some businesses aren’t allowed to discriminate. Customers can. (Note to self: leave instructions to only be touched by female nurses under 30.) In this case, the nurse did not lose her job, did not have any sort of effect on her job, nor was her earning ability harmed in any way. I’m rather surprised the court ruled in her favor. The hospital would get in trouble if it changed hiring practices to reflect patient preferences. > > > > But, the court _did_ rule in her favor. Therefore, it is by definition discrimination. I wonder if they will force people to eat at restaurants where they don’t like the food. Personally, I don’t like Mandarin-style Chinese food, so I avoid those restaurants. Am I discriminating? > > I was wondering where the harm was, too. And then I found the actual court decision which has information that wasn’t in any of the articles, including the fact that Chaney hasn’t actually won her case yet, ( the district court’s granting of summary judgement to the nursing home was overturned and the case is remanded for further proceedings ), that Chaney was in fact fired and she claims that it was for racially motivated reasons, and that Chaney claimed that the patient preference policy created a hostile work environment including racial comments made by coworkers. > > [http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?submit=rss\_sho&shofile=09-3661\_002.pdf](http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?submit=rss_sho&shofile=09-3661_002.pdf) That makes a lot more sense. In this case, the business certainly discriminated against a worker because of race. I wouldn’t think the law is applied if a customer/patient displayed racism, or, at the very minimum, it would be a civil suit not a civil rights suit. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/65 "2010-08-28T00:31:31Z")
> [@godix](#): > > I think it’s a question of who did the discriminating here. Was it the workplaces idea to limit what black employees could do, or was it the end user of their service? If it originated from the workplace, then it is clearly discrimination. If it originated from the customer, well, people are free to pick who provides them services on whatever criteria they want. > > This case is in a gray area since the company was acting on behalf of the customers wishes. Still, ethically speaking, I believe since the discrimination originated with the customer then the company shouldn’t be found at fault. It wasn’t the companies idea, and the company didn’t go overboard by, for example, prohibiting blacks from working at that location entirely. > > It also brings to mind a question, if the old woman had said she doesn’t want Brenda Chaney specifically to assist her rather than the broader she doesn’t want blacks to assist her, would the company be discriminatory to honor that request? What if the request was made for the sole reason that Brenda was black? What if the old woman was fine with blacks but thought Brenda was just a bad nurse? Does the customers reasons matter or is the simple fact the request was made all that’s important? You do know that some of your hypotheticals aren’t racism and some are right? Even so, if I don’t like a mechanic at my dealership, I can ask to have someone else work on my car or I can take it somewhere else. If I say I don’t want any niggers touching my car and they say OK we will have this white guy over here fix your car. Is that OK? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/66 "2010-08-28T00:33:10Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > [@jtgain](#): > > > > I don’t understand this at all? If we accommodate patients for this, then why not allow me to specify that I only want a white clerk to wait on me at the DMV? > > Well, you don’t live at the DMV. The DMV is not responsible for your day-to-day medical care. And though the lines at the DMV can be long, they’re not (usually) long enough for you to start sliding into senile dementia while waiting your turn. > > I don’t like it, either, but I have to figure this is akin to treating mental patients with odd obsessions and aversions (in some cases, it’s probably _exactly_ like treating mental patients with odd obsessions and aversions). No amount of court rulings can make them comply, and I’m unclear on how much compliance the employer alone can give. So racism is a mental disease? Can we put them in asylums? The burden on the state would be enormous unless these mental asylums also ran coal mines. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/67 "2010-08-28T00:37:08Z")
> [@godix](#): > > This case is in a gray area since the company was acting on behalf of the customers wishes. Still, ethically speaking, I believe since the discrimination originated with the customer then the company shouldn’t be found at fault. It wasn’t the companies idea, and the company didn’t go overboard by, for example, prohibiting blacks from working at that location entirely. No, the case where the company pleads that they were merely implementing the racist preferences of their customers—which is the fact pattern here—has been roundly rejected as a defense to the creation of a hostile work environment. The policy of the law is to discourage and disincentivize racial discrimination. And you are right, we cannot legislate individual feelings. But we can, do, and in my opinion should, have legislation that forbids all businesses from indulging racist preferences and to the greatest extent possible, extirpate such “product features” (lily-white staff, Jew-free country club) from the marketplace. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/68 "2010-08-28T00:59:20Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > > Well, you don’t live at the DMV. The DMV is not responsible for your day-to-day medical care. And though the lines at the DMV can be long, they’re not (usually) long enough for you to start sliding into senile dementia while waiting your turn. > > > > I don’t like it, either, but I have to figure this is akin to treating mental patients with odd obsessions and aversions (in some cases, it’s probably _exactly_ like treating mental patients with odd obsessions and aversions). No amount of court rulings can make them comply, and I’m unclear on how much compliance the employer alone can give. > > So racism is a mental disease? Can we put them in asylums? The burden on the state would be enormous unless these mental asylums also ran coal mines. I’m going to assume this was meant as a joke. No, racism is not a mental disease, but obsessions to the point of extreme agitation can be symptoms of mental diseases. It’s not the sour old bigot that kvetches about the darkies that I’m concerned about, but the Alzheimer’s-afflicted senior who experiences genuine (if groundless) terror if tended by a person they perceive as a threat. I don’t see the value in antagonizing them just to prove a point about racial equality. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/69 "2010-08-28T01:05:44Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Actually, it affects more than the one nurse assigned her care, and it’s not just her \*feelings \*that may be hurt, it’s other patients’ care. > > Accommodating one patient’s whims (whether they be for race or gender) affects everyone on the unit, as schedules have to be written to accommodate the patient. Sick calls are a nightmare…if your only right-color nurse on shift gets sick and can’t work her shift, she has a far smaller pool of co-workers to call to get coverage. Vacations, likewise - must the right color nurse plan her vacation time around when another right-colored nurse is available? What about temporary shortages - must the Agency nurses be screened for race? How do you deal with understaffing - should Nancy have to care for 12 patients today because she’s the only white nurse on shift? Overloading one nurse means all her patients don’t get the care and attention they need. Housekeeping, respiratory, patient transport, LPN/CNA/PCTs, clergy…even in a nursing home vs a hospital, there are a lot of people providing care, any of whom may be called to lay hands on the patient in the normal course of the day, not to mention an emergency. Are you going to make sure the entire Code Team is the right color in case of respiratory arrest? What if the right color for Room 301 is a different right color than that of Room 303? Do you double or triple staff every position? > > Frankly, the nightmare scheduling, financial and legal scenarios presented by \*officially \*accommodating racist patients are probably the biggest reason why nursing homes and hospitals have quietly and unofficially attempted to accommodate them in the past. It’s far easier to informally say, “OK, Nancy, you’ve got Mrs. Jones again today,” than it is to formally ensure that a patient’s racial preference will be met at all time. That’s why I think nurses and nurse’s aides should all wear burkahs. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/70 "2010-08-28T01:40:54Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > No, racism is not a mental disease, but obsessions to the point of extreme agitation can be symptoms of mental diseases. It’s not the sour old bigot that kvetches about the darkies that I’m concerned about, but the Alzheimer’s-afflicted senior who experiences genuine (if groundless) terror if tended by a person they perceive as a threat. I don’t see the value in antagonizing them just to prove a point about racial equality. However, if the business panders to the racist by firing black staff workers, and if the business institutes a racist patient preference policy to the extent that they create a hostile work environment which includes racial comments made by coworkers( as has been claimed in the lawsuit)… Then perhaps the business should be taken to task for improper practices, or perhaps they should seriously consider telling racist clients to shut the hell up or find a new home. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/71 "2010-08-28T01:49:24Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Then perhaps the business should be taken to task for improper practices, or perhaps they should seriously consider telling racist clients to shut the hell up or find a new home. I think this is what has been missing from this discussion so far: businesses should not give in to the demands of a racist customer. If the existing policy (all patient demands will be accommodated), no matter how innocent it seems, is used to support a racist demand, then the policy must be changed. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/72 "2010-08-28T02:04:48Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > It’s not the sour old bigot that kvetches about the darkies that I’m concerned about, but the Alzheimer’s-afflicted senior who experiences genuine (if groundless) terror if tended by a person they perceive as a threat. I don’t see the value in antagonizing them just to prove a point about racial equality. You keep saying this as though the racist individual is operating in a vaccuum. The choice is not, “Do we try to teach this racist a lesson, or do we pander to him?” The choice is, “Do we pander to this racist, or do we protect our employees – who, coincidentally, also have feelings and what not – and refuse to create an absurd working environment for the sake of someone’s paranoia?” If catering to a racist request had no impact on anyone, you _might_ have an argument (leaving the morality of such a decision aside). But, as been pointed out in this thread, such a policy has a potentially negative impact on the employees, from a personal standpoint, as well as the business’s operations and bottom line. If someone is going to end up upset/hurt/angry either way, my vote remains for the racist. ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/73 "2010-08-28T02:08:49Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > [@Laudenum](#): > > > > Anecdote: > > My grandmother was a lovely woman, and an utter racist. My mum tried to get her a cleaner, and got her a Philipeno woman. > > My Granny spent almost the entire time the woman was in the house with a death-grip on her chair, sitting bolt upright and trembling. > > > > She. was. terrified. > > > > For over an hour my Granny experienced more stress then she had in the previous year. She ended up following the woman from room-to-room to keep an eye on her, and was almost in tears by the end. > > Sounds like utter racist Granny got her just deserts. I love it. Stressed and terrified just because someone of a different skin color was hired to clean her house? Sounds like her racist attitudes were mollycoddled for her whole life - about damn time she was forced to face reality. > > Just because you’re old, you should not get a pass on behaving in a civilized manner. I have little sympathy for racists who think they should be able to do whatever they like just because they’ve taken up space on the planet for more years than most. They’re “set in their ways”? Tough. Life is not fair - suck it up. Keep in mind that Ireland was pretty much the whitest country in the world until the last two decades or so - I never asked my Granny when she met her first black person, but she was probably mid-50 to 60s (I think I was 12/13 when I met mine). And while Ireland always had a small Chinese community, she had probably never met a Philipeno in her life before that moment. So her racist tendencies were not mollycoddled all her life - there was never a reason to face them. It is kinda hard to explain to an American, but for someone of her generation someone like that would have looked completely different from the norm. When the only interaction you have had with black people is helping raise money to feed the starving ‘little black babies’ until you are already considered old, when you remember a time before cars or even electricity, when you remember that walking down the street _every single face was white and that was the way the world was_ because black people lived in Africa, then being pawed by a big black nurse can scare the life out of you. Don’t get me wrong, I worked in a hospital and most of the older patients got accustomed very quickly to foreign nurses (I got a few funny moments from them) but there were always a (rare) few who, at the age of eighty with their body failing, could not get used to having black nurses touch them or wash them, and trembled when they tried. Normally the nurse did the decent thing and waited for another nurse whom the patient would trust. Old people often genuinely have trouble adapting to new realities - not every old person can be a cool hip granny. My Granny gave me money when I was 17 “to bring a girl to the dance”:rolleyes:. When my mother tried to set her up with a widower we knew, not romantically but just so they could keep each other company, she refused to even go for a walk with him because she was afraid of what the neighbours would think - she couldn’t grasp that all anyone would want these days was for her not to be lonely on her own. It caused her real stress to have that strange woman in her home, a woman whose face she couldn’t read and whom she didn’t know how to talk to due to the culture barrier. It doesn’t matter that you may not have liked her opinions or prejudices, she was a lovely woman, a good person, and a good friend to those around her; she would not have deserved to have her life shortened by the stress caused by the unwanted touching of someone she didn’t trust. Please don’t take pleasure in the fear of an old lady who has since died. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/74 "2010-08-28T02:10:17Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > However, if the business panders to the racist by firing black staff workers, and if the business institutes a racist patient preference policy to the extent that they create a hostile work environment which includes racial comments made by coworkers( as has been claimed in the lawsuit)… That only came to light after doreen’s follow-up research in post #62. I agree that Chaney has a case on those grounds. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/75 "2010-08-28T02:18:32Z")
Let me get this straight… Your granny had never met a Filipino person in her life before the moment that one was hired to clean her house… Yet her reaction was to “follow the woman from room to room to keep an eye on her”. It would seem that she had a negative opinion about Filipino’s even though she’s never met one. Is this the reaction of a person who is frightened? She had stress from “unwanted touching?” When did the cleaning lady touch her? She didn’t like the cleaning ladies face? Perhaps your lovely Grandma could have simply not followed the cleaning lady around then. And when was she “pawed by a big black nurse”? In fact, when was anyone “pawed by a big black nurse”? Was this in the OP? No? What’s that about? Do nurses usually “paw” people? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/76 "2010-08-28T02:32:32Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Let me get this straight… > > Your granny had never met a Filipino person in her life before the moment that one was hired to clean her house… Yet her reaction was to “follow the woman from room to room to keep an eye on her”. > > It would seem that she had a negative opinion about Filipino’s even though she’s never met one. Is this the reaction of a person who is frightened? She had stress from “unwanted touching?” When did the cleaning lady touch her? She didn’t like the cleaning ladies face? Perhaps your lovely Grandma could have simply not followed the cleaning lady around then. Yeah, crazy people should just snap out of it! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/77 "2010-08-28T02:38:03Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > Keep in mind that Ireland was pretty much the whitest country in the world until the last two decades or so - I never asked my Granny when she met her first black person, but she was probably mid-50 to 60s (I think I was 12/13 when I met mine). Was your grandmother unfamiliar with the [only worthwhile Irish cultural export in her lifetime](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_Lizzy)? > [@](#): > > And while Ireland always had a small Chinese community, she had probably never met a Philipeno in her life before that moment. Then how the fuck did she know the difference? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/78 "2010-08-28T05:19:05Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Yeah, crazy people should just snap out of it! Sorry, the description did not strike me as a person with mental illness. Perhaps xenophobia could be excused, but that would be a simple fear of strangers. Following someone from room to room to “keep an eye on her” does not sound like fear to me - it sounds like she thought that all Fillipinos were thieves. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/79 "2010-08-28T05:29:55Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > > Yeah, crazy people should just snap out of it! > > Sorry, the description did not strike me as a person with mental illness. Perhaps xenophobia could be excused, but that would be a simple fear of strangers. Following someone from room to room to “keep an eye on her” does not sound like fear to me - it sounds like she thought that all Fillipinos were thieves. But the anecdote also describes the grandmother as “terrified” and “almost in tears”. I’m not claiming and have never claimed the reaction was justifiable, but I don’t see this kind of accommodation as an upending of decades of civil-rights advancements, either. In fact, the kinds of impatience I’m seeing in this thread seems perfectly akin to demanding that crazy people could get over it, if they really wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586/80 "2010-08-28T05:41:00Z")
Let’s say someone with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia has genuine terror when placed in the presence of a black person. OK. Let’s say we have enough white nursing staff to accomodate this person. However, what do we do with all the black patients that live on the ward? Do we have to create some kind of buffer around that terrorized demented person–a black-free zone of sorts? How practical is this? And do the doctors, some of whom might be black or black-looking (like Indians) have to stay away from this patient too? I say we treat them as decently as we can, without going overboard. That means if we can get a white nurse without inconveniencing everyone else, give them the white nurse. It also means that if the white nurse isn’t available, then they can’t complain if they’re left in a dirty diaper for an extra twenty minutes. Maybe that’ll learn 'em. But how can you reason with a demented person? It doesn’t work that way. All I can say is that I’m glad I’m not in a situation where I’d be affected by this. Because it would suck to be the nurse of the “wrong” color, and it would also suck for the “right” color nurse. What if she’s one of a few on her floor? She might have more work to do than the other nurses, and that’s not fair. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-nursing-homes-honor-patients-racist-requests/551586.md?page=5)