Post submitted by Fatima Syed, MD, a primary care physician and a Vice Chief for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the General Internal Medicine division, along with Dr. Sonya Patel-Nguyen.
I’m the child of Pakistani Muslim immigrants.
My dad spent much of his early years in the US in rural North Carolina. This was 1970 America, and my dad spent his early years learning American history and reading the speeches of Dr. King.
Fast forward a couple decades and one of my proudest moments was attending an elementary school named in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and winning the annual oratorical competition that occurred each MLK Day. It was my dad’s lessons on Dr. King that informed how we viewed America. A place rife with racial discord, but a place worth the dream. I have been especially motivated by Dr King’s quote "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman." This lesson always motivates me to do right by my patients.
A place rife with racial discord but a place worth the dream.