Anonymous #1 3d

Hey, so I am in full support of BHM. But as far as Heart Month goes, yeah, it’s important to me because I’m a heart failure patient who survived TWO cardiac arrests and 38 minutes of CPR and spent months in icu then pt rehab to relearn how to walk, write, get dressed, etc. I now forever am on IV nutrition unless I get a transplant because my other organs were so badly damaged from the lack of blood flow during my cardiac arrests. So yeah, I celebrate Heart Month. Thanks.

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Anonymous OP 3d

They used children as bait. The KKK is still lynching black people, especially college students. Many of us can’t go in stores w/o being racially profiled. I’m sorry for what you had to experience and I pray for your speedy recovery. With that being said, you can’t expect people not to feel some type of way. We’re given one month to make up for centuries of oppression. What you went through is terrible but most likely wasn’t preventable and wasn’t caused by people.

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Anonymous #1 3d

You can’t raise awareness for multiple things during the same month? 🧐 The validity and importance of one is not hindered by the other.

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Anonymous OP 3d

When said month was placed in that exact position to take away from BHM, yeah.

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Anonymous #1 3d

Respectfully, this is a really ignorant thing to say to claim that other causes which happen to raise awareness during the same month have “strategically been planned intentionally to take away from BHM”. Believe me, when a cause chooses an awareness month, typically it’s for a reason related to the specific cause. It is certainly NOT established during a specific month for the purpose of detracting focus from another cause. In fact, if you took a moment to even look into the facts,(cont. below)

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Anonymous OP 3d

If you took a moment to look at the facts, you would notice that while American Heart Month is for any and all hearts, it actually focuses more specifically on a few specific cardiac “populations”. One is CHD (or congenital heart disease) and the others are about underrepresented populations in healthcare/cardiac health. These include women, people of color who are under-researched in the medical world, people in historically marginalized communities or communities with less access to (2/3)

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Anonymous OP 3d

preventative healthcare and screenings. A huge part of Heart Month is actually raising awareness for the importance of medical research in these historically misdiagnosed populations. Next time, please do your research before assuming something that may be false. :)

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Anonymous OP 3d

For ex: African American women’s pain is historically taken less seriously. Statistically (reliable source), when presenting to the ER with the same primary complaint as a white person, black patients are, on average, given significantly lower doses of the same pain medication when compared to that white patient. Another disparity, more specifically cardiac-related, is that women have significantly higher mortality rates when the have had a heart attack, due to extremely disproportionate(cont)

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Anonymous OP 3d

Respectfully, 2 things can be true at once. I am in no way arguing the importance of your month. However, it can take away from BHM. It would have made just as big an impact, if not more if it was held during any of the other 11 months of the year. While you may not believe so, this is intentional. I know black women’s pain has been taken less seriously. I and every one of my female family members has experienced it. I understand that it seems I am coming from a place of ignorance but I am not.

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Anonymous OP 3d

amt of female patients who are misdiagnosed vs men. Heart attack symptoms can present differently in women. Additionally, the medical system has a dangerous tendency to misdiagnose women w anxiety, psychosomatic symptoms, drug-seeking, or simply imagining it, w/o adequate testing required to identify/rule out a heart attack. My point: research > flippant assumptions and inaccurate conclusions. Even when sharing an awareness month, one cause does not invalidate the importance of another !

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Anonymous #1 3d

Given the state of the world now and how it’s been in the past. It would be ignorant to believe there was no racial discrimination when deciding what month to place it in.

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Anonymous #1 3d

BHM is, of course, of great importance. But so is this, and so are other Feb causes. One is not more relevant than another, (plus, EVERY single month out of the year has more than one awareness cause for each month) One cause does not “take away” from another. Establishing one had nothing to do w the other. Nobody ‘sneakily cane up w a plot to target BHM by raising cardiovascular health awareness in Feb’. The establishment of one had nothing to do with the other, and there’s no secret agenda 🥲

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Anonymous #1 3d

EVERY single month has multiple causes! Nobody chose their cause’s month for the PURPOSE of intentionally taking focus away from another. So, in this case, you’re trying to say that American Heart Association (who, by the way, has an established special focus on historically underrepresented and mistreated populations) sat down, looked at a calendar and said 🧐✍️ “Hmm…let’s specifically choose Feb as Heart Health Month because we need to detract focus from specifically Black History Month”❓🤨

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Anonymous #1 3d

Every single month is an awareness month for something, no matter what month BHM was in, there would eventually be another “awareness” placed into that same month. Arguing that American heart month was specifically placed there to take away from BHM is based on nothing, and it seems like you’re choosing a fight for no reason. Like OP said, American heart month being in the same month can be seen as a good thing since it seeks to raise awareness for marginalized communities in healthcare.

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Anonymous #2 3d

Also February has Valentine’s Day, it seems way more likely that February is heart awareness month because of the heavy connotation between February and hearts….

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Anonymous OP 3d

There’s always a secret agenda, I’m not saying you personally made it or are aware of it but there definitely is. This isn’t just a month of awareness of the struggles of being black. It’s one singular month to make up for everything we’ve been through at the hands of other people, mostly white. If you can’t see that then idk what to tell you.

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Anonymous OP 3d

typo: *came

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Anonymous #2 3d

I never said it was a bad thing. Like I’ve said before, two things can be true at once. Why is it so hard to admit that our country doesn’t have everyone’s best interests in mind?

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Anonymous #1 3d

No matter what month BHM is in, there would be another awareness in that same month if BMH was in May you’d be making the same argument, if it was in November you’d say the same thing, etc. You’re arguing in completely bad faith based on no actual evidence. I agree this country definitely doesn’t have everyone’s best interests, but this is definitely not an example of that.

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Anonymous #2 3d

Just because February is an awareness month for something other than BHM, does not make it some secret racist coverup. How about you go look at some actual data and look at the awarenesses for every month. You’ll see that every month actually has more than one awareness

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Anonymous #2 3d

There aren’t enough months for every group and every health condition to have their own awareness month. It’s necessary for there to be overlap

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Anonymous #2 3d

I never said it didn’t

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Anonymous #1 3d

Then what is your argument? If you concede that no matter what month BHM will be in there will be overlap with another awareness month then why are you claiming that heart awareness month was specifically put in February to distract from Black history month? If you accept that overlap between awareness months is necessary then you accept your argument has no merit 😭

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Anonymous #2 3d

And if you say something like “heart awareness month is the most active/involved awareness month” then I’d like to see some proof of that. Cause I could not find any evidence tracking awareness month involvement online, and from my own personal experience (not scientific data, I know), breast cancer month tends to be really involved

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Anonymous #2 3d

I’m all for exposing how governments systemically discriminate against minorities, however, by making baseless claims such as this you only muddy the waters of actual proof of government discrimination and radicalize people on the other side

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Anonymous #1 3d

“how can i make myself a victim today?”

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Anonymous #2 2d

Like I’ve said before, everything is intentional. Yes there are other months that overlap w/ one another but not all of them have the same back ground as these two months. American heart month was established by Lyndon B Johnston, who was widely known as a racist. If American heart month was created within the last decade or two my argument would be invalid. During that time black people still didn’t have rights. So while AHM might help minorities now, it wasn’t made to be that way.

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Anonymous #1 2d

Black history month wasn’t officially established by the us government until 1976, and it was black students who proposed that it be celebrated in February… Black history week was a thing in February before, but it wasn’t a monthlong celebration until a decade after heart health month was a thing

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Anonymous #2 2d

So if BHM was made AFTER February was established as heart health month, and it was proposed to be in February by black people. How was it a secret racist operation? I’m genuinely curious to see how you defend this.

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Anonymous #2 2d

I was hoping you’d say that. As we know February 1926 was when Black history week was established. Starting in the early 1960s, before American heart month was established, black Americans tried to establish black history month. While this was happening, Johnston the racist established American heart month. Knowing how hard black Americans were trying for black history month. It wasn’t until 1976 when Ford officially recognized it. It wasn’t until 1986 that congress passed it.

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Anonymous #1 2d

Can you send me a single article or source that validifies your claim? I cannot find a single source corroborating any connection between BHM and American heart month. I’m not denying that LBJ wasn’t racist, but he himself was a heart attack survivor and it makes sense to push American heart month to be in February due to its connotation with hearts and Valentine’s Day

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Anonymous #2 2d

It seems like you’re just arguing based on vibes and no actual evidence. Like your just saying “LBJ was racist, so everything he did MUST have been a secret coverup to counter black people”. LBJ was racist BUT he was also a surprising champion of racial equality in policy. Maybe he did it just to get support from voters, who knows, but it is a completely baseless conspiracy to say American heart awareness month is a racist move to detract from the significance of black history month

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Anonymous #2 2d

From what I could find online, the push for BHM to become an actual month didn’t begin until 1969, which was after LBJ was many years after American heart month was established

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Anonymous #2 2d

Sorry for the typo, meant to say “which was many years after American heat month was established”

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Anonymous #2 2d

Ofc that’s what you’re going to find online. Do you think that would be found in a simple google search? Also, while Johnston appeared to help the black community, he really didn’t. Things like welfare were put in place to remove the black man out of the household. Then would even target women whose husbands were in the military. So, when they returned they couldn’t stay in the house, otherwise they’d lose their benefits. I wouldn’t expect you to know that though.

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Anonymous #1 2d

Ok, then how about you actually help me find the sources that I can’t find online? If youre not going to provide actual evidence of any legitimate connection between black history month and american heart awareness month then this entire convo has been pointless.

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Anonymous #2 2d

I’m not trying to claim that LBJ was a good person, I’m just claiming that regardless of his bigotry American Heart Month is a great awareness month that in no way detracts from black history month. And you acting like it does is just rude to people who genuinely suffer from chronic health conditions

3