Topic # 1 - Importance of Underrepresented Minority Professors in the PreClinical Years

Fellow SNMA Region 2 Members,

For the first topic of our Political Advocacy Blog, I would like to solicit your feelings on the importance of underrepresented minority (URM) professors in the pre-clinical years. This is my first year of medical school, and one thing I noticed was that during the first two years of medical school, I will have 1 Latino professor and ZERO African-American professors. I figured, maybe this is something peculiar to my school, so I checked the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) to see what the deal was around the country. According to their 2005 figures, here is the state of affairs (the figures in BRACKETS are the group's percentage of the total US population who is 25+):

A. Anatomy

1. Black - 20 (1.07 %) [10.97 % total US population over 25 years of age]
   
2. Asian - 216 (11.58 %) [3.65 %]
   
3. White - 1403 (75.23 %) [78.63 %]
   
4. Mexican, Puerto Rican - 19 (1.02 %) [6.82 %]
   
5. Other Hispanic - 36 (1.93 %) [3.19 %]
6. Unknown Race - 147 (7.88 %)
   
7. Total - 1,865 (how irnoic a number is that, think about the year)

B. Biochemistry

1. Black - 27 (0.98 %) [10.97 % total US population over 25 years of age]
2. Asian - 469 (16.96 %) [3.65 %]
3. White - 1924 (69.58 %) [78.63 %]
4. Mexican, Puerto Rican - 23 (0.83 %) [6.82 %]
5. Other Hispanic - 39 (1.41 %) [3.19 %]
6. Unknown Race - 264 (9.55 %)
   
7. Total - 2,765
   

C. Physiology

1. Black - 37 (1.82 %) [10.97 % total US population over 25 years of age]
2. Asian - 248 (12.23 %) [3.65 %]
3. White - 1486 (73.27) [78.63 %]
4. Mexican, Puerto Rican - 26 (1.28 %) [6.82 %]
5. Other Hispanic - 44 (2.17 %) [3.19 %]
6. Unknown Race - 171 (8.43 %)
   
7. Total - 2,028

I'd like to take this time to make the following observations, and pose the following questions:

1. Considering the low numbers of African-American professors, what would the numbers look like if we factored out the ones who are professors at Historically Black Medical schools?
2. How come if Mexicanos and Puertorriquenos outnumber "other Hispanics" in the population by a factor of more than 2:1, but the stats are flipped when it comes to medical professors?
3. Who exactly are these "other Hispanics?" Would they be considered White Latinos, Black Lations, Indios?
   
4. Blacks are outnumbered 5 to 10 fold by people who don't know what race they are. I say don't know what race they are because the AAMC, in its endeavour into 21st century racial classifications has included people of multiple races and of "other races" (i.e. not Asian, Black, Native American/Alaskan, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, Cuban, Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, Other Hispanic, or Multiple Hispanic).
5. Since we are subdividing Latinos by subethnicity/national origin, what would happen to the numbers if we subdivided Blacks into (a) African-Americans (or other Blacks whose families have been in this country 4 generations or more), (b) Carribean-Blacks, and (c) African-Blacks?

Anyhow, that is just some food for thought. I would be interested to get your reaction to these figures. Personally, I believe that in order to affect some of the societal changes which are necessary to begin reducing the current healthcare disparities, young physicians need to be placed in a vertically diverse environment. In other words, they need to have underrepresented minoirities (URMs) who are their superiors (e.g. supervising attendings, department chairs), their peers, their patients, and non-MD/DO co-workers. But maybe that's just me, so I would be greatly appreciative if you would take some time to write your responses.