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Black Man in a While Coat is a novel written by Damon Tweedy about his experience through medical school and becoming a physician. He explains the hardships of being a physician and the extra pressure of dealing with racism in the medical world. Tweedy has to second guess himself many times throughout the novel. He is not second guessing himself because he thinks what he has to say is wrong, but rather, refraining from speak up to racism out of fear of jeopardizing his career. An example of this is in chapter six. Tweedy and some of his supervisors were treating an African American male named Gary. Gary was seeking treatment for high blood pressure and other health conditions. Tweedy’s supervisors suggest that Gary start a new medication to lower blood pressure. Gray (whom Tweedy describes as insightful and level headed) tells his doctors that we would like to try making life style changes before switching to medication. This resulted in Tweedy’s white supervisors clinically diagnosed Gary as OCD, simply because he did not follow their orders. Tweedy wanted to stand up for Gary, but he realized that his supervisors would not listen to what Tweedy said and perhaps suggest he needs to talk to someone about the pressures of his medical training. This situation is an example of how Tweedy had to second guess himself and stop himself from doing what he thought was just for the patient, because it could have risked his reputation, and in medical training, one’s reputation can have a serious impact on their career.
Tweedy did an excellent job articulating his experience with discrimination as a black doctor and seeing racism in the medical field. It takes a lot of emotional regulation, self reflections and self control for a person to be able to see a situation as it truly is and choose not to react to it. As someone who identifies as a white female, it opened up my eyes to the fact that this constant emotional regulation, self reflection and self control is something that black Americans have to face every day. I think the best example of Tweedy’s strength was presented when his professor asked Tweedy what he was doing in the professors class room and asked him to fix the lights and didn’t apologize for doing so. The way Tweedy articulated his inner dialog, was cool and collected, but he did not down-play his anger, disappointment and frustration.
It was eye opening to learn about this professors reaction when Tweedy received the 2nd highest grade on the class final and had the nerve to ask him to do research for him. I can still see this happening in class rooms and universities today. I believe this type of response is common with first generational colleges students and students with disabilities. How can we bridge the gap between students with traditional backgrounds and students who face other challenges within a university?Response to Angel,
“These surveys asked questions such as ‘have you worked as a florist, hairdresser, etc.’ in an attempt to judge masculinity and avoid providing coverage to homosexual men.”I agree with many of the arguments you made in your post. Especially the quote above. I was shocked and yet, not surprised, that an insurance company had the right to ask such questions and make a judgement off of it. One way to look at this is to see how our country has changed since the early 80s. An insurance company (I hope) would never get away with this type of prejudice, judgement and discrimination. However, in some degree we (as a society) are acting out in other ways. For example, the discrimination made towards the Asian population during COVID-19.
