Thread by @stephaniemlee

NEW: In New Orleans, a group of Black doctors risked their careers to accuse their medical school of institutional racism. The year was 2020. What would it take to prove that there was a problem — and fix it?

This is an anatomy of a racial reckoning. buzzfeednews.com/article/stepha…

Princess Dennar was the first Black woman to run a medical residency program at Tulane. She alleged that her white bosses undermined her authority for a decade-plus, trying to drive her out, and her Black trainees suffered the consequences. Her claims set off a chain of events:

Lawsuits from 3 Black women (one resolved, one lost, one pending). A survey showing that many fear that Tulane ignores racism. A boycott (#DNRTulane). Dr. Dennar's demotion—then resignation.

And now, Tulane's accreditation is at risk if it doesn’t improve its diversity climate.

When Tulane went on probation in 2021, I wanted to retrace how a racial reckoning in medicine happens from the inside. I spent months interviewing people & reading tons of court records/emails/documents—including ones never before reported on.

#medtwitter buzzfeednews.com/article/stepha…

The conflict at Tulane unfolded during nationwide protests over racial injustice and police brutality. But also a pandemic that has disproportionately killed Americans of color and underscored how this country's medical workforce doesn’t reflect the patients that it cares for.

While 13% of Americans are Black, 5% of doctors are. Medical training is hard as is. For some, it can be—and at Tulane, was—extra alienating.

“We’re in the heart of New Orleans, where most of the patients look like me. Why aren’t there enough doctors here that look like me?”

Many Black women say their time at Tulane was deeply painful, and hope that it is working to implement “a school-wide cultural change,” as it says it is. But what that looks like to Tulane is not necessarily the same as it does to those who have left.

buzzfeednews.com/article/stepha…

I'm grateful to every person who spoke to me for this. I hope this can serve as a portrait of what demanding change looks and feels like on the ground during this hopeful, difficult, complicated moment in history.

buzzfeednews.com/article/stepha…