White Coats for Black Lives (also known as WhiteCoats4BlackLives and WC4BL) is a nonprofit social justice student organization based in the United States. Founded in 2014 in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, WC4BL supports efforts to fight racism in medicine and health care. It fights racism against both Black patients and Black medical workers. (https://6abc.com/white-coats-for-black-lives-matter-healthcare-doctors/6250248/)
The organization participates in and organized protests against systemic racism at medical schools and the health care system in general, including protests in support of the end of police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd. WC4BL members and supporters often wear white coats during events. Some events take the form of walkouts or die-ins.
WC4BL operates chapters at medical schools throughout the United States.
The group produces an annual "Racial Justice Report Card" that aims to define behaviors of a racially just medical school. The Report Card is intended to help medical school applicants select schools as well as lay a roadmap for schools that want to improve. (https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/9/4/white-coats-for-black-lives-medical-school-poor-grades/; https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/red-alert-politics/white-coats-for-black-lives-issues-racial-justice-report-card-to-harvard-medical-school)
A wide range of organizations work with WC4BL. For example, Association of Pakistani Physicians of New England and the Indian Medical Association of New England rallied in Boston in June, 2020. (https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/06/14/south-asian-doctors-black-lives-rally)
https://dailymemphian.com/article/14655/noon-white-coats-4-black-lives-rally-draws
Wisconsin State Journal--
White coats, black lives: Hundreds of health professionals rally for racial equality
Jun 13, 2020
The event was organized by the Madison chapter of the Student National Medical Association, a student-led organization focused on supporting minority medical students and underserved communities.
Several speakers argued that systemic racism represents as urgent a public health crisis as the coronavirus pandemic. Baillie Frizell, a medical student at UW-Madison and event coordinator for the Student National Medical Association, said the mission of White Coats 4 Black Lives “is to eliminate racial bias in the practice of medicine and recognize that racism is a threat to the health and well-being of people of color.”
Garvey, A., Gomez, J., Pottinger, S., & White-Stern, A. (2016). White coats for black lives: Young voices within medicine. American Journal of Public Health, 106(10), 1752-1753.
Garvey, A., Woode, D. R., & Austin, C. S. (2016). Reclaiming the white coat for black lives. American Journal of Public Health, 106(10), 1749-1751.
White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL) was born in response to apathy. While people were mourning the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and were enraged by the nonindictments of the officers who killed them, the medical institution-which has historically had racism built into its foundation-largely remained silent. In December 2014, medical students of color and allies across the country participated in die-ins to honor these individuals and demonstrate a commitment to dismantling the systems that led to their deaths. The actions of these students raised an important question to the institution of medicine: are medical professionals responsible for combating racism? For these students, who found themselves committed to a profession that has vowed to support the well-being of all patients and has consistently broken that promise, the answer was an emphatic yes.
As an organization of medical students, White Coats for Black Lives serves as a voice within medicine answering the call of the Black Lives Matter movement, which brings anti-Black racism into focus and fights for the lives and well-being of all Black peopl
injustices we see both within and outside of our health care system, and become advocates for those receiving disproportionate care. Established on Martin Luther King Jr Day, 2015, WC4BL's mission is to "eliminate racial bias in the practice of medicine and recognize racism as a threat to the health and wellbeing of people of color."
goals: ELIMINATING RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN HEALTH CARE PREPARING FUTURE PHYSICIANS TO BE ADVOCATES FOR RACIAL JUSTICE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES WITH THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY
WC4BL is committed to extending the work ofthe Black health advocates who came before us, in particular those of the Black Panther Party. At the core of the Black Panthers' activism was a commitment to the safety, well-being, and selfdetermination of Black people