Reflections on Resilience | Celeste A. Green, MD, MPH
Celeste Aurora Green, MD, MPH
The responses came from across the world. Flurries of notifications arose just when I thought I’d cleared them all. I was overwhelmed, in the happiest sense, by the positive response to my essay, “Resilience: The Last Thing We Need.” In it, I shared a story about feedback I received as an ob-gyn intern that was laced with racist and gendered stereotypes. After I sent the final proofs to the editor, I was worried my vulnerability would be ridiculed by the readership. Even worse, I feared, would be criticism that I had mistaken this feedback to be racially motivated when race had not played a role at all. I’d written the first draft of the article on my phone— my ever-present mobile diary.
My fears were relieved when I learned my essay could have “been a journal entry from a day in my residency,” as one reader wrote in reply. There were many other Black physicians who wrote me heartening messages sharing how much they related to my story. While mistreatment disparately affects trainees of color,1,2 being othered and isolated is not bound by race. A Swiss doctor wrote me to say, though she could not relate to the racial biases I faced, she shared sentiments with my experience because she was disparaged as a woman in a male-dominated specialty.
I wrote the article with hopes of humanizing the minority trainees battling through arduous postgraduate years while also having to prove their worth and grapple with discrimination. I hoped that such insights would contextualize and bolster our calls for genuine diversity and inclusion practices. My voice was amplified thanks to this publication. The responses I received represent many more untold stories detailing a multigenerational tradition of navigating stereotype threat.
In the post-pandemic era, we have seen concerted efforts to suffocate DEI efforts and undo policies which could otherwise address systemic discrimination.3 Still, I remain hopeful that the chorale of voices in my support add to the critical mass of advocates calling urgently upon residency programs to be more supportive of trainees of color. As a community, we cannot stand for ambivalence and politicking from those hoping not to disrupt the status quo. For example, institutions must offer financial support and ample protected time to the faculty leading diversity and inclusion initiatives. Resident and fellow recruitment processes should be prepared for questions, or better yet, offer unsolicited information about the history of discrimination or mistreatment in the program and their action plans to improve the learning environment. There is indeed a weighty obligation borne by training programs to foster inclusivity and allow trainees of color to flourish, but, we as Black and Brown trainees are tired of shouldering the burden alone.
References
- Liebschutz JM, Darko GO, Finley EP, Cawse JM, Bharel M, Orlander JD. In the minority: black physicians in residency and their experiences. J Natl Med Assoc. 2006 Sep;98(9):1441-8. PMID: 17019911; PMCID: PMC2569716.
- McFarling UL. ‘It was stolen from me’: Black doctors are forced out of training at far higher rates than white residents. STAT Reports. 2022 Jun. https://www.statnews.com/2022/06/20/black-doctors-forced-out-of-training-programs-at-far-higher-rates-than-white-residents/#:~:text=A%202020%20survey%20of%207%2C000,out%20and%20not%20finishing%20residency
- Shuman E, Knowles E., Goldenberg A. To overcome resistance to DEI, understand what’s driving it. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2023/03/to-overcome-resistance-to-dei-understand-whats-driving-it