Above photo: Harvard Medical School students stage a die-in. Harvard Med School Facebook page
Students at more than 50 medical schools – in New York, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere – will protest lack of indictments for police killings in Ferguson, Mo., and New York, and to spotlight racial bias as a public health issue
What
Protests, demonstrations and “white coat die-ins” at medical schools in New York, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere (see list below) in response to the recent decisions by authorities to not bring indictments in the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York.
We as medical students feel that this is an important time for medical institutions to respond to the violence and race-related trauma, which affect our communities and the patients we serve.
We feel it is essential to begin a conversation about our role in addressing the explicit and implicit discrimination and racism in our communities and reflect on the systemic biases embedded in our medical education curricula, clinical learning environments, and administrative decision-making. We believe these discussions are needed at academic medical centers nationwide.
Who
Medical students
When
3 p.m. Eastern Time (check local actions; list below), Wednesday, Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day
Why
Racial bias and violence are not exclusively a problem of the criminal justice system. As we have seen in Ferguson, Mo., New York, and countless other places, bias kills, sickens, and provides inadequate care. As medical students, we must take a stand against the oppression of our black and brown patients, colleagues, friends, and family. By standing together at medical schools nationwide, we hope to demonstrate that the medical student community views racial violence as a public health crisis. We are #whitecoats4blacklives.
Where
Medical schools across the country, including but not limited to:
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York
Boston University School of Medicine, Boston
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland
Charles R. Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program, Los Angeles
Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University, Chicago
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons , New York
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles
Duke University School of Medicine, Durham
Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac, North Haven
George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C.
Harvard Medical School, Boston
Howard University College of Medicine, Washington DC
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore
Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Chicago
Meharry Medical College, Nashville
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, East Lansing
New York Medical College, Valhalla
New York University School of Medicine, New York
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago
Rush Medical College, Chicago
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia
SUNY Downstate College of Medicine , Brooklyn
Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia
Touro University California College of Medicine, Vallejo
Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston
University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix
University of California Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine , San Diego
University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati
University of Illinois College of Medicine , Chicago
University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana Champaign, Urbana
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore
University of Massachusetts Medical School , Worcester
University of Medicine and Health Sciences, St. Kitts
University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor
University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh
University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond
Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence
Washington University School of Medicine , St. Louis
Weill Cornell Medical College, New York
Yale School of Medicine, New Haven
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This initiative has been endorsed by Students for a National Health Program, part of Physicians for a National Health Program ( www.pnhp.org ), an organization more 19,000 physicians, health professionals, medical and health professional students who advocate for universal, single-payer, improved Medicare for all.