Hennepin Healthcare promised to address 'systemic racism.' Then came the blackface photos

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.startribune.com/hennepin-healthcare-promised-to-address-systemic-racism-then-came-the-blackface-photos/600152097/

Two weeks after issuing a public letter renewing its pledge to be "intentional in addressing systemic racism," leadership for Hennepin Healthcare, the Twin Cities' largest safety-net hospital system, is facing internal turmoil over photographs featuring two employees dressed in blackface makeup.

The pictures feature two white paramedics, including a deputy chief of EMS, wearing brown makeup. One shows three people dressed as 1960s vocal trio the Supremes. Another shows two people dressed as R&B duo Milli Vanilli, in dreadlock-style wigs and dark makeup.

The photos, obtained by the Star Tribune, are not dated, but they resurfaced two weeks ago, when a member of the public forwarded them to Hennepin Healthcare leadership.

In interviews with the Star Tribune, employees described this moment as a test to whether leadership will follow through on its commitment to address what some described as the latest in a series of racially insensitive events for a hospital system whose mission is to serve Minnesota's most diverse and vulnerable communities. Others lamented that the absence of action after two weeks is evidence of the immovability of the status quo.

[iemanja]

1. However

The employees at Hennepin healthcare are highly diverse. I go there all the time.