WIDLIMS podcast ep #3 – Racism in medicine with BAME Medics
New podcast episode with Aishah & Vishwani from BAME Medics
In this week’s episode of the podcast “WIDLIMS – What I Didn’t Learn in Medical School”, we meet two amazing women and future medical doctors – Aishah (she/her) and Vishwani (she/her).
We (virtually) sat down to discuss how the effects of racism are seen not only during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also in Aishah and Vishwani’s experiences throughout medical education and research.
You can find the podcast via the links here, or simply by searching “WIDLIMS” in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Stitcher.
Follow BAME Medics on Instagram by clicking here, and Aishah by clicking here.
Of course, this conversation is unlikely to have taken place at the time it did had it not been for the recent mainstream attention brought to the Black Lives Matter movement, which is something Vishwani brings up in the episode and all three of us wanted to acknowledge. I say “recent mainstream attention”, because this is not a new movement (#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013), and it has not arisen in relation to recent events. Nothing new here: racism, racially motivated police brutality and unforgivable inhumanising acts of discrimination toward Black people have been long ongoing. Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor are only a few names recently added to a long list.
A disclaimer: I myself benefit from white privilege. I would like to invite you to listen to the podcast, keeping in mind that none of us speaking are Black, and then to read some of the resources linked below. I am listening, reading and learning and happy to be called out on anything I do wrong. All lives cannot matter until Black lives do, and furthermore it is not enough to be “not racist” – white people must put in work and be actively anti-racist. We do not expect women to “solve” issues pertaining to feminism, and this is not something Black people are responsible for “solving” on their own either.
Be respectful in the comments – racism will not be tolerated. If you have any questions, try Google first, and do not depend on your Black friends to inform you. I have linked a fair few resources down below which are great: some articles and calls to action with petitions in the carrd.
I usually write a mini-article for podcast episodes, but for this one I would prefer to point any readers here in the direction of the resources linked below. There are many, several of whom by Black people. Systemic racism in medicine is a thing. Black pregnant women in the UK are five times as likely to die than their white counterparts (see here). Black patients are thought to be able to endure more pain than white, which is obviously not justified by any science whatsoever (see here). Medical professionals are not taught about spotting skin signs in patients with darker skin (see here) – among many, many other things.
Mentioned during the episode
Bookmark this: are acronyms like BAME a nonsense? by Joseph Chanté via gal-dem https://gal-dem.com/bookmark-this-are-acronyms-like-bame-a-nonsense/?fbclid=IwAR1xl8YNkw2nQ32YrFOaXdbfdwMQM5oZ6UTXhI27f20q6EZqt8ZFnb64pkE
The paper by Edinburgh academics (pre-print): Harrison et al. Ethnicity and Outcomes from COVID-19: The ISARIC CCP-UK Prospective Observational Cohort Study of Hospitalised Patients (5/31/2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3618215 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3618215
The art of medicine: stereotype threat by Angela Saini in the Lancet, May 2020: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(20)31139-9.pdf
BAME people more affected during Covid pandemic as per UK government data: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/892085/disparities_review.pdf
Dr Katherine Woolf seminar “The ethnic attainment gap in medicine” (42 slides), download as PDF here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/education-strategy/1-personalising-student-support/bme-attainment-project/bme-attainment-events/bme
Further resources
Home page for Black Lives Matter movement (founded in 2013): https://blacklivesmatter.com/ and find out more and help here (ways to help the Black Lives Matter movement: education, petitions, donation – collated in this carrd): https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
NHS workforce race equality standard report 2019: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/wres-2019-data-report.pdf, https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/workforce-race-equality-standard-data-reporting-2019/
Holiday Phillips: Performative Allyship is Deadly (Here’s What to do Instead), 7 minute read at: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a32753480/white-women-performative-allyship/
Adam Serwer: The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/
Justice in June: a resource compiled by Autumn Gupta with Bryanna Wallace’s oversight for the purpose of providing a starting place for individuals trying to become better allies, with a minimum commitment of 10 mins/day https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H-Vxs6jEUByXylMS2BjGH1kQ7mEuZnHpPSs1Bpaqmw0/mobilebasic?fbclid=IwAR2Soci9bwAX4fwC3Q8EtTrnDK3nEkSLsjbrJm4NfiL9UJMqQsrZyZP7lQw#id.2bwn4teflt1v
An article by medical student Ayotomiwa Ojo https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/06/12/anti-racism-in-medicine-hospitals-ayotomiwa-ojo
Esther Choo writing about seven things organisations can do to combat racism in the Lancet: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/vol396no10245/PIIS0140-6736(20)X0029-8
Editorial in New England Journal of Medicine on “diagnosing and treating systemic racism” by Evans et al.: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2021693
Some Instagram accounts to follow (absolutely not exhaustive):
Dr Amile Inusa @amileya
Dr Tosin Sotubo @mindbodydoctor, who was in a Nutritank podcast episode about racism in medicine which was brilliant and also featured Dr Shireen Kassam @plantbasedhealthprofessionals and Dr Nitu Bajekal @drnitubajekal
Mikaela Loach @mikaelaloach
Brown Skin Matters @brownskinmatters
Melanin Medics @melaninmedics and Medical School racism @medschool_racism and public health information including racism in medicine/health fields @teachmepublichealth
Layla F. Saad @laylafsaad – author of Me and White Supremacy which I’ve not yet read myself but intend to.
Reni Eddo-Lodge @renieddolodge – author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, and host of the short podcast series About Race with Reni (the latter I’ve listened to and can recommend)
Some other podcast episodes on similar topics
Nutritank episode with doctors Sotubo, Kassam and Bajekal (on Spotify)
Food Psych episode on anti-blackness and fat phobia (on Spotify)
