PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Envisioning and Embracing a New Day

SARAH TRAXLER, MD

As I anticipate this year as your TCMS president, I am, of course, compelled to look behind me and reckon with the last year—a year that not only heralded a pandemic that is ravaging communities, but a year that brought to the fore reminders of blatant disregard for Black and Brown bodies. We watched the video of George Floyd’s murder, and countless others, as he became yet another example of the devaluation of certain members of our community because of long-standing systemic racist oppression. But while George Floyd’s murder was a grotesque, graphic representation of that disregard for the bodily autonomy of a Black man, we must acknowledge that devaluation of Black and Brown bodies has been playing out in subtle and obvious ways for several centuries. His tragic death is a culmination of that systemic devaluation, and we cannot deny that the medical establishment has played its own role in perpetuating it. We see it demonstrated in how the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacts Black and Brown communities, how Black maternal mortality is significantly higher than White maternal mortality, and how race-based medicine is still taught in medical schools across the country. As a gynecologist, I cannot ignore that J. Marion Simms, the father of gynecology who has a statue erected in his name in New York’s Central Park, gained his notoriety and knowledge through experimenting on enslaved African women without anesthesia, perfecting his techniques and then moving on to White women to be operated on with anesthesia. Moreover, it must be acknowledged that the birth control pill, a revolutionary innovation, but with roots in the eugenics movement, was developed and perfected during experiments on Black and Brown women prior to its release to the American, mostly White, public. And these two examples are a mere sampling of the countless ways in which communities of color have been exposed to injustices and used to advance science without consent, without regard for autonomy. I’m not recounting these stories to be self-righteous, but to help expose the legacy of the medical establishment that has bred distrust and doubt among our patients of color and to remind us that we have deep work ahead of us that is necessary in order to undo a legacy of exploitation. At a time when we most need our communities to trust us and rely on the facts of science, we’ve needed to develop presentations, engage outreach groups, and form coalitions to do community engagement and negotiate around COVID vaccine hesitancy, a hesitancy that is a direct result of the multiple past injustices committed against marginalized communities by the medical establishment and the government. A change is certainly needed. Sometimes it’s impossible not to feel burdened by the vast work ahead of us. In preparation for this inaugural address, however, I was reminded of our immediate past president’s message. Dr. Greiner’s final words remind us, “The story is still being written, our story, one that we can choose to write together or allow to be written for us.” While the work ahead seems daunting, our story is still being written and we have the power and capability to pen a new narrative—one of active listening and centering new voices. I am confident that we, the TCMS membership, have the collective capacity to shape a new legacy of the medical establishment. I believe in our ability to dismantle oppression, advance equity, and promote trust. We can do this work by engaging community partners, stepping back, centering the voices of Black and Brown leaders, and working to hear what communities need from us. As we look to a new year, I feel great responsibility taking the helm of TCMS at a time when such reform is so needed. There is, no doubt, more work to be done. And given the foundational work behind us, the depth of work ahead of us, and the incredible commitment of our physician leaders and advocates, I am confident that we can drive forward on issues that serve to make our communities more equitable, healthier and safer.