Emily Hays Photo
Yale pediatricians organized the protest as part of a national movement called White Coats for Black Lives. Similar protests occurred around the country at the same time.
“We are here today because we recognize that our health care system is one of the many systems contributing to structural racism,” said one of the organizers, Yale New Haven Hospital resident Molly Markowitz (pictured).
Doctors and doctors-in-training pulled on their white coats and amassed at the Sterling Hall of Medicine. So many joined that they spilled onto Cedar Street.
Another 280 or so tuned in via Zoom.
Another protest organizer, Yale pediatrician Tanya Murtha (pictured), took the megaphone briefly to remind those present to step as far apart from one another as possible. Murtha had asked everyone to wear masks and assemble outside to diminish the risks of spreading coronavirus among the protesters.
“We thought about how do we do this in a way that honors the current situation? We do not want to be talking out of two sides of our mouth,” Murtha said.
Murtha said that she had wanted to take action in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer. She said that hearing Floyd call to his mother in his final breaths helped spark her need to protest.
“It drove home for me how I don’t have to worry about my boys being safe every single day,” Murtha said.
She heard about White Coats for Black Lives and liked the idea of using her position to amplify others’ voices.
After a few minutes milling around, the speeches began. Each protest organizer made a few quick remarks and then handed the megaphone to the protest’s central speaker, YNHH resident Amanda J. Calhoun.
“I’m glad you’re here, but I have to ask — where have you been and will you stay?” said Calhoun (pictured above).
Calhoun described seeing doctors deny the racism their patients were experiencing both in their lives and at the hospital itself. She said that a higher-up had deleted her notes after she had witnessed a possible act of racism in the hospital. She called on those at the protest to listen to their black colleagues and patients and let them know that they are safe people to talk to about racism and white supremacy.
“All of your black patients experience racism. If they have not told you, it is because they do not trust you,” she said.
Calhoun talked about the importance of understanding racism to be able to do their work. She said that she hopes those teaching about health disparities between black and white Americans put them in the context of 400 years of structural racism that African Americans did not create. She said that class examples of African American patients should not all be poor, single mothers and that drug addiction should not be discussed without statistics that white Americans use more drugs but African Americans are more likely to be arrested.
Calhoun paused at points to gather herself and members of the crowd cheered, “We love you, Amanda!” She received such a roaring applause at the end of her speech that she did a small, joking bow.
Then Murtha asked those present to kneel in a moment of silence.
Calhoun has lost one of her own family members to Covid-19. She said that as a frontline worker she has not had time to grieve her uncle, who sang at her wedding and was one of the biggest supporters of her activism. She said that he would have attended on Zoom if he were alive.
“I constantly wonder if his death could have been prevented if we did not have racist systems in place,” Calhoun said.
Calhoun said that diabetes and hypertension are some of the pre-existing conditions that can lead to worse Covid-19 outcomes. She said that lack of access to nutritious food and the stress from racism lead to these diseases, which are disproportionately present in African American communities.
YNHH resident physician Windy Grant (pictured right above) attended the protest instead of sleeping after her night shift. She said that she wants to see a change in the health care system and see health professionals become more aware of the power of their words.
“I had to be here,” said Grant.
When the moment of silence ended, doctors and residents took pictures with one another. YNHH ear, nose and throat resident Janet Chao (pictured with the “Surgeons for Black Lives” sign) said that she identifies some with the barriers that her black coworkers experience, even in attempting to climb the medical career ladder. She said that she attended the rally to support Black Lives Matter and in the hopes of preventing future systemic racism.
“We don’t talk enough about how racism affects health,” Chao said.