Black Physicians' Experience with Race: Should We Be Surprised?

Surveys done over the past 3 years show that minorities have drastically different perspectives on race and race relations in the United States than their white counterparts (1). For instance, African Americans are more likely than whites to feel personally discriminated against in public life and at their place of employment, less likely to feel that they have equal job opportunities, and less likely to feel that race relations in the United States are “somewhat good” or “very good.” Even as ground is broken in our nation's capital for the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, African Americans are less likely than whites to feel that the United States is making significant progress toward achieving King's dream of racial equality.

In this issue of Annals, Nunez-Smith and colleagues (2) present the findings of a small qualitative study that explored how physicians of African descent experience race in the workplace. In brief, the physicians participating in the study felt that race permeated their experience in the workplace, shaped their interpersonal interactions, and defined their institutional climate; that responses to racism at work ranged from minimization to confrontation; that the health care workplace is often silent on the issue of race; and that these collective experiences can result in “racial fatigue,” with personal and professional consequences. These findings are extremely disappointing and discouraging; however, since they mirror many of the perspectives on race reported by African Americans in society, should we be surprised? We don't think so.

A recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report titled “In the Nation's Compelling Interest: Achieving Diversity in the Health Care Workforce” (3) highlights that, of the 70.5% of U.S. physicians whose race and ethnicity is known, Hispanics account for 3.5%, African Americans 2.6%, and American Indian and Alaska Natives fewer than 0.5%. …