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T-Boz at the 2013 American Music Awards

Source: Adriana M. Barraza/WENN.com / WENN

Tionne ‘T-Boz‘ Watkins had a lot to say about a recent experience she had with medical first responders last night on Twitter. Amidst many expletives, the TLC singer let the world know she was completely over being seen as “non human” and receiving poor treatment from healthcare professionals.

In a series of tweets and replies from yesterday, without going into detail about what exactly she was experiencing physically, T-Boz called out first responders who she felt didn’t take their jobs or the standard of doing everything in their power to help those suffering with health emergencies seriously.

“I am tired of these sorry a– so called 1st responders who really don’t hv a passion 4 their job or people! Playing the ‘you need me’ position! Having attitudes & not doing the job you chose as a career!” she said. “I swear they got one more time & I’m slapping the sh-t out somebody.”

When a user replied to the tweet saying that some first responders and doctors alike will treat you as though they don’t care about your life, T-Boz responded, saying “they automatically treat you like your [sic] uneducated and assume you have no knowledge.”

Continuing in the replies, Boz added, “I’m just venting and I know because I’ve been dealing with these idiots for 50yrs now since birth and we ALWAYS HV ISSUES TRUST

In a memoir the performer released back in 2017 called A Sick Life: TLC ‘n Me: Stories from On and Off the Stage, T-Boz opened up in-depth about her struggles with sickle cell disease and how it’s affected both her life and career. While in conversation about excerpts from her book, she discussed how rumors spread about her illness back in the ’90s before the social media era due to her constantly having to be in the hospital.

“I was in and out of hospitals a lot—although most people didn’t know why,” T-Boz said. “And every time I went in, aching from the pain of my sickle cell disease, I’d hear people muttering to each other. They’d ask, ‘Does she have any symptoms?’ They meant, ‘Does she have AIDS?'”

“I could feel people whispering about me, assuming they knew what was going on with my body. This was before social media and rumors felt more substantial,” she added. “It was harder for them to spread, so any that did had real force behind them.”

After sharing her frustration in tweets this week, T-Boz thanked all the first responders who were doing everything in their power to do right by their patients. She said she was simply tired of being treated like someone who didn’t deserve competent and compassionate healthcare. In her eyes, every human does.

“Thank u for the true 1st responders who truly love their job & people risking it all to save lives,” she wrote. “While still being thorough and compassionate and treating us like humans. Bcuz imma tell the next b—h if u dint like your job I can help you [sic] not come back or limp back to work tomm [sic].”
“So just venting but we patients are getting tired of being treated non human,” she added.

Tucked away in the replies to the last tweet, user @Tomas_Mier asked “Are you safe now, though??” to which T-Boz answered, “I was only on the phone this time…so yes I am safe thank u.”

Even though T-Boz’s recent exchange was over the phone, when considering the harsh words she had for first responders she had to deal with, whoever was supposed to be providing her some semblance of care clearly wasn’t doing their job. Black women have been raising their voices in an effort to gain better access to inclusive and compassionate care for so long, it’s no surprise that T-Boz, who has been a national spokesperson for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, is using her voice. No matter how she put it out there, at least she’s making sure her voice as a person suffering from a chronic and incurable illness is being heard.

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