By Jonel Juste
Anjali Ramkissoon. This is a name no one really knew until now. A name we wish we knew in other circumstances rather than a fourth-year neurology resident insulting and attacking an Uber driver. Even worse, the young Miami doctor is perceived as gaining fame in the mainstream media for assaulting someone.“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”, predicted Andy Warhol. Anjali Ramkissoon surely had her 15 minutes of fame and much more. Her infamous video went viral on Youtube and her story has been covered by almost every TV station in America. As a reward of her sudden “celebrity”, Anjali has been granted a lot of interviews on national TV networks including one in a popular morning show that she quickly added to her Instagram bio as a trophy.
Anjali notably appeared on Good Morning America, basically to explain how sorry she was that her misbehavior was taped and viewed worldwide. She advised GMA viewers and we quote: “Be careful what we do in public because the things that we do can be taped and we can have to suffer severe ramifications for these things”. So the main concern is more about the fact that our actions can be taped and made public and less about the fact they are intrinsically wrong. This is the I’m-sorry-not because-I-did-wrong-but-because-I-got-caught mentality.
However, we don’t mean here to condemn Anjali. Nobody’s perfect and everyone makes mistakes. She said she was sorry she got caught and we hope she’ll be careful the next time she’ll throw another tantrum after a couple of drinks. She’ll make sure that no one is videotaping. We also wish she didn’t apologize to the Uber driver and to society just because Jackson Hospital has removed her from clinical duties after the incident. But if she did, we would understand. She’s on the brink of losing her job and we really hope her sudden fame will help her keep it (would Jackson dare firing a celebrity?). By the way, we also hope that the mainstream media will do the same favor to other people in the same situation.
No, we won’t blame that young beautiful woman, but we’ll blame the mainstream media for sending the wrong message and for rewarding the wrong person. The message sent here is that you can win big for your wrongdoing. You can gain fame for getting drunk, acting erratically, insulting an Uber driver and vandalizing his car just because your father was admitted in the hospital and your boyfriend broke up with you. Not only you’ll get away with it, but you may even appear on a primetime TV show.
The mainstream media also rewarded the wrong person. Why had Good Morning America invited the aggressor instead of the victim? The one to applaud here is not Ramkissoon— for supposedly apologizing— but the Uber driver who kept his cool under assault and didn’t even press charges. This guy is a hero! He should be the one to look up to, not Miss Tantrum. Something is wrong and unethical here. Let’s not make the wrong people famous.
jonelblog 