06/02/2020
am a physician practicing in Los Angeles California. I attended Creighton University School of Medicine and did my residency at the combined University of Nebraska Medical Center /Creighton Internal Medicine and Pediatrics program. I can recall 5 instances during my stay in Omaha of overt racism. The 1st happened as a medical student in my first year. One of my African-American classmates suggested that we changed the name of our Monday exam from Black Monday to another name. She and others had concerns that Black Monday associated black with negative. One response from a classmate was that we should burn a cross in front of her house. The 2nd incident happened during my ethics class in medical school during our first year. One of the first-year medical students asked another student to clarify what he mean. This young lady asked him directly and I quote, " Are you saying that all black people are lazy and all they do is drink all day?" He replied, "Yes 90% of them." There was no reprimand from the instructor and most of the class laughed. The third incident occurred during my Pulmonary rotation when one of my attendings referred to one of my patients as a "wet back". He did this in the Radiology reading room in front of all the medical students under my charge. Initially there were giggles but when I asked the attending to clarify what he meant, the room became quiet. He looked at me and replied, " You know he had to cross the river so his back is wet." He was referring to him as a wet back because his X-ray had evidence of pulmonary edema or fluid in the lungs and he had a spanish surname. The 4th episode came during came during an opportunity I had to volunteer for that Creighton president's Council on Culltural diversity. During our first meeting we were discussing scholarships for minorities. The criteria for scholarships for minorities was based on a point system. Two of the points possible to obtain were for attending a Jesuit High School or having parents who had attended a Jesuit High School or University. When I asked for clarification and raised concerns that it was discriminatory to lower socioecomic kids. The committee heads looked at me like I was crazy. Their reply to me was that they were looking for a Jesuit diversity. The 5th episode occurred when the medicine Department asked me to be part part of a cultural diversity committee formed by the different residency programs. When I walked into the 1st meeting , my attending that had previously called my patient a we***ck was put in charge of that committee. At that meeting one of my African-American colleagues, brought up the issue of people using the n-word without consequences . The attending tried to brush her off by saying that it was difficult to know what to call people black or colored or African American. At that point I related the story of one of my attendings calling my patient a wet back. I did this without outing him as the attending in question but he further replied yes it's difficult to know what to call people. I told him there was a big difference between referring to someone as Hispanic/Latino or Black/African American but clearly the terms we***ck and the n word were universally frowned upon. These episodes clearly relayed to me then I was just a visitor and should just be happy to be there. I was a token. Many of us were hurt and did not have opportunities to feel embraced or welcomed. I see that things have not changed much. It is sad to see that despite all the episodes of recent days and the last 25 years ,we still have not learned to care for each other better.
Sincerely,
Marco Monares M D
