Thread by @jbcarmody

Back when I was an intern, I was chatting with the grandmother of one of my patients.

Her granddaughter was about to begin 9th grade, and she recalled how excited she’d been to start high school herself - but the school was closed.

I was puzzled. I didn’t know what she meant.

She was talking about Massive Resistance.

After Brown v. Board of Education, Virginia’s governor had an idea to avoid desegregating the state’s schools.

The federal government can’t force you to integrate the public schools... if there are no public schools to integrate.

So rather than letting white and black children attend school together, many Virginia schools shut down completely.

Most white children attended private schools. Many black children got no education at all.

My patient’s grandmother missed out on high school because of this.

I know this isn’t news for most people. But shamefully, at the time, it was to me.

And I’m a lifelong Virginian. I live in the very area where schools were closed. I even attended VA public schools - where a VA history course is *still* required.

Of course, I’m also white.

I grew up in a small town. I used to wonder why there were no black students at my school.

Only when I was researching my town history for a high school project did I learn that my hometown had been the site of a famous lynching.

newspapers.com/clip/4966757/l…

I played basketball in high school. Several of our local rivals used the nickname “Rebels,” with logos that prominently featured the Confederate flag. One still does today.

I think about that now. I didn’t back then.

usat.ly/1Lnn6dD

When I was in medical school, I used to run past a statue of Robert E. Lee.

For me, it was just a convenient landmark around the two-mile mark of my run.

Not long ago, that statue was the focal point of a white supremacist, neo-Nazi rally.

When I was in fellowship, my office was in a building named after a former dean - and eugenicist.

To get there, I’d walk through basement hallways and joke that they looked like an old dungeon. Turns out, they were the old wards for ‘colored’ patients.

news.virginia.edu/content/uva-an…

These days, I work at a hospital in a city where many neighborhoods remain starkly divided between black and white.

Matter of fact, those racial divides look a lot like this map from 1940, where high-risk investment areas for mortgage lenders were highlighted in red.

I’ve lived my whole life in a state with a hateful and shameful racial history, from Jamestown in 1619 to the streets of Richmond or Hampton this week.

Much of that ugly history is hidden in plain sight. Privilege blinds. It’s easier to choose not to see it.

I don’t like to think of myself as racist. Working for inclusiveness and equity in medical education is a big part of what I’ve been trying to do lately. But I’m not proud of ignoring the historical events and ongoing institutional racism that make our country worse.

I’m not sharing this because I’ve had some grand epiphany, or because seeing things that were in front of my eyes all along makes me a good guy.

I’m sharing it because I care about my patients, and I care about justice, and I care about equality. I care enough about those things to want to be a part of the solution, and to work against racism - whether overt, or symbolic, or institutional.