I went to medical school in Charlottesville. I know white anger well

[JHan]

For four years, my task was to learn to treat people who were sick. Even the ones who wore their Confederate pride openly, even the ones who threatened to shoot me on home health visits. My task was to learn from experienced physicians how to help people get well. Even when they witnessed racist behavior directed toward me. Even when they glossed over that bigotry.

The response to the violence in Charlottesville has had its fair share of denial — people saying, this is not the city I know, the protesters came from elsewhere, this is not the America I know.

Such statements are infuriating.

In Charlottesville, this was exactly the America I knew. This was the Virginia I knew. This was the medicine I knew. Even on graduation day, one the happiest days of my life, my family broke bread at a restaurant I later learned was owned by a man affiliated with the University of Virginia who had made controversial and racist statements.

This is the quiet racism of every day — the small transgressions that we gloss over in our daily lives. The outrage that only comes when men carrying tiki torches march openly. The America I know tolerates racism as long as it’s quiet, as long as it doesn’t cause a scene. Until it kills an innocent protester.

*snip*

As for me, a few weeks ago, an angry patient kept referring to me as “that woman.” Another patient refused to look at me, a black doctor, as she believed black people, “are more prone to violence.”

This is the America I know, the medicine I know. Bigotry in a hospital gown — it’s a risk I face every day when I go into work.

But, during the first incident, a nurse intervened, reminding the patient that I was her doctor, Dr. Okwerekwu, and deserved her respect. And during the second incident, my attending spoke up, telling the patient that her views were misinformed.

And after the second incident, my attending asked me how I was doing, how I was coping. That woman hadn’t been the first patient that week to spew racism. A team social worker, an occupational therapist, and even a medical student I was working with offered their support.

What happened when I talked about what others ignore — racism in medicine
This is the America I want. The medicine I aspire to.

https://www.statnews.com/2017/08/14/charlottesville-protest-white-anger/

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[SonofDonald]

2. So sorry to hear your tale

And so happy that you got through it and kept after your dreams, congratulations.

I hope your career is fulfilling and you continue on and prosper.

Thank you.

[Tavarious Jackson]

3. In very liberal Portland OR

It is the whitest and most racist city in USA. Who would have thunk?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. The history of Portland explains how white and racist it is.

They officially did not let black people live there for a very long time.

[Enoki33]

4. The good doctor is so correct. Racism is tolerated as long

as it does not make a scene. It is the subtle form, the one that seems to naturally think the worst that often is the cruelest. She is in possession of a degree of courage that not many are capable of fully understanding. She has my utmost respect.

[JHan]

11. Well said, I agree.

[GeoWilliam750]

15. +2

[iluvtennis]

6. Wow, just wow...someone who is sick and in need of a doctor not wanting a doctor of color to treat..

...them. I am just outraged at such ignorance. Doing my deep breathing to keep from puking at such hatred.

Thanks for posting this article.

[LittleGirl]

7. I'm going to share something

my sister did. In 1997, she was in a boating accident in Michigan and was taken to a hospital in Detroit for treatment and they amputated her arm. She was drugged up on morphine the whole time and she was belligerent to the nurses or doctors. She screamed at one nurse (my Mother saw this) and she said, I don't want that N* bitch touching me. I lived in Arizona so I couldn't visit for a few weeks.

My sister and I haven't spoken in nearly 5 years and unfortunately, I ran into her in town last year on a visit back to see my Mother. I hate my sister for many reasons but her racism is one I cannot understand or tolerate. I can't believe we came from the same womb.

[JHan]

12. I know how difficult that is,

how does your mother react to her behavior ( I'm curious , if you don't want to share that's okay as well)

[LittleGirl]

14. She was disgusted

My mother and I are strong liberals. She accepted my spouse who is an Indian (Asian) without any issues. She loves him as much as I do. well, you know, almost as much. My mother grew up in the south as a child of a share cropper. She worked right along blacks in the fields. She doesn't have a racist bone in her body. My sister didn't learn that from family, she learned it from red neck Hoosiers in Indiana.

[zentrum]

8. And it's the Charlottesville...

.....that always seemed that way from far away too.

[thbobby]

9. Racism is alive and thriving

From the grotesque display at Charlottesville to the sneaky and sublime we all see and choose to ignore.

I have often said, "Don't argue with idiots". I believe this may be a cowardly and enabling view of confronting racism.

I see racism in my Texas town often. I asked a 70-year-old neighbor his opinion of Obama. He said, "I just think they should stay on their own side of the tracks". I did not believe it was worth confronting him. 70 years old and a set in his ways, a bigot. I do not believe he is a hater. He is ignorant.

But he is a mild form of racism I encounter in North Texas. It is overwhelming. I believe I am wrong about not arguing with them. It must be confronted, exposed, and debunked with great vigor.

Racism is taught in schools, churches, family. It is tolerated in almost all social situations.

If we tolerate it, we are complicit. I am complicit and my beliefs about ignoring it were wrong. I am a 60-year-old white man. I have always known how prevalent racism is. I truly regret the times when I have not confronted it as vigorously as it deserved.

I am just so overwhelmed by it. And I am not the target of it.

[gristy]

10. I've read your post here with great interest...

I'm sure others have too. Thanks for writing.

[JHan]

13. Ty for this +++++