An important essay appeared in JAMA Internal Medicine recently. It begins:
I was in medical school when I learned that I did not matter in medicine.
One particular day on service started uneventfully. However, after the team’s discussion of a patient, all attention turned toward me when a senior physician asked me a question about the rap music that had been playingin the background.
“Help me understand something:” I recall the physician saying. The physician asked about word choice in rap lyrics, and then, pretending to quote a rap song, repeated the word “nigger” several times in rapid-fire succession.
Most of us will benefit from reading it: Download Mensah JAMA For more on the three levels of racism see: CP Jones: Levels of racism: the gardener's tale.