Soon after the first reported US case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in January 2020, the pandemic piled on centuries of adversities from systemic racism and social injustice in communities of color. Then, on May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died from being pinned at the neck to the ground in handcuffs by a hand-pocketed White police officer, sparking outrage globally, effects of which were captured in a Black community study.1 A flurry of antiracism statements ensued, but in February 2021, the Journal of the American Medical Association posted a podcast and tweet asserting that “no physician is racist.”2 My experience tells me differently.
Soon after the first reported US case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in January 2020, the pandemic piled on centuries of adversities from systemic racism and social injustice in communities of color. Then, on May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died from being pinned at the neck to the ground in handcuffs by a hand-pocketed White police officer, sparking outrage globally, effects of which were captured in a Black community study.1 A flurry of antiracism statements ensued, but in February 2021, the Journal of the American Medical Association posted a podcast and tweet asserting that “no physician is racist.”2 My experience tells me differently.