best in a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed when he compared
structural racism to dust in the air: "It seems invisible — even if
you're choking on it — until you let the sun in. Then you see it's
everywhere. As long as we keep shining that light, we have a
chance of cleaning it wherever it lands."
Our organization has created an environment where people
like Lucy Li, MD, whose story begins on the previous page, feel
empowered and safe to report instances of racism. After Dr. Li
was harassed on her way home from work, we sent an email
blast to the 78,000 employees of our health system to inform
them of the incident and tell them what they should do if they
witness or face similar forms of harassment. We also hosted an
organization-wide webinar about xenophobia in the U.S. as a
direct result of COVID-19. Dr. Li participated as a speaker and
talked about her experience.
Healthcare leaders have a golden opportunity to shine a light
on problems in our system. Of course, change is never easy,
particularly when it involves overhauling a long-standing, com-
plex system. The best place to start is with data, which shows
minorities are significantly underrepresented in healthcare pro-
fessions. For example, a 2018 report from the Association of
American Medical Colleges says 56.2% of active physicians
identified as White, 17% identified as Asian, 5.8% identified as
Hispanic and 5% identified as African American.
Your first impulse might be to explain away that underrepre-
sentation, but a deeper dive into the numbers, the history of
health care and portals of entry into the system for all individu-
als will likely offer contributing factors that you weren't aware
of or never considered.
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