Racist, good-ole-boy system propaganda
This is pure propaganda. The problem is not “accurate documentation.” Rather it is a failed, flawed incompetent hospital system that has put the safety of patients at risk for years.
It is a racist, good-ole-boy system that places greater importance on Leadership Tallahassee, Chamber affiliations, political astuteness, and powerful lobbyists.
It is a system that could care less about poverty, the medically underserved, racial equity, and living wages for its employees. It is a system in which TMH CEO Mark O’Bryant made more than $1million annually when cafeteria workers, janitors and transport workers made less than $9.25 an hour.
It is a system in which Sally Bradshaw was appointed to the TMH Board of Directors by Dianne Williams-Cox and others on the City Commission at a time when there was not a single Black woman on the 20 member TMH Board of Directors. (Seven White women were on the Board).
Bradshaw’s husband, Paul Bradshaw, has made a fortune by lobbying on behalf of big tobacco which kills at least 480,000 people in the U.S. alone and millions worldwide annually. She was Chief of Staff to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush who abolished affirmative action in the state with a stroke of his pen.
Subsequently there was a 42 percent decrease in Black freshman undergraduate enrollment at Florida State University between the years 1995 and 2011. As of Fall 2020, Black tenured faculty at FSU was a mere 4.7 percent, Hispanic tenured faculty 4.0 percent, compared to 77.3 percent for White tenured faculty.
As for the Country Club TMH Board of Directors, there reportedly is not a single person on the TMH Board that lives in a Black or brown community. Further, there reportedly has never been a single person on the TMH Board during the 74 year history of the hospital that has lived in the Black or brown community.
This is what White supremacy looks like.
Dr. Edward Holifield is a retired Tallahassee cardiologist.
