(photo: “Orlando Sentinel”:http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-mount-dora-doctor-tells-patients-go-aw20100401,0,5593120.story)
A story making its rounds on the Web this weekend is of an Orlando urologist who’s posted the sign above prominently in his office. It reads “If You Voted for Obama, Seek Urologic Care Elsewhere.” (Turns out the doctor’s wife is a Republican candidate for local office.) “News”:http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/if-you-voted-for-obama-seek-urologic-care-elsewhere “coverage”:http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-mount-dora-doctor-tells-patients-go-aw20100401,0,5593120.story of the story has noted that discrimination on the basis of political views is generally legal–unlike that on the basis of, say, race or religion.
But what’s gone unremarked so far is that discriminating against Obama voters has tremendous racial implications: “Florida exit polls from the 2008 election”:http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#FLP00p1 indicate that 96 percent of the state’s African American voters chose Obama. In essence, a sign telling Obama voters to seek care elsewhere is telling black patients to go away, too.