A Black Georgia nurse says a routine conversation with a patient took an uncomfortable turn when answering “Georgia” apparently wasn’t enough. After repeatedly explaining that she was from the state, Alisha says the patient eventually asked a question that made her realize what she believed the woman was really trying to find out: “How did you get here?”
In the video, posted to TikTok by Alisha, who goes by @therealrnbarbie, she recounts the exchange directly to the camera. “My patient asked me where I was from. I said Georgia.”
She says the patient kept asking after she answered and pressed her about where she was originally from. According to Alisha, the patient then asked, “No, like how did you get here?”
Alisha responded that her parents had sex and her mother gave birth to her at South Fulton Hospital. She says the patient still wasn’t finished and asked whether she was actually born in Georgia. “Yes, ma’am,” Alisha recalled answering.
She closes the account with a pointed reply she gave the patient. “There is still racism alive because we originate from everywhere, ma’am.” She adds, “I didn’t come from Africa because I know that’s what you’re asking me.”
The Patient Wanted Her Origin Story
Some commenters imagined how they would have answered the Georgia patient. “I would’ve told her I was from Wakanda and that prince T Challa was my dad,” one commenter said.
Several viewers pushed back on the assumption that being Black means being from somewhere else. “Asking a black American where they are from when we’ve been here over 5 centuries is crazy,” someone shared. Others similarly questioned why a Black American should be assumed to have come from another country.
Several nurses and healthcare workers of color related specifically to dealing with comments like this on the job. “They try to put you in a box with their micro aggressions, making it JUST uncomfortable enough while they get to say whatever they want because they know we still are going to do our jobs. It’s so annoying and disgusting,” one wrote. Another described a similar exchange with a patient who stopped using the call bell entirely after being told to “ask your ancestors.”
Not every commenter read the question as inherently racist, though. One pushed back directly, arguing that asking about someone’s background doesn’t automatically point to prejudice. “My patients always ask me what nationality I am as well. It doesn’t point to racism. You could be from a variety of places. Sometimes it’s just to have a conversation,” they wrote.
For Alisha, though, the repeated questioning crossed a line. She had already said she was from Georgia, and when the patient kept asking where she was “originally” from, she believed she knew what the patient meant.
The comments show that not everyone interpreted the exchange the same way. Some saw the repeated question as the kind of assumption they have dealt with themselves, while others thought the patient may have simply been trying to learn more about Alisha’s background. Either way, Alisha had already answered: She’s from Georgia.
