Activism
Black Doctors March Shine Spotlight on Institutionalized Racism
The national kickoff for the not-for-profit organization Black Doc Village began with a breakfast at the Pasadena Hilton hosted by two Black Doc Village cofounders: nephrologist Vanessa Grubbs and educator and physician Aysha H. Khoury.
![Robert Rock traveled from the east coast to support the BlackDocsBelong rally. Rock is an award-winning physician who has worked as an advocate for equality for doctors and patients of color. Pasadena, California, Friday Aug. 26, 2022 (by Solomon O. Smith)](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/black-doctors-featured-web.jpg)
By Solomon O. Smith, California Black Media
The #BlackDocsBelong campaign held a rally in Pasadena last Friday calling on Black medical doctors to join their movement dedicated to keeping and growing the ranks of Black physicians.
“We actively support and advocate for Black trainees and physicians facing workplace discrimination,” states the website of Black Doc Village, the group organizing the rally. “We aim to expand the Black physician workforce to improve health outcomes in the Black community.”
The national kickoff for the not-for-profit organization Black Doc Village began with a breakfast at the Pasadena Hilton hosted by two Black Doc Village cofounders: nephrologist Vanessa Grubbs and educator and physician Aysha H. Khoury.
About 100 young medical students and staff gathered to march to the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. A wide range of ethnicities came to provide support.
A student who chose to remain anonymous shared the contents of a message about the protest from the Kaiser School of Medicine:
“Students who choose to participate in the demonstration tomorrow will not be penalized or retaliated against for doing so,” reads an email by senior associate dean for student affairs Dr. Anne M. Eacker, “and absence from class or clinical sites tomorrow morning will be considered an excused absence.”
The Kaiser School of Medicine was named the 6th Most Diverse Medical School in the nation and ranked 2nd in California by U.S. News & World Report after the School of Medicine at the University of California Davis.
With handmade signs and white lab coats, the rally set off for a two-block march to the medical school. Walking in a single file line, the doctors raised their voices in a shouted call-and-response chant.
“Stop pushing,” they shouted followed by the comeback, “Black docs out.”
Black medical professionals from across the country came to support the Black Doc Village rally.
Dr. Robert Rock, who practices on the East Coast, says he was inspired to go into medicine by his grandmother and the strength she exhibited when she “refused to be disrespected” by medical professionals during her care. He witnessed a racist act aimed at a patient which he described as shocking.
“We were deterred from talking about it,” said Rock. “It was then that I lost my faith [in the system].”
Jessica Isom is a Boston-based psychiatrist and an advocate for equity and justice for BIPOC patients. She has been an outspoken resource and advisor in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs through her company Vision for Equality, which has worked with several major brands and medical institutions. She sees part of the issue as a flaw in the culture of medicine which makes changing it difficult.
Isom says resistance to change is “perpetuated through training” and that people may not be conscious that change is needed. She referred to an article written by Rhea W. Boyd, a pediatrician who has spoken before Congress about racism in the medical profession.
“People see it. The person who serves you your food looks like me. The person who provides you your medical care often does not, and that is an intentional process of segregation,” says Isom.
Doctors are not the only people who want more Black physicians and medical professionals in the industry. Robert Phillips was looking for a Black nephrologist, a doctor specializing in diseases and functions of the kidneys and found Dr. Grubbs. He felt ignored and unheard by white doctors.
Scores of studies show that health outcomes for African Americans have historically been among the lowest, according to various metrics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported African Americans have the highest rate of infant mortality of any ethnic group. The number of Black doctors is also disproportionately low, at just 5 %, according to a 2019 survey by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Some at the rally are in litigation against Kaiser, including Khoury. She is well-known for a viral thread on Twitter relating her story of how she was removed from Kaiser Medical School.
Kaiser has released a statement disputing Khoury’s claim.
“Regarding Dr. Aysha Khoury, one of the founders of the Black Doc Village organization, the school has been clear that Dr. Khoury was not placed on leave because she brought content related to anti-racism to the classroom or because she shared her experiences as a Black woman in medicine,” the Kaiser statement says.
Khoury and Grubbs say that issues with Kaiser are a small part of a bigger problem in the medical community and are hoping that their stories can be the jumping-off point for action.
“Kaiser is where we are today, but this is everywhere, not just there,” said Khoury. “This is why we need the whole village.”
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024
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Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
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Activism
Community Celebrates Historic Oakland Billboard Agreements
We, the Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition, which includes Oakland’s six leading community health clinics, all ethnic chambers of commerce, and top community-based economic development organizations – celebrate the historic billboard agreements approved last year by the Oakland City Council. We have fought for this opportunity against the billboard monopoly, against Clear Channel, for five years. The agreements approved by Council set the bar for community benefits – nearly $70 Million over their lifetime, more than 23 times the total paid by all previous Clear Channel relocation agreements in Oakland combined.
![The Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/economic-development-corporation-featured-web.jpg)
Grand Jury Report Incorrect – Council & Community Benefit
We, the Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition, which includes Oakland’s six leading community health clinics, all ethnic chambers of commerce, and top community-based economic development organizations – celebrate the historic billboard agreements approved last year by the Oakland City Council. We have fought for this opportunity against the billboard monopoly, against Clear Channel, for five years. The agreements approved by Council set the bar for community benefits – nearly $70 Million over their lifetime, more than 23 times the total paid by all previous Clear Channel relocation agreements in Oakland combined.
Unfortunately, a recent flawed Grand Jury report got it wrong, so we feel compelled to correct the record:
- Regarding the claim that the decision was made hastily, the report itself belies that claim. The process was five years in the making, with two and a half years from the first City Council hearing to the final vote. Along the way, as the report describes, there were multiple Planning Commission hearings, public stakeholder outreach meetings, a Council Committee meeting, and then a vote by the full Council. Not only was this not hasty, it had far more scrutiny than any of the previous relocation agreements approved by the City with Clear Channel, all of which provide 1/23 of the benefits of the Becker/OFI agreements approved by the Council.
- More importantly, the agreements will actually bring millions to the City and community, nearly $70M to be exact, 23 times the previous Clear Channel relocation agreements combined. They certainly will not cost the city money, especially since nothing would have been on the table at all if our Coalition had not been fighting for it. Right before the decisive City Council Committee hearing, in the final weeks before the full Council vote, there was a hastily submitted last-minute “proposal” by Clear Channel that was debunked as based on non-legal and non-economically viable sites, and relying entirely on the endorsement of a consultant that boasts Clear Channel as their biggest client and whose decisions map to Clear Channel’s monopolistic interests all over the country. Some City staff believed these unrealistic numbers based on false premises, and, since they only interviewed City staff, the Grand Jury report reiterated this misinformation, but it was just part of Clear Channel’s tried and true monopolistic practices of seeking to derail agreements that actually set the new standard for billboard community benefits. Furthermore, our proposals are not mutually exclusive – if Clear Channel’s proposal was real, why had they not brought it forward previously? Why have they not brought it forward since? Because it was not a real proposal – it was nothing but smoke and mirrors, as the Clear Channel’s former Vice President stated publicly at Council.
Speaking on behalf of the community health clinics that are the primary beneficiaries of the billboard funding, La Clinica de la Raza CEO Jane Garcia, states: “In this case, the City Council did the right thing – listening to the community that fought for five years to create this opportunity that is offering the City and community more than twenty times what previous billboard relocation agreements have offered.”
Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition
Native American Health Center | La Clínica de la Raza | West Oakland Health Center |
Asian Health Services | Oakland LGBTQ Center | Roots Community Health Center |
The Unity Council | Black Cultural Zone | Visit Oakland |
Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce | Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce | Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce |
Oakland Latino Chamber of Commerce | Building Trades of Alameda County | (partial list) |
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