On Wednesday, November 18th, medical students across the nation donned their white coats and stood in solidarity with the students of color at Mizzou and Yale. Members of White Coats for Black Lives demonstrated support for undergraduate students currently protesting racism on their campuses by participating in teach-ins and sharing photos on social media. Over 30 medical schools participated and posted photos with the hashtag #medstudents4mizzou.
Students were encouraged to think about and discuss the racism we see on our campuses, in our clinics, and in medical institutions at large. Mizzou may have been the school that made news headlines, but it is important to realize that no place is immune from the complexities of institutionalized racism. We must consider how we might exemplify racial justice in the spaces where we live, study and work. The field of medicine has historically done a poor job of addressing the consequences of racism on the health of its patients and often leaves these patients ill, voiceless and powerless. We are committed to engaging in advocacy in order to bring this discussion to the forefront and implement change.
White Coats for Black Lives is encouraged by future medical professionals who will to utilize their positions of power to dismantle insidious systems which have tolerated racism and detrimentally impacted the health of people of color. We look forward to engaging in a profession that will make it a priority to treat all lives as valuable and worthy of fair and equal treatment, regardless of the color of their skin.
