It is far too late, and it has cost too much, but 2020 will be remembered as the year where white people of my generation began, in incremental amounts, to wake up to racism against Black people. Unfortunately, this revelation, this movement, awakened by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (to name only a fraction!), does not seem to have reached the medical field.
As allies, we have a responsibility to start speaking up in the hopes that a movement can be started within medical practice, where equality and equity should come not only to Black people, but also other minorities, women, and the LGBTQIA2S communities. As allies, the first step is to learn; the following is a list of resources specific to the issue of race within the medical field. Let's start here, and move forward.
1. Medical Apartheid - Harriet A. Washington
"[Harriet A. Washington] has unearthed an enormous amount of shocking information and shaped it into a riveting, carefully documented book."
- New York Times
Winner:
National Book Critics Circle Award For Nonfiction
Pen Oakland/Josephine Miles Annual National Literary Award
Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award
"A selection of articles on race and medicine, with implications for improving patient care, professional training, research, and public health."
- NEJM
3. Black Man In A White Coat - Damon Tweedy
"'I always enjoyed reading medical stories…but so few talked about race,' he explained. 'So I wrote the book I wanted to read.'"
- Damon Tweedy
4. Taylor and Kelly's Dermatology For Skin Of Color - Susan C. Taylor, A. Paul Kelly, Henry W. Lim, Ana Maria Anido Serrano
"Acclaimed by The Journal of the American Medical Association as the first comprehensive reference on the subject, the first edition of Dermatology for Skin of Color won two PROSE Awards from the Association of Academic Publishers for excellence in Clinical Medicine and for excellence in Biology and Life Sciences. The book was recognized not only for the importance of the topic, but for the quality of the text, photographs, organization, and features."
- Foreword to the 2nd Edition