Antiracism in medicine: what is it?

Abstract

Aisha Majid reports on the efforts being made to go beyond EDI initiatives and confront racism head on “I don’t think he realised how offensive it was,” says Desire Onwochei, recounting an exchange with a fellow anaesthetist at a conference. He had decided to share his opinion that black people don’t enjoy cycling. Also present during the exchange between the white anaesthetist and Onwochei, who is a black consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, was one of her white female colleagues. “Later on that evening my colleague told me how uncomfortable she had felt in that conversation,” says Onwochei. “She said she felt bad that she hadn’t said anything but that she didn’t know what to say.” Data and lived experiences1 unequivocally show that staff from ethnic minority backgrounds have a poorer experience of working in the NHS, from being more likely to be referred to the regulator than their white counterparts2 to being less likely to be appointed to a post after shortlisting.3 The NHS has long had strategies aiming for equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), but since the tragic murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the subsequent boost in the Black Lives Matter movement, more organisations are talking about being “antiracist.” For Onwochei, her white colleague’s reaction was an example of being antiracist. Even though her colleague didn’t know what to say, she still “wanted to let me know that she didn’t think that what happened was right.” She adds, “It made me feel like she actually understands, and, for me, that was being antiracist—her identifying with me and showing her support to me.” But what does antiracism mean, and what makes it more than just an elevated term for EDI? Anton Emmanuel led NHS England’s Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) …