We Need All Hands On Deck

There is a lifetime of work to do to become an anti-racist and fully inclusive institution and society. For us to get there, the movement will need to include all of us. Those of us who represent our country’s dominant norms—white, non-disabled, straight, cisgender—must add our privilege to the fight. It will take deep learning, concerted effort, critical analysis and thinking, and reframing long-standing perceptions of self and society. Nevertheless, we cannot wait any longer. 

Build Up Racial Stamina

Unpacking racism in our professional and personal lives will bring up arguments, silence, and stress. Without these conversations, however, we will not move forward. Part of what makes conversation around racism difficult is a lack of racial stamina and racial self-awareness in white people. 

 In a society where whiteness is protection against experiencing systemic and institutional racism, there has been no need to think about that identity regularly, if at all. So when the long list of how white supremacy exists in our society is put in front of us, we engage defense systems. Those defense systems can manifest in a variety of ways. These include retreating from the conversation entirely because it is too stressful and upsetting, or thinking that others are saying that you have not worked for what you have.  

 The inability to acknowledge and confront this socialization creates the lack of racial stamina. To build it and move the conversation forward, an honest reflection on each part of our identity is paramount. Have conversations about race with your white friends and family. Bring up an awareness of racial identity with the children and young people in your life and keep having those conversations with them. And when it feels like it’s just too much, that’s when you really need to keep going. Do not continue to insulate yourself. 

Psychological Safety

Psychological safety a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. The term was coined by Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson, who found that higher performing teams reported higher error rates rather than lower ones. This was due to the creation of, and adherence to, a psychologically safe environment where team members were welcomed to take risks, because they did not fear mistakes. Being held accountable to our mistakes is a difficult pill to swallow, even in the most familiar of settings and relationships. It is the ability to acknowledge and take ownership of a mistake made and then act on course correction that will move us forward. 

Creating psychological safety is a way to begin engaging with this work. Without psychological safety, it is difficult to explore conversations around our power and privileges, and we build walls rather than bridges of understanding and compassion. If we continue the narrative of “I can’t say anything right these days” and perpetuate fear around discussing race, then we will never move the needle. 

Psychological safety is not a “no discomfort zone.” Rather, it is an opportunity to challenge our ideas and thoughts, and promote learning and growth. Change is always uncomfortable, but without it, we stay stagnant.

Identity as Insight

Each of us carries a variety of social identities—
defined categories or identities that are socially constructed, but have very real sociopolitical status, which create barriers or opportunities for specific groups. Whether assigned by ourselves or others, the power these identities carry in society is a very real phenomenon. 

Taking the time to reflect on our identities—
particularly the ones we have never needed to think about before—allows us the space to gain valuable insight into ourselves, our relationships, our institutions, and our society at large. 

If you identify as white, cisgender, able-bodied, neurotypical, straight, middle- or upper-class, or male, then this analysis should start to reveal the high value of identity currency you hold. To gain insight into other identities, we must start the process of unpacking and understanding them all. Only by creating a consciousness around the impact of identity can we begin to take down unequal power structures. 

Learning about others’ identities gives us insight into different types of lived experiences. When we function under a “color-blind” framework, our understanding falls short of and invalidates the actual lived experiences of marginalized social identities. Rather than turning a blind eye to these experiences, we can become “color-conscious,” meaning we seek to learn, understand, and validate those experiences. By doing so, we gain greater insight into the variety of human experiences in our society.

Equality vs. Equity

Differences in the power and privilege ascribed to various social identities mean that our journeys to the same finish line may seem to be the same, but obstacles and barriers can be vastly different. 

On the road to becoming a physician, a path is laid out before you. Yet, historical gatekeepers have made certain social identities into access barriers. Standardized testing, which is well documented to reinforce racial bias, offers an example. In 2019–2020, the mean MCAT score for underrepresented minorities in medicine ranged from 497.6 to 502.7. When these scores come up against admission policies with absolute minimums set above those averages, an applicant cannot get past that part of the process no matter how qualified. These policies do not consider the racist biases of standardized testing. Critics decry adjusting such thresholds as a “lowering of standards.”   

An equality framework tries to solve these wrongs by providing tools and adjustments to
everyone despite need. 

An equity framework tries to remedy this by providing resources to only those that need them. If that obstacle does not exist for you, then the resource is not provided. 

We cannot be afraid of giving different sets of opportunities to groups of people to ensure equity. When we place equity at the center of our values, we can reach a better understanding of what individuals and communities need to achieve success on a more even playing field. 

It Will Take Time

Our country’s history is steeped in anti-Blackness, which has allowed for misogyny, queer/transphobia, xenophobia, ableism, racial and ethnic discrimination, classism, and other forms of bigotry to manifest and grow. By focusing on raising our consciousness on racial identity to combat the learned anti-Blackness that we perpetuate, we then create an awareness of identity that enables us to instinctively address other forms of discrimination present in our society today. 

 All the while, we must acknowledge that those who have been affected by recent events, mainly our Black peers, will need time and healing to engage in these conversations. It is time for us to pick up our slack to do the self-reflective work we have failed to do for so long while also advocating, fighting for, and demanding justice. Until Black folks feel a sense of racial healing from a society that continues to marginalize them, we must not be afraid to engage in both the personal and systemic uprising that will be necessary for a more just world.