In medicine, the people who know the least about structural racism have the most power to control how our field understands and addresses racism's impact on health. These folks are hospital executives, NIH leaders, journal editors, and chairs. They are also mostly white (men).
As a result, the medical canon remains in this perpetual cycle of racism 101, where scholars are asked to simply explain racism. So rather than funding, publishing, and implementing critical work that might address (or even eliminate) racism and its impacts, we just describe it.
Imagine if a cure for kidney disease was developed. But every article on the cure had to begin with a review of basic kidney anatomy, "because some people just aren't comfortable enough with the basics to talk about cures." There would be an outcry! And rightfully so.
And yet we continue to center those least informed about racism in our field's approach to addressing its impacts. Scholars have to answer editors' questions about readers' "comfort" and teach basic history and definitions before imagining new systems to end health inequities.
This centering allows ignorance about structural racism, which germane to white racial dominance, to shape our field's science and interventions. So if you are a leader in healthcare - challenge your own ignorance. Teach yourself. Do the work. So the field can advance.
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