Week 12: May 24 2021
UNMC 21-week Racial Equity Challenge
Welcome to the 21-week Racial Equity Challenge
Diversity scholar Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. [eddiemoorejr.com] created the 21-Day Challenge concept to promote a deeper understanding of race, power, privilege, supremacy, and oppression. The UNMC Department of Medicine has modified this challenge to create a 21-week program in collaboration with the Office of Inclusion. You can subscribe to receive weekly emails with suggested articles, podcasts, and webinars that will help you raise awareness, compassion, understanding, and engagement towards racial equity. You can get a lapel pin from the Office of Inclusion that will represent your commitment towards working towards racial equity and understanding the experience of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who are your colleagues, friends, patients, and community members Track your progress here.
Watch
The First American-Born Chinese Woman Doctor. This video is about the amazing life of Margaret Chung, the first Asian American (AA) woman to become a doctor. Chung(1889-1959) was the oldest of 11 children in a Chinese immigrant family. She graduated from the University of Southern California Medical School, became a frontline surgeon during the Sino-Japanese war, helped establish the first Western hospital in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and became a prominent behind-the-scenes political broker during World War II that pushed to establish WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services). The establishment of WAVES eventually led to women’s integration into the U.S armed forces as a whole. Ironically, though, she was rejected from serving in it herself, likely because of her race and her sexuality.
Listen
Chatting With Asians: Building Solidarity with Dr. Connie Wun. In this episode, Dr. Connie Wun raises awareness about the stories of AAPI women and their experiences with various forms of violence. She is one of the co-founders, along with Jenny Wun, of AAPI Women Lead. This organization aims to create more accurate and diverse representation of AAPI self-identified women and girls in the United States. Dr. Wun discusses racial solidarity within AAPI communities as well as with Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities. This episode was recorded around June 2020, around the start of the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Read
How One Woman's Story Led to the Creation of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Jeanie Jew, a former Capitol Hill staffer, is credited with being a cofounder of of AAPI Heritage month, along with Ruby Moy. Through their advocacy, the first 10 days of May were declared Asian Amerian Heritage week in 1978; eventually this was expanded into AAPI Heritage Month in 1990. In 1976, Jew had witnessed the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations of 1976 and was concerned about the lack of recognition of AAPI Americans. For Jew, the lack of AAPI recognition was personal. Her great-grandfather came to the US from China and helped build the transcontinental railroad and unfortunately experienced government-sanctioned xenophobia. In the late 19th century, U.S. federal law openly discriminated against Chinese immigrants thorough the passage of The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This law prohibited immigration of Chinese laborers and required Chinese immigrants to always carry permits, or face deportation. Jew’s great-grandfather eventually became a prominent businessman, and during a trip to Oregon he was killed as a result of anti-Asian discrimination.