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“Here we are again, mourning the death of another black person at the hands of the people that are supposed to protect and defend our rights. Another casualty in the 400+ year struggle that we have had in this country to be granted the same right to liberty, the same access to success and the same ability to live without fear, that we were promised. And while this may seem dramatic and hyperbolic to some, I wonder how many people would like to trade places with black people in this country. It often feels like it is OK to hear our voices when it relates to music, sports, and other forms of entertainment, but when it comes to the tough issues that crush our communities, the fervor of the backlash, the push to discredit our concerns and the silence from our advocates that maintains the status quo is maddening.”
Brian C. Clark is a cardiologist and can be reached on Twitter @brianclarkmd.
He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, “We should be collectively tired as a society.”
Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from.
Transcript
Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show where we share the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. My name is Kevin Pho, founder and editor of KevinMD. Today on the show, we have Brian Clark. He’s a cardiologist in Chicago, and he wrote the KevinMD article “We should be collectively tired as a society.” We’re going to get into that in a little bit. But first, Brian, welcome to the show.
Brian C. Clark: Thank you for having me, Kevin. I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak with you.
Kevin Pho: So tell me a little about your story and your journey to where you are today.
Brian C. Clark: Sure. I was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Both of my parents were in the military. We moved around a lot growing up, but we eventually ended up settling in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where my father grew up. And I think that growing up in that area had a big impact on me. There are a lot of well-to-do African Americans in that particular area. And I think that at the same time, we definitely have communities that are struggling, minority communities and otherwise. I think that had, like I said, a big impact on my decision to go into health care, just witnessing the health care disparities that existed in those communities from a young age.
I would consider my upbringing to be a little bit more upper middle class, if anything. My parents are both orthodontists that met at Howard University. Growing up, I went to private school between elementary and middle school, and then for college, I went to the University of Maryland in College Park. I did my medical school in Philadelphia, Jefferson Medical College, and then I did my internal medicine and cardiology training at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. I just finished back in June of 2019, and I’m currently an assistant professor at Rush University in Chicago.
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Kevin Pho: All right. And it goes without saying that we are currently living through historic times. I want to start by reading you an excerpt from your article. You write, “I wonder how many people would like to trade places with black people in this country. It often feels like it is OK to hear our voices when it comes to music, sports, and other forms of entertainment, but when it comes to the tough issues that crush our communities, the fervor of the backlash, the push to discredit our concerns, and the silence from our advocates that maintains the status quo is maddening.” I was wondering if you could share the story behind your article, and perhaps share your perspective on the protests that are currently going on against police violence and systemic racism.
Brian C. Clark: Absolutely. So like we’ve talked about, these are kind of unprecedented times that we’re all living in, with COVID-19 kind of getting the year off to a start and putting the whole world at a standstill. I think it really set us up to not really be able to be distracted by a lot of the things that kind of take our attention away from societal issues that are usually going on.
And I will say that as a black man in America, these events that have happened with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, they’re not new to us. These are things that we see on a regular basis, and maybe society in general doesn’t really recognize it. But I think that the fact that everybody else was kind of at a standstill too gave more of an opportunity for society to take a look and see what happened and not really just brush it off and say that there are more important things happening.
I think that the events surrounding George Floyd were really unfortunate, and having to sit there and watch a man be essentially suffocated for almost 9 minutes, it was really heart-wrenching. I think it touched a lot of people, and I think that the impact that it had on people, even outside of the black community, was huge. I appreciate the fact that, I guess I’ll say, it’s resonating with people so much more than I’ve seen with previous episodes like this that have happened. And it’s reassuring, and I think it makes me hopeful that things will change. Unlike previous episodes or previous events that have taken place, it almost feels like, finally, people are willing to listen when we say that we’re being mistreated in communities, not in subtle ways, but in more obvious ways like what happened with George Floyd and the other folks that I talked about.
And I think that we’ve tried over the years to raise our voices, regardless of what our stature is, whether it’s somebody who is a community organizer or somebody as popular as LeBron James, who, when he tried to speak out about something like this a couple years ago, was told to shut up and dribble. And that just really seems like a slap in the face.
I think that we all have problems in our communities, but when something like COVID-19 happens, the communities that suffer the most are the ones that are minority and underserved. And they definitely deserve more of our attention on a regular basis. It’s not something that we can pretend doesn’t exist. I think that type of apathy is just perpetuating the problems that exist.
Kevin Pho: So for those of us who don’t have the lived experience of the black community, what are some ways that you could suggest to listen and to educate ourselves?
Brian C. Clark: Yeah, I think that’s tough. There are many resources out there. I think that when we’ve gotten that question, I’ve had a lot of people come to me and ask, “What can we do, and how can we make things better?”
I think education is number one: being willing to listen, being willing to understand. There are a lot of things that we don’t really get taught in history class coming through the United States education system about how racism has impacted so many aspects of our lives, even from back in the 17th and 18th centuries, and how those things and those policies still persist. The issues that were occurring back at that time still continue up until this day, even though it might not be called outward slavery. There are systems that are in place that kind of perpetuate that mindset and still keep people in places of poverty and keep populations of people oppressed and unable to elevate themselves out of those positions. So I think being open to hearing these stories and being willing to take the steps in order to educate yourself, those are the first things.
And once we do that, I think the next thing is to take action. I think we have to be willing to go outside of our comfort zones. We have to go into these communities and be willing to say, “OK, these are the problems that exist, and these are the ways that we need to address them,” whether that has to do with being involved in city council or holding your elected officials accountable, so that they’re actually doing things to make improvements to these societies.
I think that as health care providers, we have a unique position where we have a platform to use our voices, and I think that people respect it a little bit more in society. Unfortunately, that’s how people are built, it seems like. But I think we need to use that platform in order to raise our voices and raise these concerns that we have. Because we also know, as physicians and health care providers, that the folks who struggle with health conditions more often are the people from these communities that are struggling. So we know that it’s going on. We see it every day. We talk about it among ourselves, about the difficulties with access to care.
So the fact that we have that knowledge and then we also have the ability to make a change, I think it’s honestly one of the things that we should be doing as health care providers. It can’t just start and stop when we go in and out of the hospital or the clinic. We can’t just stop there. It’s something that we have to be more proactive about in our communities in order to take action and try to improve the situations of these people.
Kevin Pho: So what makes these protests different from those in the past? And what needs to be done so we can have some enduring change?
Brian C. Clark: I think the thing that honestly makes these protests different, at least feel different to me, is that there is so much buy-in from so many different people. I think a lot of it has been focused on what happened with George Floyd. And like I said, I think it resonated with a lot of people even more. I think that people were more outraged because they saw the injustice that was done. There was no way to really spin it or make it seem like maybe he deserved it. That’s one of the common things that people will say whenever something like this happens to a black person: “Oh, well, what did they do to deserve that type of treatment?” And there’s been no way to try to paint that type of picture. A man was killed, it looked like. And there’s no denying that.
And again, I think that touched people in a certain way and made them just as angry as the black community has been whenever these types of things happen. So I think that as a result of that, we’re seeing more and more people outside of just the black community be involved in all of these protests and what’s been going on. And it’s been beautiful to see. People from all walks of life, no matter what race, creed, et cetera, are supporting, and we’re seeing worldwide protests too. And that’s not something that we commonly see whenever something like this happens. And that tells me that more people are concerned about sort of the state of not just the black community, but policing and how things like this are handled. And I think it puts it under a microscope that hopefully will result in change.
And honestly, I think that unless the pandemic was happening, I don’t know if it would have gotten this much attention. Like I was saying earlier, everything else had kind of come to a standstill in society. So people almost didn’t have a reason or didn’t have a way to ignore it. It was in their face almost every day, one way or another, whether it was at home or at work or in discussion with friends. You can’t ignore the fact that the situation has happened, and you hopefully can’t deny that something needs to change.
Kevin Pho: So let’s take a step back. I was wondering if you could share something that you’ve been passionate about recently or something that you’ve been curious about.
Brian C. Clark: Sure. I think coming up, my focus had always been trying to get into medical school and trying to get through training and everything. And I think earlier on, before all of that, I had a strong interest in improving the situations in health care within the minority community. And I think that to a certain extent, I had lost that going through the process, because you get so fixated on getting through that you don’t always remember why you got into it.
But I think in the recent months and years, health equity has been something that’s been a major passion of mine. Improving the systems of delivery of health care is also major to me. And I think that enhancing diversity and inclusion is something that only strengthens us. I don’t think that it’s something that is a waste of our time. I’m all for advancing the field of medicine, but at the same time, if people can’t access those innovations, then to me, that almost seems like a waste of effort to a certain extent.
Kevin Pho: So something you said earlier really resonated with me, in that you don’t think that the protests would be as vocal as they are without the COVID pandemic. And I think you’re absolutely right there. I think that these two public health issues are absolutely intertwined. And with that in mind, I want to ask my final question, and simply, what’s your take-home message for the KevinMD audience?
Brian C. Clark: Absolutely. So there’s a couple of things. Full disclosure, Black Lives Matter. They matter just as much as everybody else. They don’t matter more. They don’t matter less. They matter.
I think that we have to have the courage to call out racism that exists in our society, and we have to acknowledge that slavery and racism continue to impact communities, even if it’s not explicit like it used to be. We have to educate ourselves on the systems that are in place that still keep people in these situations of inability to have upward mobility. And we can’t continue to have apathy about it, because it’s only going to get worse if that is the case. We’re only as strong as a country as our weakest links. And I think that we have to make more of a concerted effort and make sacrifices in our communities to try to make lives better for people who are struggling.
Kevin Pho: Well, thank you so much for sharing your time and your insight. Today on the show, we have Brian Clark. He is a cardiologist in Chicago, and he wrote the KevinMD article “We should be collectively tired as a society.” Brian, thank you so much for your time.
Brian C. Clark: Thanks so much, Kevin. I appreciate it.
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