A Reflection on the Impact of George Floyd at MCW

From the July 28, 2023 issue of the Transformational Times

Perspective/Opinion

Has Anything Changed? A Reflection on the Impact of George Floyd at MCW

Precious Anyanwu & Chiemerie Ogbonnaya, Class of 2026

Three years after the murder of George Floyd, medical students Anyanwu and Ogbonnaya offer their perspective on the shortcomings of the American healthcare system, and the racial and ethnic injustices that perpetuate them...

NOTE: Tear gas can be neutralized with about three tablespoons of baking soda mixed with eight ounces of water. It is important to have this mixture in hand before you arrive at a protest because when the gas hits, there will be no time to waste. Remember to carry enough to help wash the eyes of your peers. But most importantly, get out immediately.

This simple recipe has spread from crowds of protestors in Hong Kong to civil activists in Washington DC, all fighting for the preservation of their people.

In the wake of the unjust murder of George Floyd, protesters sought justice at the steps of our government. Instead, they were met with controlled violence in the form of tear gas and police batons. Even with the gas burning their throats, protesters continued to scream for justice. The pain they experienced in that moment was incomparable to the agony of watching yet another Black man lose his life to institutional injustice.

Long before the shocking event that transpired on May 25, 2020, the lives of persons in Black and Brown communities were undervalued and endangered in America. The death of George Floyd, combined with the simultaneous COVID-19 pandemic, amplified how deeply ethnic discrimination and racial inequities are rooted in key American structures. The pandemic disproportionately impacted marginalized communities because of longstanding, systemic inequalities.

Numerous studies have proven that the American healthcare system does not prioritize cultural understanding for ethnic communities. This neglect contributes to an overall decrease in the standard of care and a notable increase in poor health outcomes. Justified mistrust of the healthcare system by these communities is ingrained in history. America’s past is riddled with medical exploitations of racially marginalized communities; recall the Tuskegee experiments and Henrietta Lacks.

The cycle of medical abuse and healthcare avoidance perpetuates chronic illness and shortened lifespans in Black and Brown communities. If American institutions continue to discriminate against marginalized populations under the guise of extenuating circumstances, they will never restore faith in the system and America will remain tainted by its sordid history.

Change starts at the grassroots

Although we have a substantial amount of progress to make as a country, it is important to acknowledge that change starts at the grassroots. In response to George Floyd’s death, the Medical College of Wisconsin implemented several changes to its surgery department centered around prioritizing the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

These changes brought the opinions of marginalized groups to the forefront, introducing pertinent cultural topics that may not have been considered otherwise.

With this seemingly minor adjustment, disadvantaged communities now have advocates speaking on their behalf in spaces that can implement true change. Some cities also chose to pursue action after George Floyd’s passing. For example, Minneapolis reallocated $8 million from its police department to expand mental health crisis response services and Boston chose to invest $12 million into expanding public and social health services.

White Coats for Black Lives

White Coats for Black Lives originated from the national outcry for justice in response to the murder of George Floyd. We aim to safeguard the well-being of our future patients by advocating for the elimination of racialized medicine.

Our ultimate goal is for government officials and civilians across the country to recognize the need for restructuring how America operates fundamentally.

Tangible action against racial inequities is needed. History cannot be rewritten, and the lives lost from injustice cannot be resurrected, but the future can be changed. 

For further reading: 

1. MCW’s Department of Surgery’s response to George Floyd’s death. https://www.mcw.edu/- /media/MCW/Departments/Surgery/DOS-Statement-Racism-Disparities-DSiversity-6-12- 2020.pdf

2. Vasquez Reyes M. The Disproportional Impact of COVID-19 on African Americans. Health Hum Rights. 2020 Dec;22(2):299-307. PMID: 33390715; PMCID: PMC7762908. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7762908/

3. Eric C. Schneider et al., Mirror, Mirror 2021 — Reflecting Poorly: Health Care in the U.S. Compared to Other High-Income Countries (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 2021). https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2021/aug/mirror-mirror- 2021-reflecting- poorly#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20ranks%20last%20on,on%20measures%20of%20care%20process

Precious Anyanwu and Chiemerie Ogbonnaya are in their second year of medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin. They are currently serving as Co-Presidents of the White Coats for Black Lives organization. Their work emphasizes the importance of outreach and intervention to provide a lifelong space for Black and Brown communities in healthcare.

The Right to Breathe

From the July 28, 2023 issue of the Transformational Times

The Right to Breathe

Michael N. Levas, MD, MS

A pediatric emergency medicine physician advocates for comprehensive and compassionate care in the broader context that health is more than biology – that it encompasses people’s lived experience, their trials, their strengths. As a leader of several diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at Medical College of Wisconsin, he also reflects on recent shifts he has observed in institutional culture, and reminds health care providers to be mindful of the social pressures that burden patients and colleagues...

“I can’t breathe.”

These were some of George Floyd’s final words, captured in a bystander video. Through this video, we as a nation also witnessed a dying man call out for his mother.

I often see youth who are scared, and some who feel like they are dying, as a pediatric emergency medicine physician who practices at Children’s Wisconsin. They say, “I can’t breathe” and they ask for their mothers. Watching the video of George Floyd, I felt powerless. But in the emergency room, there are situations where I can do something — I can help their difficulty breathing, we can find their mothers and get them to their bedside.

The risk of becoming numb to social injustices is real. It can lead to harmful health outcomes, even death. The continued traumas our nation experiences are seemingly endless.

Mobilization and hope

There has been a movement within MCW to increase advocacy addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion, including the development of DEI councils within residency programs and clinical departments.

For the first time since I was a medical student at MCW (many moons ago), I feel that it is okay to talk about biases, microaggressions, social determinants of health, and health equity.

In fact, health equity has become a theme of many clinical, educational, research and community efforts at MCW. More grand rounds across campus focus on racism’s impact on healthcare outcomes. Trainees are demanding health equity be woven into curricula. There is more acknowledgement that

health is much more than biology – that health encompasses people’s lived experience, their trials, their strengths.

Within the Department of Pediatrics, over 500 faculty and staff have participated in Implicit Bias Training. Other departments have requested this training, including Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Anesthesiology, Physical Medicine & Rehab, the Admissions Committee, the Joint Fellowship Council, among others.

The Comprehensive Injury Center and Department of Pediatrics recently adopted policies recognizing MLK and Juneteenth as holidays by not scheduling recruitment, training, or lectures during those days.

Barriers are real

But two things are clear: inertia is real, and not everyone is happy with such activism. For every stride we make fighting for equity in health outcomes and health education, a counter narrative is threatened by change.

While we are deliberating about what efforts to implement or back as institutions, youth are dying from firearms, families are losing their homes, and transgender youth are losing faith in the healthcare community.

Some changes that need to be made do not require repeated meetings or committees to implement. Unfortunately, our current healthcare environment has become accustomed to that approach, driven by fear of retribution rather than focus on doing what is right.

“The time is always right to do the right thing,” is my favorite quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We cannot become numb to the trials that our patients face. We cannot ignore the social pressures that burden our patients and colleagues.

Despite continued barriers and bureaucracy, as health care professionals we must continue to model comprehensive and compassionate care. We need to have the courage to use our privilege as health care providers to speak out against social injustices and our expertise to show the evidence-based approaches that lead to less disparities.

Every living human has the right to breathe.

We need to breathe to stay alive.

We need to breathe life into policies that strive for health equity.

We need to help others to pause and breathe before they are threatened by ideas that lean towards justice.

We need to breathe for those who no longer can.

Dr. Michael N. Levas, MD, MS, is a professor of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Pediatrics, Medical Director of Project Ujima, Associate Director of the Comprehensive Injury Center, Faculty Advisor for the Latino Medical Student Association, and MCW Faculty Advisor for White Coats for Black Lives.

On Inclusion, Diversity, and Why Black Lives Matter, Too

 From the July 21, 2023 issue of the Transformational Times - "A Look Back"

On Inclusion, Diversity, and Why Black Lives Matter, Too: What our MCW Community BLM Protests Mean to our Colleagues of Color

Leroy J. Seymour, MD, MS

Editor’s Note: Dr. Seymour, currently an incoming Chief Resident in Internal Medicine, was an intern at MCW when he wrote this essay for the Sept 11, 2020 issue of the Transformational Times following Black Lives Matter protests on campus in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI. In giving permission for us to re-publish his essay today, he also shared reflections on what has changed, which are captured in a footnote.

On Wednesday, September 2, 2020 at 5:11pm, members of the Medical College of Wisconsin community held a Black Lives Matter protest to help shine a light on the frequent propensity for violence against people of color. This latest protest is one of hundreds of protests against police brutality and racial injustice that have been occurring in various cities, states, and countries, most recently triggered by the murder of George Floyd on May 25th 2020, in Minneapolis, MN.

So many people have demonstrated peacefully and expressed their voices, all vying for the same dream Martin Luther King Jr. expressed to the world. Almost every aspect of the world’s population has provided an overwhelming outpouring of support of the Black Lives Matter movement; taking the baton and relaying the message that “Black Lives Matter, too” to widespread media coverage and the political stage.

MCW faculty, residents, and medical students alike raised their voices in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. This stance informed the world that MCW and the Froedtert medical community will not tolerate racism, and that racism itself is a pandemic that needs to be eradicated. The Sept. 2nd protest involved holding seven minutes of sustained silence, each minute representing every bullet aimed at the back of Jacob Blake, an African-American man returning to his vehicle, by Rusten Sheskey, a Kenosha WI police officer.

Mere seconds after violence left a man paralyzed, the world responded with outrage and exhaustion, yet another example of the unfair mistreatment of people of color when interacting with those with a perceived position of authority.

Many of us have protested these injustices before. I've protested it before. Our parents protested it before. Our grandparents protested it before. Our ancestors survived and protested it. I’ve stood face to face with the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and individuals who have all decided that racial slurs and anger were the best response when asked why they hate people of color or different sexual orientation.

Nobody should have to be afraid to walk outside or live in their own homes. People should not be judged by the color of their skin or their sexual orientation, but by the content of their character. People of every ethnicity, background, or creed, should not have to be afraid for their lives when interacting with police.

With the many communities, committees, social circles, and groups that I belong to, I can single-handedly attest to the importance of diversity, the inclusive nature of MCW, and why having people of varying backgrounds, experiences, and cultures is so critically important to both the health of a community and a medicine brain trust.

As a new internal medicine resident and as an African American, I have witnessed firsthand the most beautiful sides of humanity, and the darkest corners of vitriol. I have cared for patients who have been incredibly appreciative and receptive of my presence, feeling more at ease with talking about their privileged information because I am a person of color. I have also had patients turn me away for the exact same reason.

When I wanted to become a physician, I made a lifelong commitment to improving and protecting my community. I’ve vowed to provide a safe haven for those without a voice, to be a vanguard in the face of hatred, to be the lighthouse in someone else's storm. But when it is you, your family, your friends, or your community who is being harmed, harassed, and violently mistreated, it takes that community to heal the hurt.

It is hard to sustain a thriving and supportive community if that same community refuses to break bread with a particular subset of the population, even when everyone shares the same table.

I am proud to belong to a program and institution that takes a hard stance against institutionalized racism and is incrementally rolling out educational opportunities for those interested in, and in need of, anti-racism education. It is comforting to know that my colleagues and peers support the Black Lives Matter movement and understand the deeper inclusive meaning behind the statement.

However, supporting the movement is only the first step of a marathon many have been running for years. With many cities in various countries now protesting the same cause, only time will tell if our collective voices have resonated, and what changes will result from our collective stance against institutionalized racism and racist ideology.

Myself, my colleagues, and my peers at MCW have already decided which path we will walk, and that is hand in hand with our flourishing, diverse, and inclusive community.

July 21, 2023: I can look back at this essay with pride, as much as it saddens me that it came out of such intense anger for someone else’s suffering. It has been important to my healing to be part of many Diversity and Inclusion efforts at MCW since this was written. Much has been done, but our community isn’t perfect, and there is still much more to do. I am very proud to have been part of organizing events at the American Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee for incoming interns a few short weeks ago, and also attended and supported medical students there last fall, during programs that helped others better understand the experience of this historically under-represented population, and how this can frame our approach to providing better medical care. I think it is also remarkable that Juneteenth is now a National holiday, this is progress – Leroy J. Seymour, MD MS

Leroy J. Seymour, MD, MS, is a chief resident in the Department of Medicine at MCW. 

Reflecting on My Journey to Women’s Health Care a Year After Dobbs

From the July 14, 2023 issue of the Transformational Times - One Year post Dobbs

Reflecting on My Journey to Women’s Health Care a Year After Dobbs

Amy H Farkas, MD, MS

Dr. Farkas shares her longtime passion and perspective on the advances and freedoms in women’s health care, both locally and globally, as the nation marks one year since the Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ended the constitutional right to abortion...

My path to women’s health care began in 9th grade world geography class. Mr. Nickels required us to report on a current world event each week, which meant I often found myself reading the world news section of the Kansas City Star. One day, as I read a story about the treatment of women by the Taliban in Afghanistan, I found myself wishing I could do more to help women around the world. Recognizing that I would not be traveling to Kabul any time soon, I decided to call my local Planned Parenthood to volunteer. I honestly can’t remember if I even knew what Planned Parenthood did, other than I had a vague understanding they were active in women’s health care and were a lot closer than Afghanistan.

My first job as a volunteer was to learn about local anti-abortion groups, specifically the Army of God, an organization known for acts of violence against abortion facilities and clinicians. I was shown pictures of known members in hopes that I could pick them out from the mostly peaceful protestors. Within a few weeks, I was the Saturday morning clinic escort. My main job was to stand opposite the protesters who showed up each Saturday and be a friendly face to women who were coming for care. Most Saturdays it was just me and the security guard standing across from five to fifteen protestors who were yelling and holding signs.

My time as a clinic escort was mostly uneventful. The police would frequently drive by and sometimes park across the street until everyone had gone home. But there were incidents of violence, real and threatened. One day, the clinic had to close when all its windows were shot out. Another day, it closed when someone committed suicide in the parking lot in protest. My fellow escort had a rock thrown at her head. Most staff at the facility had their pictures published on the internet by anti-abortion groups, and my picture might have been out there, too.

I remained a volunteer for Planned Parenthood throughout high school. In college, I founded a chapter of Planned Parenthood’s student advocacy organization. While I entered college as an international studies major, my time with the student advocacy organization grew my passion for women’s health care and specifically, reproductive care. It inspired me to pursue medicine.

I was fortunate in medical school to meet another educator, Dr. Melissa McNeil, a general internist, and leader in women’s health, who became my mentor. Throughout medical school, residency, and fellowship, she helped foster my knowledge and skills in clinical women’s health and the practice of academic medicine. She also connected me to the VA.

Since I began working at the VA in 2018, I have become convinced there is no other healthcare organization in the US more committed to serving women’s health care needs. You may find this surprising, given the military and VA's reputation for being male dominated.

Yet, women Veterans represent the fasting growing demographic group within VA, and the VA invests in their care across all its missions. It supports women’s health fellowships for physicians, researchers, psychologists, and nurses. This, in turn, helps grow the next generation leaders in academic medicine and women’s health. It funds research in contraception, maternal mortality, intimate partner violence, and breast cancer. It offers targeted educational programs for primary care teams, including physicians, APPs, and nurses to ensure they have the skills necessary to provide comprehensive, gender-specific care.

And in the post-Roe v. Wade world, the VA committed to ensuring women Veterans have access to the full range of reproductive health, including access to abortion care to “promote,preserve, or restore the health” of Veterans.

To achieve this goal, educators will be key to success. Educators will be the ones who translate government policy into clinical practice. They will teach clinicians who likely have never engaged in pregnancy options counseling and certainly not abortion care to provide compassionate and comprehensive reproductive health care. This change at VA will take time, and there are many pieces left to be figured out. But the VA's commitment to women’s health gives me hope that in the post-Roe world, medicine will not allow six justices to define health care.

The VA’s commitment to all aspects of women’s health care takes me back to my early passion to serve women’s health, both locally and globally. Thankfully, American women have far more options than were allowed to their counterparts living under the Taliban, both then and now. I am reminded that the advances and freedoms in women’s health remain only when we fight for them.

As a physician and educator, I can do my part in my clinic with my patients and in the classroom with students by helping to ensure the next generation of physicians have the necessary skills to provide comprehensive care to women. I’m grateful to have the VA as an ally in my own work to ensure health freedom for women.

Amy H Farkas, MD, MS, is an associate professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin and works clinically as a women’s health primary care physician at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center. She also serves as faculty at the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education, where she is Director of the KICS program and part of the GME Pillar.