Medicine/Surgery/Academia have a race and gender problem. So what are we going to do about it? We're going to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. #MedTwitter #BlackMedTwitter #MedStudentTwitter #BlackintheIvory
Before we can even get into the issues within medicine, we need to address the idea that because we are medical professionals we are exempt from having to deal with the issues that often happen right outside our doors. i.e. injustice, discrimination, racism
My white coat does not protect me from being a Black woman in America. And my privilege to wear one has been accomplished in spite of a system that was built to stop me from wearing one. So for me the world outside my ivory tower and inside it are interchangeable.
I watched George Floyd's lynching one evening before bed. I watched him scream out for his mother. I watched my SM feeds fill with outrage from Black America. I cried myself to sleep that night. The next day. I woke up, put on my white coat and worked a 24 hour shift in the ED.
I saw patient after patient. I called my mom in between traumas to tell her I loved her. I text my brothers to tell them I missed them. I poured myself into 7 more 24 hour shifts over the next 3 weeks, protesting on my off days. Raging quietly while in the hospital.
In the words of James Baldwin “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” That was/is me most days. When I take off my white coat, I am still a Black American trying to comprehend why my life still doesn't matter.
This experience, this Blackness, is not something I asked for. But, it is something I am so proud of. To some, I am just a token/diversity hire that doesn't deserve my spot. To Black people, I represent dreams/aspirations that were denied to too many of us for too long.
The fight for social justice does not stop at the doors of the ivory tower. It is time for doctors of all backgrounds to come down and join the fight. Oppression/discrimination towards one group serves as the blueprint to oppress and discriminate against other groups.
It is time for doctors and medicine as an institution to acknowledge how our history and current practices play a significant role in continue to propagate white supremacist values and ideas that cause direct harm to underserved and marginalized communities.
Being a surgeon is difficult. Being a female surgeon adds another layer of difficulty. Being a Black female surgeon adds yet another layer. Being anything other than an able-bodied cis-gendered heterosexual white male in surgery adds layers of difficulty.
I write that to be honest. I don't want to discourage anybody from pursuing a career in surgery or medicine. I write that so we can start having REAL discussions about how to change this culture/institution. Because putting out "we're going to do better" statements isn't enough
We cannot hide behind statements of "academia is slow to change" to justify why medicine cannot do better. It is simply unfair to make attempts to match URMs into environments that are not inclusive to them and expect them to thrive.
I am lucky to train in an environment that is mostly non-toxic, but even we still have plenty of work to do. Many know that I will only be the 3rd Black woman to graduate from our program. The first graduated less than a decade ago. The second 2 years ago.
We've made progress as 4, 5, and 6 are all currently training. But, frankly, in 2020 we shouldn't just be getting to the second hand. But again, this is bigger than my institution, this is a reflection of medicine and surgery as a whole.
Far too often URM/POC applicants are described as someone to "take a chance on". That statement is steeped in bias and racism. That mentality is setting that person up for failure because there is an inherent belief that they aren't qualified.
There is a difference between holding someone to a higher standard because they are capable of more and purposefully trying to ride someone into the ground to prove that they don't belong.
There should no longer be wondering why an institution "can't recruit". Look no further than the recruitment team and how they frame the discussion around applicants that exhibit any form of "otherness". The onus is not on us to fit your mold, most of us are here to break it.
