Nevada RNformation - March 2011

March, April, May 2021 Nevada RNformation • Page 3
The President’s Message continued from page 1
trouble’ by either submitting an op-ed for the next
RNFormation or making a comment online.
Below is a verbatim article from Nursing Clio, an
open access, peer-reviewed, collaborative blog that
presents the case against Nightingale and a link to
where you can join the conversation. Given that
the ANA and the WHO have continued the Year of
the Nurse into 2021, I believe it is appropriate for us
to carry on the conversation that gained so much
attention with Nightingale’s 200th birthday celebration.
The Racist Lady with the Lamp
By Natalie Stake-Doucet
SOURCE: Nursing Clio 11/5/2020
Nursing historiography is centered on whiteness.
Even worse, nursing history revolves largely around
a single white nurse: Florence Nightingale. This,
unfortunately, doesn’t mean nurses understand who
Nightingale was. There are nurse historians doing
incredible and diverse work, but in general, nursing,
both as a profession and as an academic discipline,
promotes a view of Nightingale based in a culture of
white supremacy rather than historical facts. Here,
I make explicit Nightingale’s role in British colonial
violence by analyzing some of her writings on the
British colonies. This history allows us to better discuss
the consequences of her legacy in nursing.
Indigenous traditions offended the “cleanliness”
ideal of Victorian Britain. Miasma theory conveniently
supported British supremacy and was a pillar of
public health until the end of the 19th century. More
importantly, it was a political weapon to destroy
Indigenous health and wellness traditions, as it labelled
anything non-British or non-Christian as “filthy.” It is
inaccurate to assume that when Nightingale speaks
of “cleanliness” it is somehow detached from its
ideological roots. When she speaks of cleanliness, filth,
or foulness, there is always an implicit Christian bias.
She could never have supported any form Indigenous
health practices because they were not based in
Christian values.
Natalie Stake-Doucet is a registered nurse, activist,
and PhD candidate. She is passionate about nursing
history, and she studies the socio-political structure of
hospitals in relation to nurses and nursing work.
You can add your opinions and start some ‘good
trouble’ for yourself at the link below
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/178101 or
https://meaww.com/year-of-the-nurse-2020-florencenightingale-racist-anti-feminist-legacy-allegations-innursing-200
An opposite view and a response from the
Nightingale Society can be found at the link below.
http://nightingalesociety.com/published-articles/
defending-florence-nightingales-reputation-kai-tiakinursing-new-zealand/
Some other references are below to help you with
your journey into what may be ‘good trouble’ for you
too.
‘A Letter From Florence Nightingale’. (1924, 1 July). Kai Tiaki:
The Journal of the Nurses of New Zealand, Vol 17(3),
p123. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/
KT19240701.2.35
Rodgers, J A. (1985). Nursing Education in New Zealand,
1883 to 1930: The Persistence of the Nightingale
Ethos. MA thesis, Massey University, Palmerston North.
https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/6274
McDonald, L. (Ed.). (2004). Florence Nightingale on Public
Health Care – Collected Works of Florence Nightingale,
Volume 6. Waterloo, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University
Press, pp 183-5.
Nightingale, F., & National Association for the Promotion
of Social Science. (1865). Note on the aboriginal races
of Australia: a paper read at the annual meeting of
the National Association for the Promotion of Social
Science, held at York, September, 1864. Retrieved from
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t07w6pn5d
Waitangi Tribunal. (2019). Hauora – Report on Stage One
of the Health Services and Outcomes Kaupapa Inquiry.
Lower Hutt: Legislation Direct. Retrieved from https://
forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_
DOC_152801817/Hauora%20W.pdf
Please send comments to this article to the
RNFormation Editor (lbowman@nvnurses.org), and let
us know if we can publish your comment,
Respectfully yours,
Nightingale and Colonialism
What is rarely discussed in nursing history is
Nightingale’s racism and her political role in the
genocide of Indigenous people under British rule. She
counseled many key political figures and her writings
on the subject show that she was a staunch supporter
of British colonialism, even with the knowledge of the
death and destruction left in its wake. She believed
Indigenous lives were a small price to pay for the
expansion of the British Empire. Although some of her
contemporaries recognized the brutality of the colonial
system, Nightingale believed imposing British culture
to be necessary. Anything else, she believed, “would
be simply preserving their barbarism for the sake of
preserving their lives.” 1
This racist statement by Florence Nightingale is one
of many. Thanks to digitization efforts, her writings
are now accessible, and it’s easy to find sources that
reveal Nightingale’s racism. She was steadfast in her
belief of the supremacy of white Christian culture. By
her own accounts, Nightingale considered Indigenous
peoples to be inferior, and the British state to be a
“civilizing” force. The quote above is from Nightingale’s
Sanitary Statistics of Native Colonial Schools and
Hospitals, published in 1863, a report commissioned
by the Colonial Office of the British government. In it,
she concluded that the high death rates of Indigenous
people in colonial schools and hospitals reflected the
haste of British authorities to assimilate them. She
felt assimilation should be more gradual in order to
minimize the death toll, but she had no issue with the
death toll itself: “Every society which has been formed
has had to sacrifice large proportions of its earlier
generation to the new conditions of life arising out of
the mere fact of change.” 2
In the report, Nightingale defended the deaths
of Indigenous children in the Canadian precursors
to residential schools: “There is nothing in the school
education as described in the returns, sufficient to
account for the special prevalence of tubercular
diseases in these schools. The causes must probably be
looked for in the close foul atmosphere of the native
dwelling.” 3 Her comments on the Canadian situation
were indicative of her larger position: that the deaths
of Indigenous people was due to habits of Indigenous
people themselves, and that British rule catalyzed a
process of “decay” already in motion.
Victorian “Cleanliness” and Miasma Theory as
Ideological Weapons
It is important to understand the meaning of
cleanliness within the Victorian era and for Nightingale.
Cleanliness was a synonym for purity, and the Victorian
rituals attached to it came with a sense of godly
supremacy. 4 It is beyond the scope of this article to
discuss the ideological roots of the term, but it went
hand in hand with the miasma theory of disease,
which Nightingale believed until the end of her life.
Miasma theory held that bad smells and filth generated
disease. Filth was not just physical, it was also moral.
For example, under miasma theory, Nightingale
believed sex workers embodied evil that spontaneously
generated disease. As Nightingale explained: “When
we obey all God’s laws as to cleanliness,…, health is
the result. When we disobey, sickness.” 5
One of the few pictures of Nightingale
contemporary, Mary Seacole, (above photo by an
unknown author in the public domain)
Mary Bondmass, Ph.D., RN, CNE
President, Nevada Nurses Association
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