Blatantly Racist Obama Photo Distributed by Physician and AMA Delegate: Action Requested

[FourScore]

From TPM:

The election of our first black president has brought with it a strange proliferation of online racism among conservatives.

And we've got the latest example.

On Sunday night, Dr. David McKalip forwarded to fellow members of a Google listserv affiliated with the Tea Party movement the image below. Above it, he wrote: "Funny stuff."

Now, Tea Party activists trafficking in racist imagery are pretty much dog bites man. But McKalip isn't just some random winger. He's a Florida neurosurgeon, who serves as a member of the American Medical Association's House of Delegates.

He's also an energetic conservative opponent of health-care reform. McKalip founded the anti-reform group Doctors For Patient Freedom, as well as what seems to be a now defunct group called Cut Taxes Now. Last month he joined GOP congressmen Tom Price and Phil Gingrey, among others, for a virtual town hall to warn about the coming "government takeover of medicine." And in a recent anti-reform op-ed published in the St. Petersburg Times, McKalip wrote that "Congress wants to create larger, government-funded programs for health care and more bureaucracy that ration care and impose cookbook medicine."

Asked about the email in a brief phone interview with TPMmuckraker, McKalip said he believes that by depicting the president as an African witch doctor, the "artist" who created the image "was expressing concerns that the health-care proposals would make the quality of medical care worse in our country." McKalip said he didn't know who created it.

But pressed on what was funny about an image that plays on racist stereotypes about Africans, McKalip declined to say, instead offering to talk about why he opposes Obama's health-care proposals.

"I have a busy day," he said eventually, before ending the call.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/conservative_activist_forwards_racist_pic_showing.php

And from VolvoDrivingLiberal at DK we have his contact info:

...Please take a moment to share your thoughts with Dr. McKalip on his racist behavior via email, phone, or fax. Please keep your comments to him professional and businesslike. Let's avoid getting down in the gutter as wingnuts typically do. His contact information, which is public record on his medical website, can be found here: http://www.spineuniverse.com/mdpage.php?doctorID=239 .

Additionally, Dr. McKalip is affiliated with Bayfront Medical Center and St. Anthony's Hospital in the St. Petersburg area. Contact information for Bayfront is here http://www.bayfront.org/contact_us.php and St. Anthony's is here http://www.stanthonys.com/body.cfm?id=125 .

Also, please take a moment to contact the American Medical Association and ask them in a businesslike and professional way, why they permit a physician who exhibits racist behaviors to serve as an Association delegate. Email and phone contact information for the AMA can be found here http://webapps.ama-assn.org/contactus/contactusMain.do .

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/23/756807/-Blatantly-Racist-Obama-Photo-Distributed-by-Physician-and-AMA-Delegate:-Action-Requested-

Go for it fellow DU'ers!

[cutlassmama]

1. they will stop at nothing to get their profits

[BlooInBloo]

2. I wish it were clearer to me that DUers don't agree with the sentiments...

But it isn't.

[Cha]

5. The duers who

agree with this blatant shit are fucking freepers who sneak around on an anonymous internet board until they get busted with frozen pizza.

[rvablue]

10. You must be joking, right? I haven't seen a single DUer (who

isn't a disruptor or a troll) every condone blatant racist BS like this.

[BolivarianHero]

14. WTF are you talking about?

The only thing I picture when I picture an African witch doctor is Sarah Palin's kooky's Kenyan Assemblies of God preacher.

[FourScore]

20. Link?

[Spazito]

3. Geez!

I am both picking my chin up off the floor while vomiting at this.

Beyond awful.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. !!!

:grr:

[1776Forever]

6. I think this guy is jealous of our handsome President - take a look at his mug........

[Maru Kitteh]

12. mouth-breather, for sure.

[goclark]

7. I just sent him an email ~ shameful

[66 dmhlt]

23. I'm sure the Hospital CEOs and Chairmen would love to hear from all of us

As a physician and former chief of staff, I can categorically state that communicating with the "powers that be" (in a very professional manner) will have a major impact on McKalip.

So here are some contact data:

Ms. Sue G. Brody, President & CEO
Bayfront Medical Center
701 – 6th Street, South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701-4814
Phone: [phone]
Fax [phone]
[e-mail]

Bill Ulbright, President & CEO
St. Anthony's Hospital, Inc.
1200 - 7th Ave. North
St. Petersburg, FL 33705
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

And since he's a Clinical Asst. Professor at the University of South Florida:

Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA
Dean, USF College of Medicine
12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
Office: MDC 3
Tampa, FL 33612-4799
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

Dr. Richard C. Karl
Chairman, Dept. of Surgery
USF College of Medicine
12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
Office: MDC Box 16
Tampa, FL 33612
Phone: [phone]
FAX [phone]
E-mail Address [e-mail]

Dr. Harry R. van Loveren
Chairman, Dept. of Neurosurgery
USF College of Medicine
12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Suite 850
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

And since he's an AMA delegate:

Roger Brown, PhD
Director, Office of House of Delegates Affairs
American Medical Association
515 North State Street
Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
[e-mail]

Florida Dept. of Health
Health Care Professions-Licensure
4042 Bald Cypress Way
Tallahassee , FL 32399 -3251
Phone: 850 - 488-0595
Fax: 850 - 487-9626
Email: [e-mail]


And his very own contact info:

David M. McKalip, MD
St. Anthony's Professional Office Building
1201 5th Ave. N.
Suite 210
St. Petersburg, Florida 33705
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website: http://www.mckalip.md/

[chill_wind]

27. Very, very good. I think it's a safe assumption

that this man's professional reputation and present influence in the debate has self-destructed.

[Parker CA]

8. There truly is no limit with these mother fuckers. Un. F-ing. Believable.

[ellie]

9. I just sent an e-mail to this fuckhead.

[FourScore]

21. Excellent!

[Kalyke]

11. Doctors for Patient Freedom???

If Dr. McKalip really wanted patients to have freedom, he wouldn't be fighting against a public option. That would give patients MORE choices, now wouldn't it?

I know this thread was started to reveal the ugly racism, but the name of McKalip's self-serving organization caught my eye.

[lefthandedlefty]

13. I guess Bama care is better than no care

That is pretty much what the AMA and insurance wants that way they will have 100% proffit as opposed to 50% they make now.

[KamaAina]

24. They meant "ObamaCare"

blatantly stealing the "O" image from Obama's own campaign. :eyes:

[seemunkee]

15. Not to take away from the racism, but the base photo is not of an African

It appears to be a Papua New Guinea wigman.

[FourScore]

16. And your point is...? n/t

[omega minimo]

19. Maybe the perpetrators of the hateful image are ignorant assholes.

[omega minimo]

17. +16 for this disgusting hate speech

[bbernardini]

18. Just posted this to Twitter and Facebook. We'll see how long it takes the usual suspects to chime in

Not very, I suspect. Probably with something along the lines of "Liberals are the REAL racists because their policies are designed to keep African-American people from succeeding!" That's what I normally get about such things.

[Amos Moses]

22. That picture is on proud display at Team Sarah website as well.

[Danchi]

25. Blatantly Racist Obama Photo Distributed by Physician and AMA Delegate: Action Requested

I just sent off several email. One to the President of the hospital group McKalip works for. His name is: Stephen Mason and the webpage with the email link is: http://www.baycare.org/body.cfmid=18. I also sent emails to the AMA and to McKalip at St. Anthony's. Going through his website will not get directly to him so send it to the hospital he works out of. This really pisses me off.

[Maru Kitteh]

32. Thanks for the additional info, and WELCOME to DU!

:-)

[csziggy]

26. Update from Daily Kos

Sooo, Volvo asked us to take some action and helped us all out by providing links to Bayfront Medical Center and St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Pete where Dr. McKalip practices. Also a link to the AMA website was nicely provided. Thanks Volvo! I emailed and called all of the facilites and my email to the AMA got a response! Here it is:

"Thank you for your email. The AMA was alerted to this situation a few hours ago and has issued the following statement for immediate release:"

July 23, 2009

Statement attributable to: American Medical Association

Delegates to the American Medical Association are selected through their individual state and specialty societies, and their individual views and actions do not, in any way, represent the official view of the AMA. We condemn any actions or comments that are racist, discriminatory or unprofessional.

The same blogger also reports:

I just got a call from the Director of Corporate Communications at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Pete and she's livid about what Dr. McKalip has done--he's works in the hospital. She said that she is an African American herself and the hospital will be investigating this matter!! I called earlier and left her a message. YAY!!!

We just made our own call to the communications director at Bayfront, Kanika Tomalin, and she wasn't willing to go quite that far. She said the issue was being "handled internally" but declined to elaborate, beyond stressing that though McKalip works at Bayfront, he does not speak for the hospital.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/23/756965/-The-AMA-responded-to-my-email!

[FourScore]

30. This is excellent!! It's working!

Thanks for the update.

:applause:

[EmeraldCityGrl]

28. Houston we have a problem...

America's dirty little secret is surfacing and rearing it's ugly head.

[FourScore]

29. Wow...You've combined all kinds of special antidotes into that one, haven't you?

Well done!

:toast:

[Donnachaidh]

31. another outlet you might want to visit is RateMD.com

You can post comments warning others about his racist attitudes.

[Naturyl]

33. Oh my... these people...

Ugh.

[annabanana]

34. Well.. He's apologized...

So I guess it's ok then..

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/politicalwhore/2009/07/24/dr-david-mckalip-apologizes-for-barack-obama-witch-doctor-e-mail/

[mod mom]

35. Gladly done. His actions are reprehensible!

[mod mom]

37. Also on staff @ USF College of Medicine. CONTACT THE DEAN HERE:

You can find public information about Dr. McKalip here.
Just type in his last name in the search box.

Interesting note -- he doesn't carry malpractice insurance. He also accepts medicaid. Draw your own conclusions about that...

I would recommend letting the administration at USF know what you think about one of their faculty members emailing such a blatantly racist piece of propaganda.

You can contact the USF College of Medicine Dean here

Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA
Dean, College of Medicine
Vice President for USF Health
[e-mail]



[e-mail]

-snip
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/steevo/2009/07/dr-mckalip-went-to-my-school.php

[Dr Fate]

36. How charming. n/t

n/t