Racial Justice

Walter Palmer of the School of Social Policy & Practice drew parallels between the racism experienced by Black and Asian American communities throughout U.S. history. “Discrimination is part and parcel of American society,” he said. “Until we admit it and own it, it will never end. It takes work to overcome this, and it means still feeling some pain.”

Jaya Aysola of the Perelman School of Medicine co-authored a paper that found that medical education often reinforces the idea that race is a biological category, rather than a social one. “Medical schools are training the next cadre of not only physicians that serve on the front lines, but physician scientists that are generating the medical knowledge that we’re going to use in the future,” she said. “Medical schools define the individuals that are going to define the institutional structures, policies and practices of medicine tomorrow.”

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas of the Graduate School of Education spoke about perceptions of the Seuss estate’s decision to stop selling books with racist imagery. “Folks are not remembering the text itself; they are remembering the affective experiences they had around those texts,” said Thomas. “White children or parents might not have noticed the offensive anti-Asian stereotyping in ‘Mulberry Street.’ I certainly didn’t.”

Penn strives to contract with diverse businesses, including SUPRA EMSCO, a Black-owned office and lab equipment supplier. “As we’ve grown, there is a sense that we can do more to leverage our buying clout to basically engage and bring in and help other firms grow,” said Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli.

Jalil Mustaffa Bishop, a postdoc in the Graduate School of Education, spoke about the impact of student debt on the racial wealth gap. “The thing that was clear to us when we were talking to Black borrowers across degree-levels and across income-levels was that student debt was consistently described as a burden,” he said.

Roy Hamilton of the Perelman School of Medicine said there’s significant evidence that people from racial or ethnic minority groups tend to receive worse medical care than white patients. “This feeds into or contributes to a complicated cycle of problems where individuals from historically marginalized groups are both more suspicious and more wary of pursuing care,” he said. “And when they do, oftentimes those suspicions are borne out.”