1 - Black Voices in Healthcare: Again
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Why did Ashley McMullen create the Black Voices in Healthcare series?
Hey, everyone. This is Ashley McMullen, your host of Black Voices in Healthcare, a new project from The Nocturnist. So the way this all unfolded was a couple of weeks ago, several days after George Floyd was killed, I was getting all these messages from a lot of non-Black friends telling me that they loved me, that they were thinking about me, a lot of words of affirmation. But it was hard because I remember what I needed in that moment was so much more than words. I just needed change. And then I got this message from Emily that was different. She brought up this idea of doing a collaboration with the Nocturnist, using stories as a platform to elevate Black voices in healthcare. And I gotta say, I was all for it.
I love stories in medicine because stories are the main modality in which we connect to each other as human beings. So we decided to do this series. And from there, things got moving really fast. We got my personal hero, Kimberly Manning, on board as the executive producer. We got 160 of y'all signed up to add your voices to this project. And now here we are, about to drop this first episode. And I have to say, being Black in healthcare can be hard sometimes. We're up against some unique challenges. And being Black in healthcare is amazing. We do incredible work. We're intelligent. We're beautiful. We're just dope. And this series is about to highlight all of it. Let's go.
I was in clinic when I heard about the murder of George Floyd. I checked my phone and I saw the face of a person in uniform as he slowly, callously took the life of another black person that could have been me or someone that I love. And then I did what we all do so well. I took those feelings away and went back to work. There's so much to explore about what it means to be Black in healthcare. But for our first episode, we wanted to take a moment to sit with the grief of the event that set this whole project into motion.
How did hearing about George Floyd’s murder affect the host’s personal and professional life?
This is episode one. Again. I
know exactly where I was when I heard about Mr. George Floyd. I was sitting at my kitchen table and I was writing and I was actually very upset in the moment that I was writing. Along with the added terror that I've been feeling for weeks about COVID-19 and Black people. Not just for my patients, but for myself too. So I'm sitting at my table and I'm writing about all of this. when my husband calls out to me from the other room, baby, did you hear about this dude in Minnesota? And I look up and I say, no. So he starts walking toward me. And the truth is I wasn't even alarmed yet because we share stuff with each other all the time. And I mean, it could have been anything, right? Like, I mean, the brother could have won the lottery.
but he showed me the video and he didn't give me, you know, the warning that you give people. And that is because we have an understanding. We look, but I looked and saw a grown man with his entire weight on another man's neck with his hands in his pockets. His brow furrowed and snarl on his face and a little tiny smirk. And even heard him utter the words. Don't do drugs. As another dude stood by with his hands in his pockets. And that isn't the kind of fine detail that just being told about it would give me. I needed to see that. So yeah, we agree to honor your life and acknowledge what happened to you and the atrocity of what you dealt with by looking. I remember when I was in college and I watched that grainy video of Mr. Rodney King being beat with billy clubs.
by a pack of police officers. They beat the shit out of Rodney King. He was down already. And I'm glad I saw that video because seeing that video, it helped me reconcile coming back to Los Angeles, my hometown of Inglewood and seeing things burned to the ground. Because if you saw that video and you saw the way They whooped his behind. And he was defenseless. And you heard that verdict and saw that nobody went to jail. Oh, you would have been there too. So I watched the video. And no, I didn't feel particularly despondent. or anything, I just felt mad and just tired, man. Like, damn, we stay losing.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did Ashley McMullen create the Black Voices in Healthcare series?
0:00–2:06
2
How did hearing about George Floyd’s murder affect the host’s personal and professional life?
2:06–7:04
3
What memories does the host share about past police‑brutality videos and their impact?
7:04–12:32
4
How do Black medical professionals describe the emotional toll of COVID‑19 and racial trauma?
12:32–18:18
5
What coping strategies do clinicians use when confronting systemic racism in healthcare?
18:18–23:36
6
How do Black doctors and trainees speak out about racism during residency and meetings?
23:36–28:20
7
What hope and vision do participants express for the future of Black health equity?
28:20–32:53
8
How does the episode conclude with calls to action for listeners and the community?
32:53–34:18