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Editorials |2 January 2007

Black Physicians' Experience with Race: Should We Be Surprised?

Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH; Andrea E. Reid, MD, MPH

Article, Author, and Disclosure Information
Author, Article, and Disclosure Information
  • From Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

    Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest: None disclosed.

    Requests for Single Reprints: Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH, Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital, 50 Staniford Street, 9th Floor, Suite 901, Boston, MA 02150; e-mail, jbetancourt@partners.org.

    Current Author Addresses: Dr. Betancourt: Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital, 50 Staniford Street, 9th Floor, Suite 901, Boston, MA 02150.

    Dr. Reid: Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 First Street, Boston, MA 02114.

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Surveys done over the past 3 years show that minorities have drastically different perspectives on race and race relations in the United States than their white counterparts (1). For instance, African Americans are more likely than whites to feel personally discriminated against in public life and at their place of employment, less likely to feel that they have equal job opportunities, and less likely to feel that race relations in the United States are “somewhat good” or “very good.” Even as ground is broken in our nation's capital for the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, African Americans are less likely than whites to feel that the United States is making significant progress toward achieving King's dream of racial equality.
In this issue of Annals, Nunez-Smith and colleagues (2) present the findings of a small qualitative study that explored how physicians of African descent experience race in the workplace. In brief, the physicians participating in the study felt that race permeated their experience in the workplace, shaped their interpersonal interactions, and defined their institutional climate; that responses to racism at work ranged from minimization to confrontation; that the health care workplace is often silent on the issue of race; and that these collective experiences can result in “racial fatigue,” with personal and professional consequences. These findings are extremely disappointing and discouraging; however, since they mirror many of the perspectives on race reported by African Americans in society, should we be surprised? We don't think so.
A recent Institute...
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Betancourt JR, Reid AE. Black Physicians' Experience with Race: Should We Be Surprised?. Ann Intern Med. 2007;146:68–69. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-146-1-200701020-00013

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Published: Ann Intern Med. 2007;146(1):68-69.

DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-146-1-200701020-00013

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2007 American College of Physicians
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