to my fellow medical students

I’d like to make a loving call to all of us and especially to those who are new to racial justice work. In light of COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on communities of color and the disproportionate impact of racial violence and police violence on black communities, it is unacceptable to let other people do the work that building a just, healthy, anti-racist society demands. The change begins inside of us. We, as students, are in an excellent position to learn about the multitude of discrete ways that we harbor racist and prejudiced ideology– innocuous as it may seem. The problem isn’t “out there” or “other people” or “those people.” It’s us, if we leave ourselves unexamined. We all carry the chains of dehumanization wrought from a centuries-long history of enslavement, genocide, and imperialism, as we have all been socialized in a nation where white supremacist discourse and political-economy has been normalized since its conception. The foundation of our home is built upon rotting material. To embody anti-racism begins by first examining our own–often quiet, unassuming– beliefs regarding lots of things that don’t explicitly seem to be about race or have anything to do with racism, and then there’s the stuff that is explicitly about race. Let’s take a look at our selves and begin to fashion the tools we need to build a new foundation while we simultaneously root out the old, rotting one. There are various gates through which to enter into this work, and they’re all valuable. The point is to begin– don’t worry about doing it “right”. Just begin.