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 membersTrack your progress here.
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Dr. Deidre Cooper, University of Nebraska Lincoln professor, medical historian, and author presents a lecture titled “Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the origins of American Gynecology.” Cooper reveals the startling history of enslaved women being experimented on to further the field of gynecology. In this lecture she seeks to correct historical misrepresentations in medicine and shed light on the forgotten contributions of Black women in the development of the field of Gynecology. (forward about 7 minutes to get past the introductions)
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Black History in Two Minutes (or so): Henrietta Lacks: The Woman with the Immortal Cells on Apple Podcasts.This podcast tells the story of a young Black woman named Henrietta Lacks who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951. Her cancer cells were removed and used for scientific research without her knowledge or consent. Named HeLa cells, Mrs. Lack’s tissue has eventually led to major advancements in medical research. This podcast is a discussion of the conundrum of medical breakthroughs being celebrated without acknowledging the unethical method of obtaining these cells and the impact of these actions on medical relationships with the Black community today.
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Dr. Rebecca Crumpler — The Resilient Sisterhood Project (rsphealth.org). In celebration of Woman’s history month, we remember the pioneering courage of the first Black female physician, Dr. Rebecca Crumpler. Originally trained as a nurse, she was encouraged by physicians that she worked with to apply to medical school. In 1860, she was accepted to the New England Female Medical College. At the time only 300 out of 54,000 physicians in the United states were female and none of them were Black. In the wake of the civil war, Dr. Crumpler moved to Richmond, VA to assist in caring for freed slaves who were routinely denied access to healthcare by white physicians. Only about 2% of doctors today are Black women. Let us commemorate Dr. Crumpler’s pioneering resilience in the face of both sexism and racism.
