What’s your role amid the COVID-19 pandemic?

I work in the ICU, and I also work on the floor in pulmonary and I have my clinic as well...The thing about California [is] I just feel a little bit guilty because I feel like I should be in New York or Philadelphia or wherever it’s popping off right now. There’s this feeling of guilt there because I feel like I can do more.

What are your thoughts on the racial inequities being brought to light amid the pandemic? Do you think this will affect any change? Was this something you anticipated happening?

In regards to the racial inequality we're seeing during this pandemic, it doesn’t really surprise me. I do believe that African Americans in general are not treated equally. But this inequality is not just due to the healthcare system. I do feel like African American civilians want to see African American physicians, and, understanding that African American physicians represent about 5% of all physicians in this country, it likely is a little bit of a trust issue. I can tell the difference when I walk in the room versus when one of my colleagues walks in the room. I think that the most important thing is to be able to show young children that physicians can look any way.

[Additionally,] what’s difficult sometimes is to play catch-up. A lot of times you have to, and you want to sit down with family members and just educate them and let them know what’s going on with their disease process and this is why this happened and this is why that happened. Sometimes it’s too much information in one sitting, but you understand as an African American that they have not been afforded the opportunity to learn about their illness. You try to fill that impossible gap, and this is tough.

What advice do you have for Black millennials right now?

Anything that you do in medicine, do not move onto the next concepts until you understand why the current concept is happening. It’s important to build a foundation brick by brick. It’s important not to try to memorize everything and to really try to know and understand where concepts are born. This way you can build on the things on a daily basis and you just know things.

I would also like to say that one of their best lessons my grandparents ever taught me — and this is coming from two people growing up when racism was prevalent — my grandfather always told me “it’s never because you’re Black.” The reason he told me this was because he wanted me to not think about this because he felt that if I thought that it wouldn’t allow me to continue to propel forward. He felt that that thought is strong enough to leave me standing in my tracks. He wanted me to continue to excel. So I do think it’s important to teach that even though we all understand that racism still exists.

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Zahara Hill

Writing since March 2018 29 stories contributed

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