Dr. Jackie Walters has some explaining to do. Recent comments set social media ablaze.
As we reported earlier this week, the Married to Medicine star found herself in hot water. A clip resurfaced of her doubling down on the problematic stereotype that Black people exaggerate their pain at the doctor.
Racial bias in medicine has caused some doctors to believe that Black people have higher pain tolerances and overstate their symptoms. The problem is especially grave for pregnant Black women, who are more likely to die during childbirth than their counterparts. However, in the clip, Atlanta’s favorite OBGYN said that Black women are “more dramatic” during their pregnancies. She insinuated that they “cry wolf” to distort the truth to get more time off of work.
Dr. Jackie’s problematic perspective
“We wanna also make sure that you’re being serious with your doctor and not playing the games so that could take you off work,” Jackie said in the clip. “Because then we see you 25 times in the pregnancy, it’s hard to believe there’s a true problem when there’s a true problem.”
Obviously, fans were shocked to hear Dr. Jackie expressing this sentiment, and she took to Instagram to address the outrage. She didn’t necessarily apologize for her twisted point of view. Instead, she claimed we’re all just missing the context.
A follow-up from the doctor
Dr. Jackie shared a lengthy statement on her Instagram Stories. It doesn’t sound like she regrets what she said. She claimed the clip was just taken out of context to make her look bad.
“Recently, a clip from a nearly 2 hour video was taken out of context to make it appear that I, somehow, take lightly, what I have advocated for concerning the devastating problem facing the Black maternal health crisis,” Jackie wrote.
Jackie reiterated that it’s been her life’s work to focus on caring for Black women. She said her mission has always been to “rectify the issues that devastatingly impact Black maternal mothers versus our counterparts.”
She continued to claim that what we saw was part of a “broader conversation.” It was meant to equip patients with the “tools to effectively communicate their needs with their doctors to ensure a positive outcome.”
However, Married to Medicine fans aren’t convinced that there was anything positive about that conversation. Maybe she’s the one being too dramatic.
Married to Medicine Season 10 airs on Bravo, Sunday nights at 9/8c.
