On Monday, 76-year-old Marion Barry tweeted a message of thanks to God and the Filipino staff that cared for him after suffering a blood clot this weekend in Las Vegas. “Got a blood clot while waiting on plane in Memphis,” he tweeted, “I also thank outstanding medical staff, incl. kind professional Filipino staff. I stand corrected; I truly didn’t mean to hurt or offend.” If the shout out seems odd (well, more odd than his usual statements), it’s because only a month ago Barry spoke brashly about Filipinos and other immigrants who work in hospitals in addition to calling Asian-owned businesses in D.C. “dirty”.
“It’s so bad, that if you go to the hospital now, you find a number of immigrants who are nurses, particularly from the Philippines. And no offense, but let’s grow our own teachers, let’s grow our own nurses — and so that we don’t have to be scrounging around in our community clinics and other kinds of places — having to hire people from somewhere else.”
Ordered to stay on blood thinners and exercise every day, Barry was released on Monday and attended the International Council of Shopping Centers—the reason for his visit.
