NBC’s medical drama New Amsterdam has been torn to shreds for a woke episode in which a patient develops a tumor as a result of “internalized racism.”
The drama series, which concluded in January 2023, received renewed attention this week after an X user posted a clip from a 2020 episode in which a teenager is diagnosed with tumors.
The clip shows a psychiatrist on the show approaching the boy’s mother and telling her that he had the teen answer some questions from a group called UNREST, which he said were “designed to assess a person’s level of social resistance.” to measure’.
‘Your son feels threatened every day, as if everything he earns could be taken away. He no longer has any rights,” says the psychiatrist.
“But because his life is seemingly free of all this, because he cannot name it, he internalizes it.”
When the mother seems confused, the psychiatrist says, “Racism, I think your son’s tumor was caused by racism.”
A clip from the NBC medical drama New Amsterdam went viral this week, in which a psychiatrist told a mother that her son developed tumors because of internalized racism
The episode seemed to reference a real questionnaire by the group UNREST, which developed a ‘social resistance framework’.
It “suggests that power relations within society may encourage members of non-dominant minority groups to actively engage in everyday acts of resistance, which may include risky and unhealthy behavior.”
A 2019 study from scientists at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles also determined that African Americans had higher levels of inflammatory molecules than their white counterparts.
“While the episode is ridiculous, the fact that these are real college reports is even crazier,” one Reddit user wrote as the clip went viral.
Another wrote that the clip “made me secondhand stupid,” while the third seemed surprised that it wasn’t from a Saturday Night Live skit.
The episode seemed to reference actual academic studies
Many online found the premise ridiculous and condemned NBC for airing the episode
Radio host Billy Moses was apparently also surprised by the clip.
“Wow, I’m surprised they didn’t jump straight to ‘Your son has AIDS because he’s transphobic,’” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Tim Young said the diagnosis “isn’t a stretch for the same company that continues to employ Joy Reid.”
“Hollywood is mentally ill,” he wrote.
Some also suggested that the episode was “social programming” and believed that American racism could cause cancer
Others suggested that the television drama was trying to convey a message with the episode.
“This is social programming,” wrote podcaster Rob Coates.
‘We may laugh about it, but your HR department and school director are watching [and] takes this seriously.
“This is tough stuff,” he said.
Another X account, called Based Latinos, agreed.
“The sad thing is that people watch these types of programs and believe that tumors caused by racism are actually possible,” the newspaper said.
“Shame on New Amsterdam for this absurd race-bait fantasy.”
DailyMail.com has reached out to NBC Universal for comment.