Statements

Statement Regarding the Recent Murders of Black Men 

February 6, 2023

AURORA,CO- As the nation reacts to another senseless murder of a Black man at the violent hands of police, we are reminded of Fannie Lou Hamer’s words, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” 

We are sick, ailed by the racism that poisons our healthcare system. 

We are tired, exhausted by the barrage of police violence. 

We are sick and tired of the systemic white supremacy that murders our Black men.

But we are NOT discouraged or disempowered. 

We condemn not only the action of the Memphis Police Department, but the very existence of policing in our community. In 2021, Aurora PD violated federal and state laws through a pattern of racially biased policing and excessive force. A consent decree mandated changes like updating use-of-force policies and diversifying officers. But the most recent deadline on January 13th was missed and IntegrAssure’s (a contractor monitoring the consent decree’s process) latest report describes Aurora police’s “apparent reluctance" to look into use of force incidents when policies are not violated. According to Mapping Police Violence, police have killed 37 people, 4 of them Black, in Colorado so far in 2022. Black people are 3.5x more likely to be killed than white people in Colorado.

We have tried body cams, we have tried training, we passed countless laws across the nation. But the truth is policing will not work. Policing will not work, regardless of the race of the officers, until the systems of white supremacy that dehumanize Black people and sanction violence against the Black community are dismantled.

Therefore, we call on faculty, staff, and students to use their power to advocate for radical change to policing in our community, including: eliminating shoot-to-kill policies, restricting the authority of police in favor of community solutions, permanent dismissal following any use of force violations, and ending monetary restrictions under the qualified immunity ban to ensure police are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law for civil rights violations. Furthermore, as there is no role for policing in healthcare, we advocate for the dismissal of police from our associated hospitals and clinical spaces.

In the words of the ACLU, “It’s past time to end the disparate, ineffective and violent policing of communities of color, and the constant surveillance, targeting and harassment of Black and Brown people. We must stop relying on police to respond to issues related to poverty and disinvestment, which leads to more frequent unnecessary and aggressive actions by law enforcement towards community members. It’s time for us to reimagine the role of police to be far narrower, while investing in supportive, community-based solutions for public safety independent of the criminal legal system”

Fannie Lou Hamer was a civil rights activist. The police assaulted her, beating her while in police custody. And the healthcare system failed her, detecting her breast cancer far too late, and sterilizing her without consent when she sought treatment. Nearly 60 years ago Fannie declared that she is sick and tired of being sick and tired. Let us not go another 60 years with generations of Black people killed by our police and our healthcare system.

With love and support for our Black community,                                                                                                            The University of Colorado School of Medicine Chapter of White Coats for Black Lives

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DISCLAIMER: This statement was created by the CUSOM WC4BL chapter.  The views and opinions expressed in this statement are those of the student organization and are not intended to represent the views and opinions of the University of Colorado or School of Medicine.

Corrections: the original statement said "police have killed 37 Black people in Colorado so far in 2022." The correct statistic is "police have killed 37 people, 4 of them Black, in Colorado so far in 2022."

Statement Regarding the Recent Murders of Black Individuals

May 31, 2020

The systematic killing of Black individuals without repercussion or justice has been tolerated and propagated in our country since its inception. The widely publicized deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd at the hands of police officers are some of the most recent examples of state-sanctioned murder of Black individuals. During this time, the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s chapter of White Coats for Black Lives renews our demands of our community, our state, our country, and our school to do better in the face of the massive public health crisis that is the killing of Black people. 

We condemn the actions of the Denver Police Department (DPD) for using unnecessary and unsafe force on protestors during the protests for George Floyd in May of 2020. These violent actions include, but are not limited to, deployment of tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and sonic weapons. It is undeniable that these methods have the potential to harm and even kill citizens; for example, tear gas agents alone can damage the lungs, skin, and eyes, and cause even more severe injuries in individuals with underlying chronic conditions (Rothenberg, Achanta, Svendsen, & Jordt, 2016). Importantly, we highlight and denounce the stark contrast between the violent DPD response to the protests for George Floyd and non-violent responses to protests unrelated to the death of Black individuals (e.g.  recent protests at the Capitol calling for reopening businesses during COVID-19). As future physicians, we demand DPD take note from other cities (e.g., Newark and New Jersey) and use safer methods to deescalate protests. These more humane responses include police officers calling for voluntary arrestees, positioning their weapons on their belts and out of sight, refraining from the use of riot gear, and assuming non-threatening stances like positioning their hands low in front of them. 

We demand that the Governor’s Office, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the University of Colorado School of Medicine declare the murder of Black people by police officers as a public health crisis. According to Mapping Police Violence, a research and advocacy group, Black Coloradans are twice as likely to be killed by police officers. Furthermore, of all the murders of Black people by police officers in Colorado, zero resulted in officers being charged. These statistics - in addition to the innumerable incidents in the everyday lives of Black Americans that receive less media attention - indicate the severity of racial injustice in Colorado and across the nation. It is urgent that the aforementioned people in positions of power create a new infrastructure to prevent future murders of Black individuals and eradicate racism in every aspect of public life. 

We challenge the entire U.S. Healthcare System (government agencies, hospitals, insurance companies, training programs, private and public healthcare agencies, and others) to address its own blatant racism, as it has historically failed and perpetuated violence against Black humans. Performing experimental operations on Black slaves without consent and often without anesthesia, sterilizing black women, and enacting coercive reproductive policies that preferentially provide birth control to Black women in an attempt to prevent Black births (which shockingly occurred as recently as 1990) are just a few examples of innumerable accounts of the blatant, disturbing racism that has elicited (and continues to elicit) a societal divide in the treatment of patients. We challenge the U.S. healthcare system to address the underlying racial biases and inequities in access to care, health insurance, proper nutrition, and safety contributing to the disproportionate death of Black individuals due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than propagating misleading correlational information that, perhaps unintentionally (but nonetheless unacceptably), entrenches racial misconceptions that worsen healthcare experiences for Black individuals. Racism undeniably persists in healthcare regardless of socioeconomic status, and this leads to poor health outcomes for Black patients.

The University of Colorado School of Medicine must honestly reflect on the part it plays in perpetuating health disparities. Our demands, while not exhaustive, are clear first steps the school can take before the matriculation of the Class of 2024: 

• Require the Department of Dermatology include pictures of skin pathologies on POC and these changes are reviewed before the start of the Spring Semester (2021).

• Require all lecturers to explain prevalence data and block directors to review all lecturer materials to ensure this change is implemented.

• Place extra weight on applicants who have demonstrated activist participation and/or have taken action to combat racism.

Lastly, we speak to our fellow students. We must hold lecturers accountable when they give prevalence data without explanation. We must support POC when they speak up and give them credit when they do. We must work with administration by attending Town Halls, office hours, and open-curriculum meetings to implement anti-racist policies and center anti-oppression within our education. We must constantly question how our foundational medical concepts apply to different populations. We must instigate conversations about race and reducing racism in healthcare. We must take action to support our Black communities who are experiencing massive collective trauma as a result of the murdering of Black people and the widely-publicized police brutality. Lastly, we must continuously ask how we can do better, listen to and advocate for our Black colleagues, and fight for real change.

If you have any question, please contact us at cusomwhitecoats4blacklives@gmail.com

With love and support for our Black community, 

The University of Colorado School of Medicine Chapter of White Coats for Black Lives