Revolutionary RacheRox in FULL EFFECT

It's been a minute luhvs.

Sorry we haven't been around for ages, but LeiLei & I are becoming (higher) educated & it's mad work! No excuses tho, we miss this. I'm back b/c there have been an abundance of through the roof moments, both fabulous & bad, thrown on the balance throughout the past year, and recently one of those moments tipped the scale for me personally.

As a young African American woman, it is integral that I carry myself with poise, class, sophistication, a desire to strengthen my black community, and the responsibility to uphold the integrity of my black community that I luhv as well.

While we accept that responsibility with open arms, we hope that we don't have to flash our badge too often. But during what would have otherwise been an average medical school lecture in my Growth & Development course, "Lecture 9: Youth Violvence" became just the tipping point my revolutionary alter ego has been waiting for. That being said, and w/out further adieu, here's what happened:

5 minutes into lecture, Dr. Guest Lecturer asked the class to shout out predictors of violence. "Low SES!" "Child abuse!" "TV!"..."Race!" [All Eyes On Doc] "Race, race...ok, any more?" There were more suggestions, but after that there implication right there, nothing else mattered. The lecture slides the Doc swept through contained a series of case studies comparing "violent youth" to "normally developed youth," & low & behold, allllll (every.last.one) of the pics of "violent youth" (& a pregnant teen) were of black people; allllll of the pics of the "normally developed youth" were of white & Asian people. WHAAAT!? But wait, if you think it ended there...nope! At the end of the lecture during Q&A, one of my black classmates raised her hand politely and asked ever so diplomatically, "so earlier in the lecture someone said that race was a predictor for violence, could you please talk about that a little?" She gave him such an easy out, but this man came up with the following: "Well, it's complicated because in the U.S. race & socioeconomic status are intertwined...race is um...an easier indicator of [violence]. It's controversial; we know low ses is a strong predictor of violence and race is also predictor...it's important to remember that for young black men in particular it's the leading cause of death." Because they're being killed by other black people? All I know is that the professor was dead wrong. You are probably wondering why I didn't "ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT" @ the suggestion of race being a predictor in the first place, huh? Well, this was the lecture I decided to skip to finish a PBL assignment in peace. Looking back now, tho, God was looking out for my behind b/c I probably would have ended up being his live case & point w/ the fury that boiled my blood through my roof after listening to the posted recording of the lecture - I've been upset for days, luhvs.

It should be common sense to educators in higher academia, but apparently it's time for the students to make a statement: it is our (the students) expectation that lecturers be cognizant of the fact that classrooms these days are quite diverse, and that 1) any representation of a racial, ethnic, or other group of people be represented fairly, and 2) that he/she be careful not to make any false claims, explicit nor implied, related to those groups. Race is absolutely not a predictor of violence - there is literature.

No group of students should ever be made to feel uncomfortable about their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or the like in a medical school lecture. More importantly, a lecture's content should never cause students to feel concerned to the point of feeling they need to stand up for the integrity of their respective group, and look up empirical evidence to support them "just in case." While people are entitled to their thoughts and opinions, some have no place in our lectures - we are, after all, being trained to be tactful professionals and leaders.

How is Revolutionary RacheRox handling the situation? Well, I'm keepin her in my pocket & starting with a poised approach; I shared my concerns with the course director & I am currently waiting on his reply. So far, in response to my fellow classmates disgruntled emails, all he has said is that he appreciates & understands the comments, and that he will forward them on to the lecturer. Well, heh, in MY email, I told him that we appreciate him fowarding the comments to the lecturer, BUT, we gon need to coordinate a platform to address the matter directly with him & the entire class in order to correct any mis-education that may have occured that day (but ever so tactfully, yet matter-of-factly, trust). Anxiously awaiting his reply... Unless this professor, our course director, and our administation get started on rectifying this matter ASAP, Revolutionary mini-me will NOT sleep.

RevRacheRox - empowered by luhv always. Sometimes so much it sends her through the roof ;-)