Dear Editor:
Shame on you doctors for printing an editorial calling for the end to Affirmative Action in medical schools across the country. The NAACP is the oldest civil rights organization in this country and expects to have to educate uninformed and unenlightened individuals why Affirmative Action is needed generally, and particularly in medical schools. But we would not expect to have to defend Affirmative Action to such an enlightened and educated population as our doctors.
Since you printed this editorial in your April 2013 Bulletin as a case for why we should ‘NOT’ have Affirmative Action let us enlighten you on why we ‘SHOULD’ continue Affirmative Action. Even though the civil rights movement was spawned by African-Americans, we have benefited the least from it! Affirmative Action while flawed is all Black people have to close the gaps in the staggering statistics that so blatantly attest to the racial disparities in our country.
Affirmative Action has helped Caucasian women who now occupy over 50 percent of the slots in medical schools. It has helped many other Caucasian minorities but race is still an issue. Black minorities have not fared well under Affirmative Action and still sit in the back of the Affirmative Action bus while Caucasian minorities sit in the front. We notice locally that even those doctors who are allowed some position in your hospitals, practices, etc. have a glass ceiling. Granted one or two Black doctors are the poster children for the hospital system, etc. but we have many qualified Black doctors you negate.
Our NAACP statistics show nationally that lack of educational opportunity and poverty still play a role in medical school admissions:
* Majority minority public school districts receive nearly $1000 LESS per pupil
* 78 percent of teachers in majority minority public schools districts do NOT teach in their accredited subject area
* More than 25 percent of African-Americans live BELOW the poverty level
* Median net worth: Whites–$81,700, Blacks–$10,000
So after all the educational hurdles Black students must overcome without Affirmative Action helping financially they would not be admitted. Finally, there isn’t enough time here to elaborate on the documented medical mistakes Caucasian doctors make on Black patients due to cultural issues and racism.
We will end by saying, the Hippocratic Oath is an oath historically taken by physicians and other healthcare professionals swearing to practice medicine honestly as you know. At one point it states ‘do no harm’. So don’t advocate getting rid of Affirmative Action in Medical Schools. DO NO HARM doctors, DO NO HARM!
Constance Parker
President, NAACP Pittsburgh Branch
Your comments are welcome.
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