Perspectives
Intersectionality—Role Modeling Leadership Across Identities—A Black Female PhD Oral Surgeon Speaks
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young woman sat across the conference table from a colleague and me. She was a 4th year dental student interviewing for a position as a trainee in our Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery training program. As we worked through the typical interview questions many of her perspectives illustrated the difficulties she experienced as a black woman while matriculating through dental school. She expressed her delight when she discovered our program. Her enthusiasm originated from a desire to just be a trainee. Not a woman trainee. Not a black trainee. Not a black woman trainee. Just a trainee. She saw our program as an opportunity to learn as an equal. She saw this in our program because after doing her research she
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found that our program was led by someone who looked like her. A black woman was not only the Program Director of the training program but also Chief of OMFS and Hospital Dentistry Division of the Surgery Department at our Hospital. In all the years that I’ve interviewed and mentored students, I have never heard a response such as hers. Her statement made me reflect on my past experiences. I have wanted to be an Oral Surgeon since I was a child. Throughout my education I had very few black women role models in my desired profession. I felt the sting of that void many times. Especially when I would meet with my school counselor in junior high. As a high school student, I was told to reconsider my chosen class schedule consisting mostly of math and science. I was told that the schedule was too hard and that I should skip one year of math and add music. Although, I expressed my desire to become a dentist. I was told that this path was difficult, and that I should pursue a career as a singer. Did my counselor think that it was too hard for a woman to be a dentist? Did they think that all black people could do were sports and entertainment? Thankfully, I had a mother who encouraged and supported my aspirations making the attitudes of my counselor irrelevant.
2021 Volume 88, Number 3
