After the news broke that a Virginia nurse allegedly harmed newborns on Monday (Jan. 6), Black Twitter lost their minds.
Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, 26, was charged with malicious wounding and felony child abuse, as stated in court records and by the Henrico County Police Division. The arrest was a result of the police investigating three different babies that suffered “unexplained fractures” in the newborn care unit of Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond November and December.
Black folks on social media didn’t take any of this lightly—especially because The Daily Mail reported that Strotman was allegedly targeting Black newborns. At least one of the babies were Black, as verified by CBS 6.
One user, @queenie4rmnola, tweeted out the obvious if the allegations against Strotman are true. “If I’m telling you that black babies were tortured by a white nurse and your response is, why are you making this about race? I want you to understand you’re part of the problem,” she stated.
Another user, @MrReynolds52, agreed with her. He also used it as an opportunity to address the political hypocrisy behind the lack of conservative outrage.
“Where is the outrage from the Republicans and others who are always making loud noise on X about illegal immigrant crime,” he pointed out. “This is absolute EVIL!”
Another personality, @TheAfroElite, also tried to take a political angle but got part of it wrong. “The medical industry is full of suspected white supremacists, this is why we need a Black hate crime law,” they stated.
However, there is a Black hate crime law—it’s called the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which authorizes the prosecution for white supremacists who commit violent acts. In 2022, President Biden also signed into law the first federal legislation to make lynching a hate crime, addressing a history of racist killings in the United States.
Another person, @ibchele, was much more concise regarding their view on Strotman’s alleged behavior. “May Karma find her in prison!” they wrote.
If found guilty, Strotman faces a maximum of a decade in prison for the felony child neglect charge and 20 years for the malicious wounding charge.