Interview with Isaiah Baskins Appearance about the racial incident at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Isaiah Baskins recorded an incident that occurred at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A woman crazed by racial hate abused him verbally and seemingly physically as well. The video in this post is an extensive interview with Mr. Baskins. It includes pertinent portions of the attack.
Baskins’ video had a profound effect on me. The piercing hate emanating from the woman’s eyes was palpable. I needed to expose to as many people at large that this type of hate isn’t imaginary or of the past as some would want us all to believe. Many people of color endure a dehumanizing treatment, many times in silence because the willful ignorance of many makes any action futile.
I left my number in various social media domains asking Mr. Baskins to contact me. I figured that given the types of frivolities that get covered in the press, this one would garner a lot of attention. Ironically, it has not. Why? It is not hard to infer. This incident in which Mr. Baskins was the aggrieved does not fit the preferred narrative of the young male of color. Thankfully Mr. Baskins contacted me.
Isaiah Baskins and his young daughter
I wanted to reconstruct what happened before Baskins’ video started rolling. The following is what I inferred from the interview.
Mr. Baskins walked into the family room at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center with two of his children. He was treated graciously by Donna Lorraine Bridger, the volunteer in the room who would subsequently go on the racial tirade. Soon after that a white woman with biracial kids entered the room.
Mr. Baskins and the woman engaged in friendly conversation as their children played. The volunteer was annoyed by the kids playing in a family room. This annoyance seemed to come about after the interaction between the two families.
The kids did not completely go silent. Baskins explained that kids are kids, and after all it is a family room. He said that was when Donna Lorraine Bridger went into a crazed state. Baskins told me she called him by the N-word and disparaged his kids calling them racially tinged names as well. He said Bridger asked him if he had a job (Baskins is employed). He told me when she invoked Donald Trump he knew it was time to take out his camera.
The video is there for anyone to see. There is a statement in the video that is probative; that indicates the woman’s thinking. “Get your damn underwear out of here,” the crazed woman said. “Grey underwear.” Does anyone doubt she was talking about the biracial children she thought belonged to Baskins?
As if this dehumanizing event wasn’t enough, when security came they both ran to the aid of the crazed woman until it was evident to them that Mr. Baskins was the aggrieved one. Baskins gave the hospital security a report. He said the crazed woman quietly left, no questions asked. To add insult to injury, Baskins stated that the initial security report said he was uncooperative and did not include the name of Bridger, the crazed woman.
Even worse was the treatment he got when he attempted to file charges against Bridger. The police treated Baskins with disrespect. Every barrier possible was used to prevent him from filing charges. They told him he needed the complete name of the crazed woman which at the time he did not know, but they could have assisted in getting but at the time did not. They said he needed the Bridger’s full address.
When Isaiah Baskins got all the information, the magistrate treated him as if he was the guilty party. He said he shouted at him and grudgingly filled out the paperwork. Ultimately Donna Lorraine Bridger, 68, was charged with simple assault. She goes to court on May 3rd.
I spoke to Isaiah Baskins on Skype for about thirty minutes. He is a 25-year-old young black man. Throughout the conversation, he was always very aware that as a black man he continuously has to watch his back whether it is at a hospital, in public, or at a police station. I found it distressing that an officer of the court told him he could come down to the office to file, and his first thought about going to the station is that it might be a setup. He continuously alluded to being a young black man and adjusting his behavior accordingly to make folks comfortable. It reminded me of a Jon Stewart skit in which Stewart said the following.
Quick story. So we live in New York City, a Liberal bastion. Recently we sent a correspondent and a producer to a building in this Liberal bastion where we were going to tape an interview. The producer, White, dressed in only what could be described as homeless elf attire and a pretty strong five o’clock from the previous week shadow, strode confidently into the building preceding our humble correspondent, a gentleman of color dressed resplendidly in a tailored suit. Who do you think was stopped? Let me give you a hint. The Black guy. And that shit happens all the times, all of it.
Race is there and it is a constant. You are tired of hearing about it? Imagine how fucking exhausting it is living it.”
I will continue to put out these stories until the willfully ignorant is only willful.