Campuses Join White Coats for Black Lives Movement

On June 5, the unforgiving heat of an Oklahoma summer day did not deter nearly 450 people from the OU Health Sciences Center, OU Medicine and OU-Tulsa from gathering in solidarity with the national White Coats for Black Lives effort, which supports the Black Lives Matter movement and rejects racism in all its forms.

Each campus hosted its own event and heard from several speakers before kneeling for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time a Minneapolis police offer pressed his knee on George Floyd’s neck until he died.

“As healers and teachers and educators, we have an obligation to address social inequalities,” said Robert Salinas, M.D., Assistant Dean for Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement at the OU College of Medicine. “We cannot remain silent. We must speak for those who have no voice and rise for those who cannot stand.”

Medical student Ariana Baker said, “Let this not be the last time that you think about these injustices and the racism that’s still plaguing our country.”

As members of an academic healthcare system, providers, staff and students were reminded of their responsibility to speak out against healthcare inequalities.

“We are the physicians who are operating on people who are hurt,” said medical student Garret Eaker. “We are the social workers repairing broken families. We are the counselors who are healing the minds of the children who grew up without a father. We’re the people here trying to make this better. So this is in our wheelhouse, this is within our grasp. We can make changes, we can push for changes, and we can keep fighting the good fight.”