APPNE’s White Coats for Black Lives Matter Rally Receives Wide Media Coverage
Dr. Mohammad Ramzan
Boston – 6/14/2020: One would think with the Corona Pandemic at hand, the doctors who probably don’t even have time to scratch their heads wouldn’t be able to think beyond the virus. So, what is bigger than the Pandemic itself that brought the Physicians out on the street? It is the national outcry and anti-racism demonstrations triggered by the murder of George Floyd at the hands – or rather knees – of a white police officer, Derek Chavin on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis, USA.
The Association of Pakistan Physicians of New England (APPNE) and Indian Medical Association of New England (IMANE) stood in solidarity for White Coats for Black Lives Matter(WC4BL is a medical student organization started in 2014), showing up in large numbers in Boston.
Dr. Naheed Usmani, President of Association of Physicians of Pakistan-descent of North America (APPNA), which represents the 18,000 doctors of Pakistani descent in USA, addressed the hundreds of protesters, “Our nation once again finds itself at a profoundly important inflection point that demands the resolution of the fundamental question; When will we as a republic finally confront and dismantle the centuries old structure of racism that has marred the system, institutions and way of life.” She further added that what needs to be done, “we need to vote, volunteer and speak up when we see injustice.”
Moderator, Dr. Khalil Khatri introduced APPNE’s Past president Dr. Asimah Qayyum and Dr. Salman Malik of New Hampshire and thanked them for organizing this event. Dr. Qayyum called out many manifestations of racism even in this time of Covid-19 and, “we need to speak up and be heard.” Both doctors expressed their shock that we were still living in an era where the people helplessly see a man dying in front their eyes, “and we cannot do anything about it.” Dr. Malik added, “We realize that our society must take ownership, and that’s why we organized this rally.”
Dr. Javed Saud, vice president of APPNE, started out with the words, “enough is enough” and got the crowd all pumped up as they upon his request joined to shout out the slogan, “No justice – No peace.” Dr. Saud demanded that “racism also needs to be dismantled from the medical field.”
Dr. Lachelle Weeks, a Physician at Dana-Farber Cancer hospital said that she was asked to speak about how being a Black physician today affects her in the work-place, “but that is a story for some other time.” Weeks moved on to mention that she received thousands of emails saying that they were her allies. She said that she grew up seeing violence against Black people. Weeks apparently likened all recent protests by mostly non-Black people, a rude awakening as she took on the crowd and made them aware that this wasn’t the first-time police has killed a Black man. She respectfully added, “if you are awakening to this reality for the first time, then
your first step as an ally is to ask yourself – how the hell did I sleep through all of this?” – The doctor ended with a kind note, “so all you ally we have to fight for justice.”
Alicia Barrows belongs to a group called Safe Spaces for BIPOC. She came as speaker from Vermont and read out the names of African Americans killed recently by police and it took her 20 minutes to just read out from the list.
Beena Sarwar, a journalist got the press release out in a timely fashion leading to a large media presence. Akthar Mahmud Faruqui, the editor of ‘Pakistan Link’ the largest Pakistani paper in USA, quite eloquently wrote about the inception and the systematic growth of APPNA, and its promise to pay back to Pakistan. “Thanks to the steadfastness of its leaders and the unstinted support of members, APPNA has come to live up to its promise.” Dr. Naheed Usmani, proud of APPNA’s activism now wants to take it to the next notch. She wants to take this awareness nation-wide reflecting on the famous words of MLK: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Similar demonstrations have been done or are planned by APPNA physicians in St. Louis, Texas, New York and California.
The rally was extensively covered by the media, from Boston’s main newspapers (Boston Globe, Boston Herald), TV stations (NBC 10, 7 News), National Public Radio station (WBUR), international channels (Voice of America TV Urdu), and ethnic/regional media (India New England, Pakistan Link).
https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/678648-united-against-racism
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/14/metro/protests-vigils-continue-across-region-sunday/
https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/06/15/white-coats-for-black-lives/
https://www.nbcboston.com/on-air/as-seen-on/rallies-in-mass-for-racial-equality/2142863/
https://whdh.com/news/pakistani-and-indian-doctors-lead-white-coats-for-black-lives-rally/?
https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/06/14/south-asian-doctors-black-lives-rally
http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=16731
With Thanks to Mr. Tahir Ali for the earlier draft
