Mike Lester for April 13, 2021

The not so hidden racism here: brown people are less qualified than white.

Actually, it does happen, but mostly people are asking for a doctor of their own gender or ethnicity. This is because those factors influence communication, understanding and trust in a deeply personal situation. People often feel that male doctors or white doctors or doctors who don’t speak their language aren’t going to listen to them, or take their feelings seriously. On the other hand, when one is heading for Denver, the only question is “Can they fly the plane?” (Unless they’re a screaming bigot)

Orange is the color of competence! Clorox is what she needs. It’s a good thing this pandemic was all over last summer or the economy would be struggling. If El Presidente says so it must be true.

Anyone care to wager on the qualifications of women pilots, people of color pilots, vs. conservative cartoonists?

oh Mike… your obsession with minorities is degrading your already warped mind. why oh why does anything benefitting minorities offend you so. may you find peace one day.

Hmmm, interesting toon, my current and last 2 doctors are women. Two of my favorite mentors have been women. Not by choice, just good highly recommended and competent in their field.

Pretty racist to complain about a corporation that is trying not to be racist…

If we didn’t have a large contingent of MDs of Indian descent (the subcontinent Indians), both male and female, our medical delivery system would collapse from lack of providers.

For a person as old as Lester shows here, skip the open-heart (she’d be likely not to survive it) and go to the TAVR type procedure. You’ll very likely find that the team doing it is quite diverse…

Seems like this is a minor thing to whine about when cops are out there killing people.

My wife’s life was saved by heart surgeon who is a person of color. If you had your way he wouldn’t even be allowed in the country. If I’m not being clear: This is racist through and through and you have thoroughly disgusted me.

MIke just doesn’t like a level playing field

About 76% of the population are white. About half of the white population are male. So about 38% of the population are white males.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219

So, United Airlines is saying that HALF of their pilots will STILL be white men, meaning that that demographic will still get a disproportionately LARGER share of pilot’s positions.

And Lester kvetsches.

True enough. Folks in hospitals wear masks. They have compassion for others.

It ain’t necessarily so. Long story, but worth reading to the end: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=104506357637123&story_fbid=455376789216743

Gee, Mike. I know that this may disappoint you, but women have been doctors for DECADES. Including me, since the early 80s.

I hope your next medical appointment is managed by a female POC. And that she has seen this cartoon…

So, Lester, you’re saying it will never happen that there’s a woman or a person of color that can be recommended, or are you saying that nobody would ask for a woman or a person of color for this job?

The highly respected cardiologist who treated my friend’s wife is a woman and an Indian immigrant. Which thing is Lester suggesting is impossible: that this cardiologist exists, or that she’s sought after because she has such a good reputation?

Lester is not stupid enough to be a “moron” AND he hates women.

I posted this comment in response to an equally stupid cartoon from Steve Kelly a couple of days ago. So, with apologies, here it is again:

“I flew for an international airline for 32 years. During that time, I was a check pilot and instructor in both the aircraft and in the simulator for Airbus A320, Lockheed L-1011, Boeing B-767, and B-747 aircraft. After my retirement, compulsory at age 60, I became a contract instructor and government delegated check pilot in Boeing B-767 and B-787 simulators. At the age of 70, enough was enough, and with a push from Covid-19, I decided to fully retire.

Over my career, just over 20,000 flight hours and god knows how many 4 hour simulator training and checking sessions, I can assure you that race and gender play ABSOLUTELY NO ROLE in pilot competency.”

It’d be interesting to see what percentage of military pilots will be women or minorities in twenty years.

When I first joined the service, back when Jimmy Carter was president, I saw damned few minority officers and ZERO women officers.

Twenty three years later this was not the case. The times are changing. The problem here is Lester only sees his own inferiority.

Mikey should look into how Black women are treated by doctors. Their reports of pain are taken less seriously. I wonder why?

Lester doesn’t think that racism bears any harmful fruit. So why change anything, right?

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/35/21194

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/18/health/black-babies-mortality-rate-doctors-study-wellness-scli-intl/index.html

https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3315

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/black-baby-death-rate-cut-by-black-doctors/2021/01/08/e9f0f850-238a-11eb-952e-0c475972cfc0_story.html

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-newborn-baby-survival-doctor-race-mortality-rate-disparity

https://www.thecut.com/2020/08/black-newborns-seen-by-white-doctors-are-more-likely-to-die.html

https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/research-black-newborns-die-less-often-black-doctors-white-doctors

That’s why.

The answer to that question is “ Why yes, there are many persons of color, and women, and LBGTQ that are very capable of helping you. And they are held in great esteem within their professions”.

By Lester’s assertion that medical professionals that are any of the above simply MUST be inferior, he is showing just what a small-minded racist he is.

I met a black, Cuban doctor to told me once a patient said that he did not want that black sob working on him. The incident occurred in Oklahoma in the ’80s. Hmm.

I’d be more concerned with finding a decent, affordable, (preferably free), public health system before I worried about the diversity issue. As it is, there are already many fine physicians who are not bloody white, but come in a range of colours, just like in the real world and guess what? Many of them are not only of different colours and creeds, but women. The real world is miles ahead of this bigoted excuse for political comment dressed up as a cartoon.

It’s actually pilot training schools, meaning that they will, kind of by definition, be qualified. And given that women and black people combined comprise more than half of the population, it is logical that, with equal opportunities, they should comprise half of new flight school students.

Pretty much every person commenting here has missed or ignored the point.

What United has decided is that skill and experience in an absolutely critical job is not as important as gender and/or skin color.

Pilots who have literally hundreds of lives in their hands EVERY DAY must be chosen based on skill. Doctors as well. Police, Fire and EMT’s. Bus drivers and train engineers. Flight attendants. Aircraft mechanics. Any job that involves the safety of other people MUST be filled based on qualifications.

Employers are free to play stupid social engineering games to their heart’s content. Unless and until it involves life safety issues. At that point we need to set aside the political posturing and get real.

Airline pilots have — and need — a LOT less training than heart surgeons. And there are correspondingly more of them. Lester, however, is in a class entirely by himself…

My father’s primary doctor is a woman of Egyptian descent. His cardiologist is a Jewish woman. His podiatrist is a Black woman from the Caribbean. He has an appointment with an orthopedist who is woman of Indian (South Asia) descent. He didn’t ask but they are here, just the way pilots will be there 10 years from now whether the passengers are asking or not.

Not so much, to judge by these comments. And by people who should know better.

oh stop that right now. You are the racist! Not everyone has the calling to be a doctor or a pilot and even the ones that do aren’t always in the right field. Doesn’t matter what they look like, just because you can pass a test doesn’t mean you can do the job. Fool.

I think we can safely assume that, in the real world, Lester’s imaginary & specious headline would more likely include “qualified” following the predicate. Alas, Lester prefers to rile his dim-witted, ignorant, gullible fans with scurrilous implications and insinuations rather than facts, i.e., he prefers Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts” rather than common sense.

Since the cartoon is about heart surgery I’ll share a recent experience. It was a female PA who told me that my symptoms that I didn’t take seriously indicated an immediate angiogram. A white male doctor did the procedure and put in stents. Four female professionals took me through rehab. My care is now managed by a male doctor of Chinese heritage. The point is that these people were all competent professionals and that was all that mattered.

Before the Civil Rights movement, no one was upset that all the doctors, lawyers, airline pilots were white males. Now that some brown people are getting opportunities formerly denied, some white males feel that they are going to be excluded. When apartheid ended I was concerned that the whites in South Africa were going to be in a bloodbath and excluded from life. Luckily the non-whites weren’t vindictive and did not restrict the people who previously victimized them.

Things that will never happen: Lester showing evidence of intelligence. He couldn’t even get the United statement right, let alone offer a decent critique.

I think what Mike’s saying here is that Blacks are not intelligent enough to be doctors or airline pilots. I would like to posit that Mike Lester is not intelligent enough to draw political cartoons.

I’ve boarded an airliner on numerous occasions, glanced into the cockpit and noticed a woman, black or other person of color as the crew. Never bothered me for a second, didn’t turn around and deplane, just kept going and found my seat. Figured that the airlines chose the best and fully qualified person for the job. If I board a United flight in the future, I won’t be so sure. This policy is also unfair to currently serving women and minorities in those positions and calls into question future selections.