ANCA leads national opposition to Dr. Oz over reckless scapegoating  of Armenian community

ArmInfo.  The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) filed a federal civil rights complaint today with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over Dr. Mehmet Oz's reckless scapegoating against Americans of Armenian heritage - as part of a strategic ANCA advocacy and media campaign that generated a growing nationwide wave of intense  opposition to Dr.  Oz's racist fear-mongering.

  The complaint, filed on January 30, builds on immediate ANCA  mobilization following Dr. Oz's January 27-28 posting of a video on  official Health and Human Services social media accounts that  ethnically profiled Armenian-owned businesses in Los Angeles' Van  Nuys neighborhood. ANCA's swift response triggered a cascade of  condemnation from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who filed his own  civil rights complaint, and Congressional, state, and local leaders  who denounced the ethnic scapegoating. Oz serves as Administrator of  the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in the U.S.   Department of Health and Human Services. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom quickly condemned Dr. Oz's actions  across multiple public statements. In an initial tweet, Governor  Newsom stated: "Our office is reviewing reports that Dr. Mehmet Oz  targeted the Armenian American community in Southern California  recently - making racially charged claims of fraud outside  Armenian-owned businesses, including a popular bakery. Given the  historic sensitivities involved, we are taking these allegations  seriously. Any and all acts of hate have no place in California."

On January 29, Governor Newsom announced his office was filing a  civil rights complaint with U.S. Department of Health and Human  Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR), stating Dr. Oz "spewed  baseless and racially charged allegations targeting the Armenian  community in Los Angeles."

In his official complaint letter, Governor Newsom wrote: "Such  racially charged and false public statements by anyone involved in  administering these critical federal healthcare programs seriously  risk chilling participation in those programs by individuals targeted  by the statements. They also reflect discriminatory animus, and  reveal a discriminatory motive that could infect how investigations  of alleged fraud are conducted. The risk of those harms is compounded  when the statements came from the top decision maker at CMS.  Additionally, Dr. Oz's comments have already caused real world harm,  as the bakery targeted by his comments reported a 30% drop in sales  after this video's release."

The ANCA mobilized across multiple fronts - coordinating  Congressional outreach, engaging national and local media, activating  its grassroots network, and providing legal analysis of civil rights  violations. The organization's efforts secured widespread national  media coverage from the Associated Press, USA Today, Washington Post,  and CBS News. Through online social media and news coverage, the  ANCA's response educated millions of Americans about Dr. Oz's ethnic  profiling and Armenian American calls for justice.