Letter to the Editor

Emphasizing the Role of Nonminorities in Achieving Racial Equity in Medicine

Authors: Carolina Miranda, MD

Abstract

To the Editor: Even while our country’s makeup increasingly diversifies, minority physicians and faculty remain underrepresented in medicine. This is especially true of Black, Latinx, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islander physicians. In “An Approach to Faculty Development for Underrepresented Minorities in Medicine (URMs),”1 the authors critically analyze this inequity and posit how individuals and institutions might mitigate it. The approach highlighted is a faculty development program described as being “for URMs by URMs.” This program was demonstrably valuable for participants and is a self-sustaining, readily replicable intervention. Importantly, in the final paragraph of the article, the authors clarify that while training URM faculty to tackle barriers to career advancement is essential, to achieve true racial equity in medicine we must dismantle these very barriers.

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References

1. Robles J, Anim T, Wusu MH, et al. An approach to faculty development for underrepresented minorities in medicine. South Med J 2021; 114:579–582.
 
2. Rodríguez JE, Tumin D, Campbell KM. Sharing the power of white privilege to catalyze positive change in academic medicine. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 2021;8:539–542.
 
3. Foster KE, Johnson CN, Carvajal DN, et al. Dear white people. Ann Fam Med 2021;19:66–69.
 
4. McGhee HC. The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. New York: One World; 2021.
 
5. Guh J, Krinsky L, White-Davis T, et al. Teaching racial affinity caucusing as a tool to learn about racial health inequity through an experiential workshop. Fam Med 2020;52:656–660.