race and medicine

on being the only one like me

I am not a good tourist. I drove from North Carolina to California for my research year in medical school like it was a job. I drove 8 hours a day and spent the night in a hotel, not once deviating off the freeway to explore whatever sights. Every time I travel for a work meeting, I’m in and out of the city as quickly as possible, rarely having an inkling of regret for not having explored the city.

Yet when I was invited to speak at the Indian Society of Nephrology last year, I accepted. In part because the academic world I lived in at the time said I needed to have an “international presence” to advance my career. And also because they were flying me business class and paying me a little bit of money. Had it been coach and just for my CV, then somebody would have needed to explain to me, Why should I do this again? like I was “this many” years old.

"angry black woman" is the new n*gger

Scrolling through Twitter today, I came across the headline “Democratic commentator Hilary Rosen comes under fire for telling Nina Turner she misunderstood MLK’s words.” The headline was trending, so I was clearly not the only one intrigued. Digging deeper, I found a video in which Hilary Rosen, a White woman and Democratic political strategist, attempted to shout down Nina Turner, a Black woman and national co-chair for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, on a segment of CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time in defense of the Biden campaign.

Understandably, there was a “Oh hell no, no she didn’t” moment. But when Hilary Rosen tweeted, “I’m horrified that anyone would think I would call Nina Turner “an angry black woman” I would NEVER!! After the TV hit last night, I was getting tons of ugly messages to keep fighting her using that phrase,” it was then that I Oprah knew for sure that “angry Black woman” was the new nigger. A label meant to incite outrage. A label meant to put the offender on the defensive.

reflections of a victim of unconscious bias

A few weeks ago, a primary care physician colleague (white man)—who I’ve known for over a decade—sent me the note below by way of our mutual patient’s caregiver (white man) open, not in a secured envelope.  In the past nearly 4 years the patient has been under my care, the colleague has not once reached out to me by email, phone, text, tweet, telegraph, or carrier pigeon regarding our patient.

 

He did, however, reach out to my boss (white man) and a hospital executive (white man) a few months ago when the caregiver (reminder, white man) first complained no one in the dialysis unit was listening to him (though the caregiver has never spoken to me directly about his concerns because, I just learned, he found me “intimidating”).

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irrelevant words matter

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It was Friday afternoon and the last patient of the clinic day had arrived. A new patient to me. While the medical assistant asked her screening questions (Do you smoke cigarettes? Do you have pain? Have you fallen recently?) and checked his vitals (blood pressure, heart rate, weight), I started to get to know him through his medical record. I began with the clinic referral to find out why he was in my clinic in the first place. Would I be figuring out why he had an electrolyte problem (like low potassium levels) or thousands of grams of protein in his urine (when normal is less than 30 milligrams)? Or would I find the usual, a case of irreversible kidney damage caused by high blood pressure and/or diabetes? The first line read: 70 year-old formerly incarcerated man with recent hospital admission for…