Brittney Henderson, DO, MPH

The crazy part about this Yale thing is that it just shows folks are going to complain about black people whether they meet the metric or not. It’s sad but not surprising. Through this whole thing we figured out that Yale admits about 10 black students per year. We also learned the median GPA and MCAT of black students admitted to Yale was a 3.88 and 518 MCAT. (These are insanely good scores for anyone. ) For those of you that don’t know Median means half have higher half have lower. Therefore 5 of out of the 10 or 50% had a HIGHER GPA and MCAT than 3.88 and 518. Hopefully the merit crew can all agree without question on their admission. Now, about the 5 that had lower. Many would argue as they have in my comments for the last 3 days “these are the people taking Someone else’s spot” But is that true compared to the data from the rest of the class? This table here shows the latest available data showing MCAT and GPA of all accepted students at Yale. It shows that of those accepted 60 had greater than a 518 MCAT and 56 had less than 518. So 52% had above and 48% had below a 518. Remember the split was 50/50 for black students. This is not a statistically significant difference in entrance standards. Nearly half of Yale’s entering class that year had an MCAT of less than 518. Only 5 out of the 56 who did were black. The other 51 were white students, Asian students etc. There were 10 students who applied with > 518 who didn’t receive admission. Why is the merit of the 51 from those groups who did get admissions not being called into question. Why is nobody saying that they stole someone else’s seat. Why is it that the merit calculator only comes out when the student is black student whether they reached that 95 percentile mark or not. Why are they only ones being scrutinized? Thats what I have an issue with. Either we scrutinize every student that got in below that mark, all 56 of them, or we admit the scrutiny was never really about merit. You have to Pick one. The reality is the admissions process is about so much more than just MCAT and GPA. If someone writes in your letter of recommendation that you’re the rudest most pompous person they’ve ever come in contact with you’re not going to get in. If you cannot hold a conversation in an interview and you are extremely awkward, you are not going to get in. physicians have to be smart yes but they also should be personable,compassionate, professional , empathetic and if you can’t show that through your letters, your activities, your personal statement, your interview because all you can do well is answer multiple-choice questions you are not going to get in and this goes for everyone black white whatever. A 528 means nothing if you can’t look a scared patient in the eye and make them feel safe. Admissions committees know that. Patients know that. The only people who don’t seem to know it are the ones counting other people’s scores instead of building their own résumés.

I understand why many Asian families feel frustrated in elite admissions systems. In intensely competitive environments, there is a real perception — and sometimes evidence — that exceptional academic performance still does not guarantee admission. That feeling should not be dismissed. But admissions committees also confront another reality: if you have 100 applicants from privileged, high-performing educational pipelines with nearly identical scores, resumes, research access, tutoring, and opportunities, it is not irrational to also value the applicant who achieved similar academic success despite poverty, instability, underfunded schools, family hardship, or lack of institutional advantages. That is not abandoning merit. It is recognizing that achievement exists in context. And medicine especially is not merely selecting expert test takers. It is selecting future physicians who will care for human beings across every class, culture, language, and circumstance in society. The irony is that many people who defend “objective merit” often become deeply uncomfortable the moment merit is evaluated in anything broader than a percentile ranking.

And finally while my impressions are still hot. A lot of you are confusing diversity equity and inclusion,DEI, with affirmative action. Affirmative action of the past would fill spots in order to meet quotas sometimes forgoing standards. DEI is about giving people historically left out the tools to meet those standards and visibility in consideration once they do meet them.

You moved from arguing about admissions policy to explicitly arguing that Black students are inherently incapable of existing in meaningful numbers within elite academic environments unless standards are corrupted. That is not “defending merit.” That is racial essentialism dressed up in percentile language. And the irony is that many of the Black students you are describing as cognitively incapable are still scoring in the top national percentiles on the MCAT while training at institutions most applicants of any race could never enter. At some point the problem is no longer the admissions process. It is your assumptions about human beings.

Yes, actually, we do accommodate them. We recruit rural physicians for rural communities all the time because people are more likely to trust and stay connected to healthcare systems when clinicians understand their culture, language, geography, and lived experience. That is why we have rural tracks in medical schools, Native health pathways, Black maternal health initiatives, Spanish-speaking clinics, VA systems, tribal health systems, and community-based recruitment programs. This is not “woke.” It is how public health works. The difference is that nobody calls it “identity politics” when medicine bends over backward to accommodate rural White populations because that has long been viewed as normal. The outrage only seems to appear when minority communities ask for the same recognition. Patients are human beings, not interchangeable widgets in a bureaucratic sorting machine.

Jon , nobody said poor White patients do not exist, nor that every White physician is privileged. That is not the argument. The argument is that trust in medicine is shaped by history. If you are a Black patient from Macon County, Alabama — where the Tuskegee syphilis experiment took place — it is not irrational to feel more trust toward a Black physician who may better understand that history and your lived experience. And we actually have evidence for this. Black patients matched with Black physicians have higher uptake of preventive care, greater trust, and in some studies even lower mortality. That is not racism. That is public health reality. The mistake here is pretending medicine exists in a vacuum where history, access, trust, and culture do not matter — and that one standardized test score can fully define who will become the best physician for every community in America. Equality feels like oppression to those who are privileged.

There is actually a serious evidence-based point buried under what has become a very emotional political argument. We have surprisingly weak evidence that small differences in MCAT scores predict who becomes the “best doctor” in the real world once basic competency thresholds are met. MCATs correlate reasonably with standardized exam performance. That is not the same thing as predicting empathy, communication, patient trust, adherence, retention in underserved areas, or long-term community outcomes. At the same time, we do have evidence that patients often have better engagement, trust, and sometimes better outcomes when treated by clinicians who understand their culture, language, and community experience. That is particularly visible in rural, tribal, and historically underserved populations, including Alaska Native communities. So if an Alaska Native village strongly prefers an Alaska Native physician who understands subsistence life, multigenerational trauma, local customs, medevac realities, weather isolation, and community dynamics, that is not irrational identity politics. That is a healthcare delivery reality. And importantly: nobody is asking for an incompetent physician because of identity. The debate is about how we define merit in medicine. If the goal is maximizing community health, trust, continuity, and outcomes, then the “best qualified” physician may not always be the one with the slightly higher multiple-choice test score.

There is a surprising number of people who come to the ER willingly and deny medical treatment. A lot of people unconsciously view ERs as hotel room service, often misunderstanding emergency medical care for comfort care. The Pitt does a great job of highlighting this issue.

And if she left the house she would’ve forfeited her rights to it and custody of her children

The U.S. not discounting perishable foods an hour before closing time is solely because of greed and cruelty. In America, they will rather throw away millions of pounds of food instead of coming up with a solution that benefits all but nope they’ll even arrest dumpster divers.

When you actually dive into the stats on physician burnout and suicide, you’ll understand just how powerful a pivot like this really is. Shout out to him for choosing himself before the system chose for him. This career is incredibly hard in ways people don’t always talk about.

The air traffic controller cleared the fire truck onto the runway. Seconds later, the same controller screamed “stop, stop, stop.” The plane was doing 93 to 105 mph. Both pilots are dead. Everyone will frame this as controller error. One controller was simultaneously managing a United flight that aborted takeoff after an anti-ice warning, dispatching a fire truck across an active runway, and sequencing an inbound Air Canada landing at highway speed. At 11:40 PM. On a mandatory overtime shift at a facility that has been understaffed for years. A system that assigns one person that workload will produce exactly this outcome. The only variable is when. The FAA is short approximately 3,000 controllers. The headcount dropped 13% from 2010 to 2024 while flight volume rose 10%. Over 40% of the FAA’s 290 terminal facilities are understaffed. The New York TRACON, which manages the most congested airspace in America across LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark, has been chronically below target. Newark was operating at 59% of its staffing goal. LaGuardia handles 900 flights a day. The hiring pipeline is broken at every stage. Only 2% of applicants complete the full process. Training takes up to 6 years. The FAA Academy in Oklahoma City is a bottleneck, with roughly 35% of trainees washing out. Congress blocked legislation to build a second academy. In one recent hiring cycle, the FAA brought on 1,512 candidates and lost 1,300 in the same window. Net gain: around 160 controllers for an entire country. Three things need to happen and everyone who can make them happen has known for years. Congress needs to fund and authorize a second FAA training academy. One facility in Oklahoma City cannot produce enough controllers for 900 million annual passengers. Members of Congress from Oklahoma have actively blocked this. That needs to end yesterday. The FAA needs to cut certification time. Six years from application to fully certified controller is absurd. The agency’s own data shows tower simulators reduce certification time by 27%. They’ve installed them at 95 facilities. That should be every facility, and the simulated hours should count toward more of the certification requirement. The FAA needs to stop plugging staffing gaps with mandatory overtime. Controllers at understaffed facilities are working six-day weeks rotating between morning, mid, and night shifts. The NTSB has flagged fatigue repeatedly. The controller last night was managing overlapping emergencies during a nighttime operation. Overtime is not a staffing plan. It’s a countdown to the next runway collision. The controller said “I messed up” to a Frontier pilot who watched the whole thing. The pilot responded “No man, you did the best you could.” One of them is right. The answer determines whether this happens again.

Dyshan Best came home to Bridgeport, Connecticut to bury a friend. He was 39. A truck driver. He never made it home from the funeral. What you've seen in the headlines is a story about a police officer's anxiety attack. That is not what this story is about. It starts with a chaotic scene. Roughly thirty people. A fight. Someone called 911 and said some of them had guns. Police arrived. Dyshan Best wasn't fighting. He was sitting in a parked car. Passenger seat. A drink. A vape pen. His phone. A witness pointed toward the car. That was enough. Officer Perrotta walked over and opened the door. No warrant. No crime observed. When she mentioned a firearm, Best pointed out through the windshield, away from himself, and said the gun was somewhere else. Then he ran. Officer Heo chased him. Dyshan Best was shot in the back. On the ground: "I got shot." The officer: "You pulled a gun on me." Best: "No I didn't." The state ruled the shooting justified. The family's attorney has filed a $40 million lawsuit, saying new video evidence shows conclusively Best was unarmed. The inspector general disputes this. The gun recovered near where Best fell has not been confirmed as his in any public reporting. That dispute is ongoing. But here's what this post is saying plainly: It does not matter. Best was a passenger in a parked car, stopped without a warrant, without an observed crime. Connecticut is a concealed carry state; possessing a firearm with a permit is a legal right. The state never established his permit status. The inspector general's report, by available accounts, did not ask. And even Best's own attorney, who disputes the gun entirely, made the structural point most clearly: "I don't care if you see someone running down the street with a gun. If there's no felony you can articulate, you let them run. You don't chase people down and shoot them in the streets." Whatever was or wasn't in his hand, that remains true. The bullet tore through his liver and right kidney. The kind of injury where minutes matter. The first ambulance arrived at 6:02 p.m. Dispatch had labeled the call: stab / gunshot / penetrating trauma. Multiple officers on scene told the paramedics to take their partner first. Officer Perrotta got in. Then she declined treatment. Her words, recorded in the paramedics' official report: "I am fine. I just needed to get out of here." Not injured. Not treated. She simply wanted to leave. The ambulance drove away. 6:02 p.m. — First ambulance arrives. Diverted to Perrotta. 6:08 p.m. — Perrotta reaches hospital. Declines treatment. 6:22 p.m. — Best reaches hospital. 14 minutes later. 7:41 p.m. — Dyshan Best is pronounced dead. The inspector general could not determine whether the delay contributed to his death. No charges were filed. The department will investigate itself. The headline called this an officer's "mild anxiety attack." That framing matters. It takes a coordinated decision by multiple officers: documented in the paramedics' own records, and converts it into one person's medical episode. It makes a choice look like a condition. And "mild" cannot survive contact with Perrotta's own words. She wasn't in crisis. She said so herself. The headline also doesn't name Dyshan Best. Doesn't mention he was Black. Doesn't mention Perrotta was white. Doesn't mention she declined treatment. A man is dead. The headline made sure you'd remember the officer's feelings instead. Nothing in this sequence required a conspiracy. Every step reflects a system that has operated this way for generations — one built not to protect communities equally, but to protect order, property, and existing arrangements of power. People ask how to fix policing. But this story raises a different question. If a dying Black man can be left bleeding on pavement while officers secure a comfortable exit for one of their own, and the state clears it, and the press softens it, perhaps this isn't a malfunction. Perhaps the system is functioning exactly as it was built to. His name was Dyshan Best. He came home to bury a friend. He never made it back from the funeral.

Candidate: "I need 100,000 per month." HR : Our budget is 60,000 per month. Boss: "Pass. Too expensive." HR almost moved on. Almost. But HR asked one question: "What would make 60,000 not work for you?" Candidate : "Honestly? Nothing. I have loans, rent just went up, and I'm tired of being underpaid because I'm 'still learning.' I know my worth now." HR went back to his boss. Showed them the cost of leaving the role open another 3 months. The lost productivity. The team burnout. The recruiter fees if we went external. It was over 50,000. The boss accepted. Here's the part that still gives the HR chills: Six months later, she told HR she had another offer for 130,000 per month but turned it down because they were the only company that fought FOR her, not AGAINST her. Candidates remember who believed in them. They remember who negotiated IN GOOD FAITH versus who played games. Stop treating salary negotiations like a battle to win. Start treating them like the first test of your company culture. Because if you can't advocate for someone BEFORE they join, why would they believe you'll advocate for them AFTER?

These are law students, by the way. The future lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and policymakers. When we talk about systemic racism, this is what we mean. It is embedded in the institutions themselves. And it’s hard to believe people who openly think this way will suddenly become fair advocates for Black clients once they enter the legal system.

🚨🏀UNC Teams Undefeated At Smith Center🏀🚨 1987 (13-0) — Elite Eight (Dean Smith) 1993 (12-0) — NCAA CHAMPS (Dean Smith) 2005 (15-0) — NCAA CHAMPS (Roy Williams) 2011 (15-0) — Elite Eight (Roy Williams) 2017 (15-0) — NCAA CHAMPS (Roy Williams) 2026 (18-0) — ??? (Hubert Davis)

Shout out to Lulus amazing customer service. They arranged for me to get the dresses I need for my best friend's wedding that's this week and determiend that the original shipment was delivered to the wrong place! So grateful and a nice way to begin vacation

Immigrants and slaves aren’t interchangeable. One requires choice and agency. Words matter, history matters.

Absite done, breathing a little easier!

… which helped WOMEN be hired and be able to have careers… the big picture is quite clear. Saying all of this to say, a stranger/the law *should not* be able 2 prioritize a fetus who is not here, while disregarding the humanity & wants of the girls & women who give birth.