Barbara Dawson.

Maybe her name isn’t as familiar as #sandrabland, or as familiar to whites as #welfarequeen, or even #ratchetbabymama, but here lies another Black woman whose life was taken from her after she begged not to die.

Ms Dawson was summarily dismissed from a Blountstown, Florida hospital after being told ‘there was nothing wrong with her.’ When she insisted she was ill and refused to leave, the police were called to forcibly remove her from the hospital.

Forget for a moment that there is an ‘open and shut’ case of medical malpractice here, more than likely tossed on her by Black nurses and white alike.

Listen to the voice of one more single solitary lone Black woman who is so easily summarized, dismissed, and whose life is viewed as unimportant -whether she is really dying or not- just because she was the wrong skin color to be taken seriously.

This is just one of tens of hundreds of examples of how very easy it is to overlook and ignore a Black woman; and more often than we care to admit, even Black men are guilty of it.

Stuck somewhere between the numerous rapes, and the overwhelming molestations is the overall refusal of anyone and everyone in the world to respect and hear a Black woman’s inordinate cries of distress and pain, no matter what injustice has been done to her.

Considering the easy way in which the words “crazy,” “paranoid,” “angry,” “ignorant,” and “ghetto” so easily and melodramatically slide off the lips of so many people of all sides of the color and gender spectrum whenever and however a Black woman even so much as opens her mouth to complain of hurt or sickness or illness or despair, let alone severe malicious maltreatment…be it mental or physical…

How very nonchalant is the world, often even a Black woman’s husband and children, and sometimes even her parents if they are still living, to ignore her and/or label her a “drama queen” from the moment and almost the moment she is born into this world. Yet, even a “drama queen” white female will have her tiniest hurt or pain addressed immediately and in full to make certain it is “all in her head” before she is summarily dismissed.

Under the circumstances, it should come as no surprise to us whatsoever that this Florida hospital just “let” Barbara Dawson die after she told them she was dying.

They were more interested in having her arrested than in examining her thoroughly and possibly treating her, mainly and pretty obviously because she was not white or what they might refer to as “high and cute as a button“.

Apparently, it’s okay to be high or dealing drugs or shoplifting as long as you’re ‘puddin’ apple dumpling’ cute by American standards – and white; but it’s not okay or even “legal” to be deathly ill if you’re Black.

But … Do you hear her now?

If you believe in spiritual transitioning from this life, wonder what kind of discussion is Ms Dawson having with Eric Garner right now? Yes, she told them, as she was dying of an aneurysm (aka ‘blood clot’), that she could not breathe…her blood vessels by then must have been constricted and closing up, therefore causing her to lose oxygen quickly and fall limp and die.

But, according to the officer in this video and the obviously very white nurse attending her, or not attending her at the time — even death and dying wasn’t enough to keep her from going to jail that night.

Soooooo…

Who will be the next “Barbara Dawson” who checks into a hospital emergency room with a complaint of severe illness, and is kicked out and labeled “high” or “drunk” or “cray-cray.” Or, as in her case “Nothing’s wrong with you,” without being thoroughly checked and tested first.

I know if I had authority to sue, by the time I got done with them, that hospital would be named “Barbara Dawson Hospital”, just like Waller County, TX is now officially “Sandra Bland County, TX.”