White Coats for Black Lives: UMKC healthcare workers, students gather in solidarity
Around 150 healthcare workers and students gathered at Hospital Hill Park Saturday to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement and demonstrators fighting for racial equality and an end to police brutality.
White Coats for Black Lives, part of a nationwide movement of healthcare students, began with a moment of silence. Demonstrators took a knee before forming a circle and listening as members of the crowd stepped forward to share stories and call for an end to systemic and institutionalized racism.
The demonstrations came on the ninth day of protests in Kansas City, as similar demonstrations continue across the country. The activism was sparked by the killing of George Floyd last month at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Most of the crowd Saturday came dressed in their white coats or scrubs.
Many of the health professionals spoke about disparities in the healthcare industry along racial lines and the higher mortality rate of African Americans. Others spoke to their own experiences and the need for change.
Zainab Self, a dental student, said she is the only black woman in her class of 105 students. Speaking through tears, she said that people of color out protesting are not asking for much, they are simply asking to live.
“We are so tired of being told that this is what we should expect our entire lives,” Self said in discussing racial profiling and discrimination.
Self said that she is married to a white police officer and said he was shocked his first days on the job when he experienced how terrified people of color were when he stopped them for traffic violations. She said she hopes things change before she is forced to have that conversation with her own children.
Tamica Lige, a faculty member at the UMKC Medical School, echoed what Self said, lamenting that so many years after Martin Luther King Jr. marched in Selma, his goals haven’t been realized.
“I will use my voice and my platform for as long as I am able,” she said.
Protesters called for a renewed effort in medicine to work through racial biases and understand why discrepancies exist. They also urged the white members of the crowd to reflect internally and ensure they were not harming people of color.
Blair Thedinger, a doctor, called for reparations and affirmative action as a step toward reconciliation.
“I support these protesters. I support what they’re doing,” he said.
This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 3:37 PM.
