Detroit doctors, nurses take a knee over racial injustice in wake of George Floyd's death

Hundreds of doctors, nurses, medical students and staff at the Detroit Medical Center dropped to one knee Friday afternoon and observed 8 minutes, 46 seconds of silence in memory of George Floyd, who was killed last month by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

But those who spoke as part of a White Coats for Black Lives demonstration told of deeply rooted racial inequality in America that goes far beyond police brutality, and touches every aspect of their lives — from education to economics to access to health care and even COVID-19. 

"We are here today because we understand ... that what happened to Mr. George Floyd when he was brutally murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020 was not a random occurrence in a vacuum," said Dr. Ijeoma Nnodim-Opara, an assistant professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and a physician at the DMC.

"We understand that it was not a one-time occurrence. … We understand that it was a sequel of what happened to Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, Amadou Diallo, Manuel Ellis, Rodney King, Dr. Jameela Arshad, a black female neurologist who was killed by the police in 2005 when she stopped to help the victim of a motor vehicle accident. That officer was acquitted.

"The list of names keeps growing, and many more are not named. We understand that what happened to them, and keeps happening to many others, is a symptom of the underlying pathology of structural systemic institutionalized racism and white supremacy that is written into the genetic code of this nation."

Nnodim-Opara and others spoke to a crowd of several hundred people on Brush Mall — the outdoor space between Children's Hospital of Michigan and Harper University Hospital — before leading them in taking a knee. It was one of several such demonstrations Friday at hospitals around the state and country.  

Dr. Lekiesha Porter, a internal medicine resident, teared up as she talked about her own family's struggles. 

"Last Friday, I lost my uncle to COVID-19," Porter said. "Two years ago ... I lost my cousin, James Hartsfield Jr. He was murdered by an off-duty police officer.

"It means so much to me that everybody came out to show that we are not alone, that this affects everybody whether it be police brutality or the COVID-19 pandemic. Systemic racism affects every facet of our life."

"It affects us every day. ... When our kids leave outside of our homes, when our family members leave outside of our homes ... we have to fear for them. This is only the beginning. ... We have to continue to work. We have to find all the minute details of the problem and address them individually because without that, these things are just going to continue to happen."

Many of the problems are rooted within the nation's health care system, Nnodim-Opara said. 

"We understand that health disparities are not isolated, random or based in the falsehood of biological racial differences," she said. "They are a direct result of systemic racist policies, processes, practices, and injustices in all spheres of life, including health and medicine that protect power and privilege. We have seen this play out in COVID, we see this play out in cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease and cancers. We understand these disparities are preventable and we can prevent and undo them."

The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected Michigan's African American community — with more than 31% of cases and 40% of deaths among black people in a state that is about 14% black. Detroit, a majority black city, has the most cases in Michigan. 

Dr. Herbert Smitherman, associate vice dean of diversity and community affairs at the WSU Medical School and an associate professor of internal medicine, said his role as a leader within the medical school and the health system is "to translate that peaceful protest, that movement into public policy.

"What we’re saying, and I think what the young people are saying, is zero tolerance. We will have zero tolerance for this any longer.  ... We’re just saying that’s enough. That’s enough. I think what you see here is a pivot. I don’t think Americans are any longer going to tolerate the level of injustice we have because it ultimately makes us all fragile and it makes us all vulnerable."

America faces several crises layered upon one another, he explained. 

"We are in a pandemic within a pandemic within a pandemic," Smitherman said.

"The first pandemic is health disparities — chronic inequities in the outcomes of health. Secondly, on top  of that, we poured corona(virus). And now we’re pouring the racism virus."

Though some have expressed concerns that protesters who are marching in the streets of Detroit, around the state and country against police brutality and racial inequality may be exposed to coronavirus and unknowingly fuel a second wave of cases, Smitherman said the greater concern is doing nothing at all to speak out about these racial inequities so deeply ingrained in American society.

"What I think what people are saying is, 'We’re dying anyway. What’s the risk? I’m being killed just for leaving my house. I’m being killed when I’m even within my own house.' ... I’m taking a risk just being here just being here, just being who I am and putting on this black skin every morning when I wake up.

"There is a risk, but there’s a larger risk by doing nothing, by allowing this to happen with no voice. For 8 minutes and 46 seconds to witness a human being literally killed on national TV and do nothing is not the values or principles of the American society and this American experiment. It is not our values. ... We’re saying we’re going to make sure this system, this American system is just for all."

Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: 313-222-5997 or kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus. 

Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Dr. Lekiesha Porter's name.