Microaggressions Are Far Too Common for Black Doctors
Black and Brown doctors — especially women — have interactions with patients and fellow medical professionals that their White male counterparts have likely never experienced. They’re second-guessed and assumed to be a janitor or one of the food-service staff while wearing the same white coat as their peers. The lack of diversity in medicine plays a role in this — just 5% of U.S. doctors are Black and 2% are Black women. Emergency rooms are even Whiter with just 3% of physicians in emergency medicine identifying as Black.
“People ask me several times if the doctor is coming in, which can be frustrating,” said Dr. Onyeka Otugo, who is now an emergency medicine attending physician and health policy fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “They ask you if you’re coming in to take the trash out — stuff they wouldn’t ask a physician who was a white male.”
