The Truth About Medical School Admissions: Racism and Discrimination

premed Jul 19, 2020

 

If you are a student of color, just know that you are not alone! We see you and understand you. Keep pushing and keep trying to dominate!

 

Full Episode Transcript

 

Hi, Dr. Pinesett here, and we continue to talk about systemic racism in education. We are moving through the ranks guys this is the fourth day in a row. We have been live. We're gonna be live again tomorrow. Are you ready to talk about racism and medical school admissions? If you've been wondering, how does race play into admissions? And what do I need to know? This is the video for you guys let's get it started. Introduce you guys. We are alive. Everyone say what's up!

 

But stop making excuses. Stop whining. Stop right. Get at it. No excuses just dominate.

 

All right guys, as I said, this is four days in a row. I'm Dr. Andre Pinesett, The Study Doc, as always, I'm trying to what bring you guys positivity productivity to help you guys be your best, to help you guys become sensiblePre-meds live your dreams. That's what we're here for today. We're talking about med school admissions, and if there are racism and discrimination and what you need to know about it, to get yourself into medical school.

 

So Armand, what is up Brett? Hello. I love you too. Thank you.

 

I appreciate the love. Everybody's been sending me very supportive messages through this time. I really appreciate it. I think this is a difficult topic to talk about because sometimes it's easy, right. To get not offended. But sometimes I feel like in this society, it's something like, I guess we can talk about it another time. Um, is that I feel like I'm just talking to my dad about this yesterday two days ago. And I feel like people we'll write off an entire person because they disagree with one thing and people refuse to listen to people who disagree with them.

 

And I think what we have to do a better job of is debating is discussing, is looking at the nuances of people's points and not saying, Oh, you know what? Someone said, one thing that I disagree with, so that does the 99% stuff they say that I agree with, right? We have to build a dialogue about things. So this is one of those subjects that some people are not happy that I'm discussing, but I hope that you guys all understand it's important to discuss this. And I won't shy away from issues. It's we have to talk about this stuff. Yeah. And no use of, I didn't get your email. If you sent it today, I haven't checked my email today.

 

Alright, guys, Sydney is here. What's up? How have you been a Brant? What does that mean? Uh Kaseem alright, James, back again, Jesse. Four days in a row. I love it, Johnathan. Also four days in a row Unum. Okay. So Merrill takes the time for you, basically it to be with us. Marianne. It's a new name today. What up? Okay.

 

So we're talking about med school, admissions and racism. What have you guys heard about med school admissions and how race plays into medical school admissions? I asked this question because there is a, and one of my students in the message, uh, sharing a screenshot from one of these premed groups where this myth was being perpetuated and pushed forward, where essentially the student was presenting their statistics and Hey, what are my chances of getting in? And the person who was responding to them said, Oh, you know what? Uh, your chances are not that good, but wait a minute, are you minority? Oh, you're a minority. Oh, your chances are great. You're gonna get in. And I think that when we think about admissions, a lot of people like to say that it's easier for black students to get in that there are unqualified black students who get in the medical school that they're unqualified minority students.

 

And then the counter to that, right? They, the opposite of that coin is that you have students who say, you know what, I'm Asian, I'm overrepresented. So I can't get in, or I'm white I'm over-represented so I'm being discriminated against and what we have to do, guys, it's very important to stay out of myth, to stay out of lure, to stay out of all of that, and actually focus concretely on the facts of the situation and what's actually happening.

 

And the reason I say that is because the myth that it's easier to get into medical school, if you are black, or you're underrepresented minority is not accurate. And the reason I say it's not accurate and it doesn't fit fully is because we are missing what's in between the crack and the equivalent guys to say that people get into medical school because of the color of their skin and the color of your skin.

 

If it's dark, it makes it easier. You know, medical school is like the overgeneralization oversimplification of when people were saying that black people were dying at a disproportionate weight from COVID simply because they were drinking too much and doing too many drugs. Do you guys remember people were saying that that black people drink too much and that's why they're dying at a high rate from COVID?

 

People are like, Oh yeah, that makes sense. You know? Yeah. Yeah. It's like, nah, nah, wait a minute, wait a minute. What we have to look at? What is actually happening? What is actually going on and look at the underlying factors. The reason that black people die at a higher percentage from COVID are numerous are wise where there's a ton of different reasons that add to that equation of black people dying at this portion of weight from COVID one poor health status, why poor health status? Because black people are less likely to go to the physician to have primary care, to be insured, to do all those things.

 

So preventative care is missing in the black community. There's also a distrust factor. So even when black people do have access, they are less likely to utilize set access. They're less likely to follow the regiments prescribed to them by their physicians. And there's a lot of distrust, all these things. So it's a cycle of graduates. Then illness hits, they have more comorbidities, right? They're in poor health. And then again, to come back to access or lack of accessing that access. And so they are getting help at the same rate as other people. And by being black, you get higher death rates.

 

When it comes to admissions and being a minority. When you are underrepresented in medicine, there is a reason you're underrepresented in medicine, a reason you are underrepresented in medicine. And when we talk about this, this is so important. And so key because what medical schools are attempting to do is to create a way that they can identify candidates who are disadvantaged and hear me and hear me now, this is what happens. It's a big pay, very close attention. There are medical schools that incorrectly ascribe being a minority with being disadvantaged. And so what happens is, is the kind of use like a little cheat code to say, Oh, this person is a minority. So they are likely disadvantaged statistically. That is true. However, here's the crazy part.

 

When it comes to medical school admissions, it actually is not true. It actually is not true because, and this is, we've gotten this a little bit yesterday talking about the difference. Not all black people are the same. And so if you look at the blacks that get admitted to medical school, more often than not at a huge high rate clip, 80 something percent actually is this. This is the statistic that is actually African black And American blacks in medical school are very, very rare, very, very rare. And the reason this happens is that African blacks are not as disadvantaged as American blacks. When you look at the statistics, most African blacks who apply to medical school have parents who are highly educated from Africa.

 

Number one profession you guys want to know, what's the, what would you guys guess? And again, I've seen all the statistics, right? What's the number one profession for African blacks, parents applying middle school.

 

What would you guess, Richard? What up? Everyone congratulate Richard. Richard just got into UCS. Do you just get to stay at his UCS? Congratulate him. I'm going to wait for guys. We are live-action for you. We're having a discussion.

 

What's the number one profession of African black parents. It's not physician Doctors is too general there. The other type of doctor, yes. You guys are guessing right on it. So top three are nonmedical doctor PhD's right also in the top three engineers also at the top three lawyers, engineer's lawyers and PhDs. That's the background of these parents. So they're highly educated, which right. Educated parents translate to what guy's advantages for the child. And so what ends up happening is that most blacks that are admitted are actually of African descent near close African descent. And it's because they're not truly disadvantaged. And so what you'll see is that schools will try to use race as a marker of disadvantage and it isn't exactly accurate.

 

And so that's what ends up happening zero minutes, what I'm saying right now, but the intention is not to select people based on race. The intention is to use statistics, to find and identify disadvantaged students so that they can look at the distance traveled. Does this make sense to everybody? Cause we have to follow this first for this whole thing to set up medical schools are trying to identify students who should not have been able to get to the application, but by some miracle did so. And so even if they have a 500 M cap or they have a 3.1 GPA or a 3.2 GPA, right? I say 3.1 because lower-tier schools, their cut off is that low.

 

They're looking for students who meet the minimum cutoff. So they're qualified. They have a passable Mcat score. They have a possible GPA, but they're saying, Hey, this student is able to score 500 they're English, the second language, they didn't go to elementary school. They were homeless. Most of their lives, their parents make $15,000 a year combined. They had to work full time during college, they had to work full time during their Mcat study. Yet they managed to get a 500.

 

That 500 is very impressive. And I say all this, because we all have to everyone like the video right now or calm right now, do you understand? So we can move forward. People often ask me how my students do on the Mcat. And what I always respond with is my students do the best of their ability. And for so many students, that is a 500. So my students, it is a five Oh five. Why? Because many of my students are disadvantaged students who have obstacles and have obligations that they are not able to remove from their lives to be able to adequately get the Mcat to drive their score up to five, 10 or five 15. And I'll give you guys the practical example of this.

 

I have a wonderful student. Who's amazing and who's going to be an incredible doctor and is going to change the world. She's incredible. I mean she does, but this student can't get above a five with five of them. Kat has tried multiple times. Can't move up five or five. And she gets down on herself. She gets frustrated.

 

And I keep trying to train it. I'm like, listen, you are the ultimate example of a disadvantaged student. You have done an amazing job to get to five Oh five. Why do I say that? Because your, both of your parents are disabled, disabled. You pay, play the role of caregiver for both of your chronically disabled parents. You take them to, and from the doctor, you cook for them every day, you clean up after them every day, right? You also work full time and the job to be able to pay for their housing because they can't work because they're disabled. In addition to that, you go to school full time, and then you try to squeak in the Mcat. You have very little left for the MCAT because you're doing all of this stuff.

 

Alright. The month before the last time, exactly like little, little over a month, red force we'll sit game cat. Again. She found out that her parents were gonna get evicted from their housing because they want to raise the rent. They're going to get evicted. And she had to scramble file with the city, do different things to keep their housing in the weeks leading up to her MCAT.

 

So how does that effect, how does that change her trajectory and ability to be able to score five 15 on the end cap? So the fact that she scored five Oh five shoot, that's an incredible feat. Does everybody understand that's distance traveled, working full-time care of your parents, full time stressing about housing, instability, stressing about food, where it's going to come from?

 

That makes it difficult to get the five 15. So when you guys see statistics that show that minorities tend to score lower, what you're seeing is a reflection that minorities statistically tend to be disadvantaged more often. Therefore medical schools are not looking at the totality of their score. They're looking at that score in comparison to what that student should be able to do.

 

Does everybody understand here right now? What we're saying? Okay. Okay. This is what we're talking about. So when people say, Oh, you know what? If you're a minority and your stats are here, that's not going to be the end, all be all. And the reason I say this and is why I have to walk this whole discussion is because when people say you can be incompetent and given a middle school as a black person, that's completely incorrect. You have to meet the minimum requirement. Then beyond that, when people say, you just get in because you're black, you're affirmative action. The question I would ask, right? People say, Oh, you're taking a more qualified non-minority spot. Right? So for my Asian people, my wife, who would say, listen, there are black people taking my spot.

 

And if I had been black, I would have got in. No, if you would've been disadvantaged, you would've got it. Right. But we have to understand the argument that you guys are making. And this is I see it all the time. And this is why I have to make this point. People argue that black people are taking spots from other people.

 

If it was the case that it was a foregone conclusion, you can be inferior and apply as a black student and get in my question to everyone here is where the heck is. All these black ad mitts. I would love to see them because if we look at the statistics of the admission rates and how many and a total number of black people there are in medical school, there are nil. There are none. We don't exist. People who, if you see, heard me talk, I talk about myself as a unicorn. I am the unicorn. If you can name me. And if you can count, if you can hear me five other American black physicians, you know, right.

 

If you go to a school and you're near a bad school, if you can name five black Americans that go to that medical school, you got, but I bet you, you can't, We don't exist. We don't get in because of the disadvantages, because the obstacles stop us and what's unspoken. And what we don't talk about, we don't address. And we've tried to do this in medical schools. 

 

They have done studies, medical school, admissions college admissions racially bias. Objective studies have shown bad missions is racial bias against people of color. They literally showed people who were on admissions, pictures, just pictures. And I said, Hey, look at this picture. What do you think? Let's make sure what you think. And they measured the responses and how they responded to the things.

 

They ask them, the questions and across the board, the admissions people said that they thought less of the darker-skinned person. Imagine that nothing else is a dark-skinned person, landscapers and dark-skinned person. I have a negative connotation about them. What's even crazier is even when you put, and this is the importance, right? I said earlier this week, just because you're black, doesn't make you my black brother. Just because you're white, doesn't make you my white enemy and vice versa. Even when they did this study with black people in admissions, they had negative biases against people of color. Does this make sense to everybody? Is that crazy? Like, would you expect to see that?

 

And so what schools have tried to do because of this ineffectively is they've tried to put admissions committee members through training to help them be less bias, more culturally competent, more aware. The problem is, and this is where it gets to real-life versus in a vacuum, in a vacuum. Getting training sounds great. The problem is, is most people don't want to serve on the admissions committee. And I say that because it's extra time out of their schedule.

 

So what ends up happening in admissions is they try to make the admissions process as painless as possible for admissions committee members, painless as possible. And so do you, how many people do you think would say yes, I want to do admissions. Oh, you have to sit through four weeks of cultural competence training. We're gonna eliminate your bias. We're gonna put you through extensive training. You have to do four weeks of it.

 

You don't get paid for it, but four weeks of it, after you get off work, you finish your clinical shift. You're gonna come over the medical school. We're gonna sit down for three hours every day. And we're going to talk about cultural sensitivity and admissions and limiting bias, who would sign up to be on the missions committee. Think about that guys, because this is what right. We talk about agents of change and people trying to change things, right? And people proposing different things.

 

Whenever you're trying to make a change, you always have to think very practically, because if you make things difficult for people, they won't get it done. You won't get it done. And so what ends up happening is they get a handout on cultural competency. They get a prerecorded lecture on cultural competency and they say, yeah, we culturally competently trained it. That's what happens. And so it persists in admissions.

 

Do you guys understand, even If we get beyond those biases that play out in that selection process, right? Let's talk about the process of applying as a minority and what that process is like. And for me, right. And again, I don't tell secondhand stories because I believe that the primary story is the truth.

 

And if I can tell it to you and it's the truth, it's the truth. It's not hearsay. Hey, my cousin's buddy's friend said, no. I went and interviewed at an Ivy league school. Okay. I only have, I only interviewed at a couple schools when I applied to medical school, one of the schools I interviewed at was an Ivy league school.

 

And I go out to the side of the school. I'm all excited. I go to my first interviewer and I walk in the room and before we even start a dialogue that I say, hello, how are you doing? And he's like, yeah. Okay, cool. We sit down and he goes, you know, I just have to start by asking you, you know, we don't have a lot of students like you. So how do you think you'd fit in? And this is the first question that my interviewer asked me when he asked me, Hey, we don't have a lot of students like you here. How would you fit in? What is he asking? What is he asking guys?

 

We have to think about this thought, thought, thought, thought bot. When he says we don't have a lot of people like you, How do you think you fit in here? What is he asking? We are live guys. If you're just joining us, we're talking about med school admissions. And we're talking about racism, discrimination, how race plays in admissions. We're trying to open up some eyes if you're just joining us or you've been here, you're enjoying this, like this video right now.

 

There you go, Jay. Right. And dog blues has it. Right? Secondly, we don't have blacks here. Uh, how would you fit in, in a Blackie's ear? What Joe, what's your black stuff's going to do here. Right? And dog blue says it seems hostile, right?

 

So if you come into this and you hear this, right, and your interviewer is, is white and you're black and they say, listen, Hey, what about students like you? How do you think you'll fit in? What they're saying is we don't have a lot of black students. How would you fit in? And when you asked that question, the hostile part of it is important because we talked about it, right. That if you weren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem. And we talk about, sometimes people get hung up on, well, it wasn't overtly racist. It wasn't overtly. It wasn't, they didn't keep you from interviewing.

 

But imagine if you open an interview with, Hey, we do not have a lot of students like you. How would you fit in? That's a hostile statement that is intended to make me feel what uncomfortable on welcome. It's like starting a date off with like, whew. I normally don't date people as ugly as you, but all right. That's a bad opening line. I've never started date and said, Hey, you know what, girl? Uh, I don't normally date girls that look like you. Wow. Ah, ah, right. That's a bad opener. That's telling someone you don't think very highly of them. And you can imagine, right. As a premed, think about you guys right now. How nervous are you guys about interviewing, right? Your whole life is right on this interview and you're nervous already.

 

And then you get there and someone throws the data at you. How do you think that affects interview performance? How do you think that affects it? Right. It's going to hurt that student's performance cause you to slip up, cause you to be distracted, cause you to get downgraded and cause you to miss an admission. Oh, you know what?

 

They seem great on paper. But you know, for some reason he was just, he seemed so off in his interview. I don't know why, let's reject it. I'll give you guys another example. Okay. One of my close friends who went to Stanford medical school also went on an interview. Okay? What on this interview shows up to the interview and it's a group interview.

 

And at the time, this is the time that's all relevant. This is the time when Trump was first being elected. And there were some issues that people were discussing around Trump and his candidacy and the direction of America and so on and so forth. And my friend who eventually came to Stanford is a black physician now, right? So this is the black student he's interviewing.

 

And one of the other interviewers in the group interview says to him, something very racially charged. It's very racially insensitive to him, this black student, then rebuttals and says, Hey, I don't appreciate that. That's inappropriate. The guy then repeats said, insensitive, inappropriate statement. So then this black student addresses it louder and says, Hey, I just told you that's inappropriate.

 

Don't do it again. And that moment, the interviewer Looks at the black student and says me, can you step outside? This is not a place for that. So the interviewer ignores the jab, the jab jab. And then when the black student goes to defend themselves, they're kicked out of the interview.

 

How do race and discrimination play into the admissions process that way? Do you guys understand? When we talk about med school admissions guys, and we talk about getting into medical school. If you are a disadvantaged student, you are truly disadvantaged. If you are a minority, you are going to face an uphill battle. And I'll give you guys, I don't know if I'm going to the whole example, but I'll shortcut it, right? Because we want to talk. I have a student, right? Who is Muslim and who wears traditional Muslim garb. And in an interview, someone told, said, Muslim person, that their attire was inappropriate for interviewing and asked them to remove their guard. So as they can see them better, Is that appropriate?

 

How do you think that makes the interviewee feel? How does that make my students feel? She called me crying. I'll fast forward. She called me crying. Because she knew she wouldn't get in. She knew that this person was intentionally doing that to pick at her. Do we all understand? And someone just asked what school is that I don't mention what schools these things happen at, because the point is, is not the individual school. Cause they're not the individual corporate people talk about racism and racist. It's not one person. It's the collective and the change that we all have to make. And the understanding we all have to make that it's all around us. It's pervasive. It's everywhere. Every campus in America has racist. Every campus in America has racist on that campus.

 

You may not know who they are, but they're there. And so what we have to do is have an awareness, have a vigilance for looking for this stuff and squelching this stuff out and having a symphony and understanding of what people have to go through. We have to understand guys, we have to understand this is the process. This is what happens, what people go through. And as all this stuff happens, I'm happy to report. My student got in. She got in, right? My buddy, he got in, it's fine. As this stuff happens as racism and as discrimination and as all the habits that will continue as they dropped this week, the way to overcome racism, what is the strongest weapon you have against racism excellence.

 

Right? I got accepted to that school where that guy was rude to me. If someone wants to be racism, racist, your best defense against their racism is, against their negative attitude is, excellence. Because if you are truly excellent, then people can't deny that people can't find ways to pick at you and get at you. And so what I have found that I find disheartening and people get angry at me for, and I'll tell you guys a story. So we talk about this discrimination process, right? Discrimination is hard. It's hard being a minority, going through higher education, going into medical school. The problem that we have is that people think medical schools care about your sob story and that medical school is going to have pity on you for not performing.

 

People think that just because they're black, they can wave their hand and rentals will let them in. And I encourage everyone to understand. There are no gimmes. You are entitled to nothing and no one's going to throw you a pity party. Nobody cares to be better. And too often, again, it's gonna be an unpopular statement. I get a little irritated because minority students want to focus on the reasons they can't be successful instead of trying to find solutions and what I try to coach, some of them I'll be at a conference. Right. And I'll go when I'll say something and I'll say, listen, do this. Yeah, I'm going to probably do this. Oh, blah, blah, blah. They get angry at me because I'm pointing to a solution instead of saying, Oh, you're right. Oh, what is you? You, you are the world. This is the worst case you definitely. Oh my, I can't believe. No I don't. How does that help you? If I say that I've got to get you over the hump and the practical example where this played out, guys, I'll tell you this crazy story is the way it plays out is that I believe I treat my students very gristly my students who were here, my not very gristly up to the point. We got to solve some stuff around me. Right?

 

I can't let you be less than your greatness. So I don't have time to wallow with you. I'll hold your hand, let you cry for a second. As you cry, I'll be teaching you how to go over that moment. And I'm at a conference I'm giving the keynote speech, and this is a minority conference. I'm keynoting is like SNMA or maps or one of these things, and I'm keynoting and do the keynote. And then everyone liked the keynote. So then they asked me to stay and do a question, answer session with the students. So they're like, cool. I'll do it. So I did, after doing an hour-long keynote, I did two hours of questioning to answer, ask questions. I answered on whatever. And one of the students who happen to be a black female asked me the question and said, Hey, listen, I just bombed the end. Cat, got a sub 500 score. I just got my score back a couple of weeks ago. I just signed up for the MCAT next month.

 

What do you think about that? Do you think that's a good idea? What would your response be guys to a student like that? Who says, I just got my score back two weeks ago, sub 500. Do you think I should take it in a month? I like this, Right? People were trying to tell you that. Trying to try to, I call it loling you to sleep, right? Forcing you to write lower your standards and your expectations for yourself. We got to raise our expectations, raise our standards. So what would you say to this young woman who says that just got a score backs up 500, two weeks ago. Kaseem see all my students, you're cheating. What's going to be different silent weight and study more.

 

Right? Danny says too soon, Richard, nothing's going to change. Nope. Take your time. As Leslie, what have you done to improve? Linnaeus has taken in six months, right? Xolair. It's obvious. So my response was like, Hey, no, no, no. I said, let me run it down to you because I've worked with all of them.

 

This is what happens. You took the end cap. You did horribly. You know, you're not ready, but you're signing up for next month. Not because you think you gonna be ready, but because you want to apply this cycle, you want to apply this cycle. So you are willing to rush the MCAT. But I said, you're doing yourself a disservice because your is not going to be different.

 

It's going to be the same. And now you're going to have two fail, MCAT scores, twice the demoralization, right? Twice the setback. Why not take your time, take four months, take six months and get your score up. And the students said, Oh, I think we'll be fine. I said, I stopped everything. I walked out amongst the people.

 

I got her in a neat, nice big man on a knee. And I said, I'm pleading with you not to do this. I said, I've seen this story time and time again. You're going to take the Mcat next month. You're going to apply this cycle. You're not going to get in. And it's going to change the trajectory of your life.

 

Don't be that story. Be better than that. Take your time and get in. Because if you take the test in a month, it's not going to be different and you're going to apply year and you're not going to get in. That's what I said. And I asked you to say this isn't can you commit to not taking the MCAT next month?

 

And they said, no, no. And she was sitting at a table with people who were her friends, right? I'm watching the audience, they're interacting. They're her friends. I say, Hey, listen, you guys are friends, right? I said, yes. I said, can you talk to her? Can you tell her, say, Hey, listen, we love you. We care about you. We're friends. Don't do this. It's a bad idea. Don't take your test next month. You're not going to be ready. And I sat there. Session ends after the session, end of the day, even it was like six hours later. A bunch of people come up to me and essentially lead off with, Hey, I heard you like to attack black women. And I was like, Whoa, attack black women. That is a very strong statement. Like, what are we talking about? Attacking black women. Please tell me more. And these people persist to tell me that I was attacking this student, that I was telling her that they, they weren't there.

 

The student told them that I was attacking her, that I told her that she couldn't get into medical school, that I told her she was going to fail the Mcat and couldn't get a good score. And then I basically was crapping on her dreams, telling her she would never get in. And I was like, well, you guys weren't even there.

 

First of all. But secondly, I've never told a student ever, ever that you can't get the medical school ever. It's not my thing. I believe any student getting medical school spit work it. And I said, secondly, I told her exactly the truth and exactly what was happening. And they said, well, you could've said it nicer. And I said, she wasn't listening to me when I said nicer. So I said more direct, harsher to plead with her to do the right thing. And sometimes guys, we look for people who are going to pity us who are going to tell us it's okay to be average. It's okay to be less than we can be. It's okay to be a failure.

 

And they're gonna have all these excuses, all these reasons. But really what they're doing is they're, loling you to sleep lullaby, making you feel super comfortable, cozy, fall asleep, and when you're asleep and your dreams pass you by. And what people don't recognize is it may hurt your feelings. When I tell you you're not ready for the MCAT, but I'm saying that because I care about you because I understand nobody's going to have pity on you. No, one's going to care about your sob story, that you're going to write inappropriately in your personal statement about your bad GPA, about your low MCAT score. Nobody's going be like, Oh wow. Really? You only, you had to apply this year.

 

So you retook and got a low score. And that's why it's so low. Oh, in that case, we'll let you into our medical school. No, one's going to have pity on you. They're just going to reject you like the other 50% of students who apply, who get rejected. We have to be honest. So through all this conversation, I keep coming back to this. Racism is real discrimination is real. People do not like people as much with dark skin reality. But with all of that, it is 2020 guys. And there's no reason you can't succeed. If you do, what's required of you. You prepare, you put in the work, you feed your brain to become excellent.

 

And the problem is, hear me and hear me now, hear me and hear me now. Do you guys want to know why there's no black people medical school? Why we suck at diversity in medical school? Because we are still focused. We have a 1980s model for increasing diversity in medicine. And what I'm about to say is very controversial. And again, here come the Bluebirds, right? I normally get some thumbs down for this. I know me. It's a message to the people we're going to. Outraise thinking, I'm talking about them. We have lost track of time. We have lost track of time. And we still think, right. And Brit hinted at this on his Instagram earlier today, we have lost sight of the mission of what's required of the solution.

 

We still think exposure is the key to increasing diversity in medicine. What's exposure. Guys. Exposure is, Oh, I've seen a black physician. I've seen a physician of color who looks like me. If we increase exposure. If we show minorities that other minorities become doctors, we will increase diversity. That's the exposure model. Do you guys read the summer programs that say, listen, we provide exposure to the exposure is the focus. You have a lot of people who are on social media and they pose and they dance. And they look at me, I'm a black physician and I'm a minority position. I'm a woman physician. Look at me. You can be this that's exposure. And what I continually say is exposure. Doesn't work.

 

And we know this. We've been trying it for 40 years and it doesn't move the needle. We have to understand if we want to increase diversity, we've got to focus on what empowerment. Cause like Ben just said, exposure is passive. It's not about saying, Hey, look at me, look at me. Now that doesn't give people the medical school, you got to switch to way empowerment model where instead of saying, Hey, look at me. Now you say, let me show you, how do we understand the difference? We cannot continue to say, look at this. You can be a doctor. Cause this force is black. And they're a doctor. We had a black president. It's obvious.

 

If someone can be a black president, I I'll be totally honest. I never thought in my whole lifetime, I would see a black president. Never thought it was possible. We had a black president. If we could have a black precedent shoot, you can be a black, anything. So exposure is not the way we need empowerment, which is giving people the, how, the tools, the skills to become excellent, to become proficient, to become the doctor. And it's a big, big difference because I go and again, I didn't trouble because I say the truth. I say, why the heck is this doctor speaking? This doctor shouldn't be allowed to speak. Why? Because they have nothing to offer these students other than,

 

Hey, look at me. Let me tell you about my specialty and what I do. How does that help these students get in the medical school? All of you guys who go to conferences, what's the most popular sessions at conferences. Exactly. Brent temporary motivation is empowerment in a way, but what is the most? It was, we're going to have a real conversation here guys.

 

Cause we're talking about, okay, how do we overcome? Because again, the problem is obvious. I hope. And I hope through these stories. It's obvious, but what's the solution. What's the most popular sessions that all these conference where you guys go to conference, what's the first thing you look at to sign up for. Come on, guys, let's talk about it. This is real. And I like this. While we wait for you guys, dancers, Micah hit it on the head for some, it takes too much work and they're not willing to put that work in. It's easier to be mediocre and make excuses. Micah, you hit the nail on the head for some people that will.

 

If I try it, I fail and that's bad. But if I don't try and I fail, I can just say, Oh, it was cause I didn't try. And you guys see it, right? You just put in the box. It's sutures. It's ultrasound, right? It's that garbage. And my whole point, everybody. And again, I say as a competence, I get pulled aside. Can you please not say that? Because you know, we have unwell signup. We're excited to go some sutures and you just told them all not to go to suture. I actually I'll post a video. I gave a speech at UCLA, Brent, I, my guy, because he know Brett, please follow him. It's at the real student mentor on Instagram. Brent is white. Brick comes to all my conferences, rain, snow, shine, black, whatever. So we were at SNMA. I think it was asking the mayor math one or two at UCLA. And I'm giving this workshop and I kid you not. The title of the workshop was black power.

 

I gave a workshop title to black power and Brett is sitting dead center, all black people and Brent and I was, this is the best. Right? It's awesome. But it was funny because the session, they were like, Oh, I'm like, they're like, Oh my gosh, you're so amazing. What'd you get more? Like get out more.

 

I'm doing another session. I just want you guys stay all. We got suturing coming up. My daughter's suturing. I said, what good is it to suture? Right? Leslie remembers this right. Was at this conference. People were so mad. I said, what good is knowing how to suture when you can't get into medical school and get the licensure to be able to legally suture people.

 

I said, if you can't get into medical school, you suturing on a pig's foot. Does nothing for your career. I'm like, I'm like, man, okay. You only got these dudes for a limited time. Why do we offer ultrasound and suturing? Because the kids think it's cool. It's exposure, clinical exposure. They don't need clinical exposure.

 

They need empowerment. We got to teach them how to get into medical school. You guys know what I'm saying? I don't understand. You guys are freshmen in college, juniors in college. What the, what value does ultrasound have to you? I know doctors who can't ultrasound. I know an ultrasound, cause I'm an anesthesiologist outside of us who really ultrasounds,

 

what are you doing? That's the difference? That's exposure as opposed to empowerment. And I'm not talking about anybody in particular because every conference does this and there are so many people and I love, and I appreciate you. We want to get out in front and show people, look at me and I'm not criticizing them, but I'm pointing out to you guys.

 

Why we have made darn near zero progress in diversity in the last 40 years. And you guys saw this statistic a couple of years ago, right? We're the same percentage, the same number. I'm sorry. The same number of black males in medical school, as we did in like 1968, something ludicrous like that. Imagine that it's 2020 and we have the same number of black males as we did in 1968, a couple of years after Jim Crow think about that. We were segregated a few years before that. And then we had more by people than we do now. I just like, so I'm just trying to like, it doesn't move the needle. And that's why I'm constantly right. Again, I'm not very popular on social media because I I'm not like I can't post something and not educate.

 

I'm sorry. I like to educate. I like to empower because you look at me and my white coat, right? I could have a photo shoot in my scrubs. You gotta understand. I could have, I could have a photo shoot were lie. My dad's calling. I could have a photo shoot in my scrubs, but how does you see me and my scrubs help you get to medical school?

 

Does everybody understand what I'm saying right now? Because I work in imagining, Does everybody understand? We have to understand the difference. I, I like, I'm just being honest. Like everyone has almost, I do love day in my life, day in my life. Damn my life for what? If I don't have the skills to live your life?

 

Why am I watching this? Yeah, I actually net I liked that comment too. It's easy to go do that stuff. It pacifies people. I love that word. That thank you for sharing. They think they're making progress. I love it. I talked about loling you to sleep like a lullaby. And that brings to the other end and they shove a pacifier in your mouth.

 

You're suckling, suckling on the pacifier and losing your dream. And I didn't recognize it. There's a big difference. And I like what Kelly said. And, and the reason I ask the question is you guys are the future, right? You guys are the future. So you guys have to understand that you can make a difference. It's important to know history, not trying to erase it. It's better to learn from mistakes and create a better future. So as we talk about, I just talked about exposure versus empowerment. Look at what all these programs are. All these people have been doing for forever And ask yourself, is it exposure? Is it empowerment? Ask yourself, And then ask yourself a women. How much of that exposure has elevated and done the change in numbers and increased diversity.

 

Yes, yes. And people are taking the discussion. So a whole separate way. I'm not saying clinical exposure, like being an EMT or being a medical scribe is bad. That's not what I'm saying, but how many people do you guys know now? Awesome. No serious question. This is for, for real evaluation, right? Just coaching. How many of you guys know people who have hundreds, if not thousands of hours of clinical shadowing, clinical volunteering, medical, scribing EMT, but you know, every time they talk to you, they're not on track to get to medical school because their grades are not good because they don't have any other meaningful extracurriculars. How many you guys know these people I'm telling you, I get the emails and the DMS every day.

 

I'm a bunch of it. You didn't get into middle school. I have 10,000 hours of shadowing. I have 5 million job hours as a scribe, But my GPA is 2.4. What do you think We have to pay attention? Then, the problem is not the solution to the problem is there's no diversity in medicine. The problem is there's very little diversity in higher education.

 

The problem is discrimination and racism, but how do we fix it? It's very hard because there've been a relationship. It's very hard to change someone else. If you're gonna make the relationship work, you gotta do the changing. And it's the same way as a society. It's very hard to collectively change society. We're not going to eliminate racism and discrimination.

 

It's important to talk about it. So that way we can have more education, more information, and to reduce racism, discrimination. We're just going to have it. That's that's the reality. So the most important thing you can do is change yourself and be better and be excellent and be incredible and get in. Right? And I love what Shane just said.

 

I appreciate it. You guys have some wonderful comments today. Empowerment is a seed that needs to be watered with hard work in order for that person to thrive. Right? And Taylor knows tell it I'll post that, that people don't even know that, right? Too many people are out here. Again, looking for a pity party, allergic to hard work.

 

I said previously, anyone and everyone getting to medical school, but not everyone will. And the separator is, are you willing to do the work? I really love my student group, my cult of greatness group. I love it because my personality, I weed out the people who are lazy quick, like quick. So I have a group I've cultivated a group of hard workers of grinders, who I know will be successful because they won't quit until they succeed. They will not quit. No rest, no peace until we get right. My students will not quit. And that's why it will be successful. And for all of you guys, you've got to focus in on your life on being excellent. Right? My students are making fun of me right now.

 

My two hours of clinical volunteering, you guys didn't know. I got to Stanford with two hours of clinical volunteering and zero count them zero hours of clinical shadowing in college Because I was empowered and I was educated and my grades were incredible. My MCAT score was impregnably impeccable. My extracurriculars are impregnable as my Tyson would say. Yeah. And you said he has it, right? Physicians are hard. Y'all not the smartest. She's hard. And if you guys want to work hard, whatever your skin color is, whatever your obstacle is, whatever your disadvantage is, whatever you're going through, whatever you're going through guys. And I know we're talking about race right now, but there's plenty of guys who are not minorities who are going through something we're on here.

 

The way through to the other side is hard work and persistence and never don't ever quit. Y'all and don't let anybody else get you to quit or get you to shut it down. You know, let's say like, like what did the guy in the NBA right now? Not rest management, not time management. What is it called? I'm blanking right now.

 

Please help me out. Go. I Leonard, what does he do? Work management, workload management. I forget. But essentially some of you guys are in that kind of program where you allow people to get you to go half speed to shut it down, to do all that. You got it. That'd be running full speed. Y'all you gotta be playing every game.

 

Gotta Oop. Alright. I like this. I've made too many French fried burgers, but now I know the big Mac is the way to go, but I thought that was a, I don't know if you guys, like, I thought that video was pretty spot on when burger King introduced the French Fryberger right. Introduced the fridge burger and rom just said it right?

 

Hard work, hard work. And grit is what moves the needle a hundred percent. Right? That's accurate, hardworking grit. You'll get there, but we cannot be lazy. So this is the question. How do you go about giving your exposure? That gives opinions on the system without offending others when you don't know where they stand, the problem is guys is you're too busy trying to appease people.

 

Not everybody likes me. I'm perfectly okay with that. Why? Cause I like my gosh darn self. And if we write, and this is important, I talked about how early on in college, as a minority, as a first-generation student, I felt like I didn't belong. I doubted myself. The tipping point for me was saying, listen,

 

I'm not going to try to be anybody else. I'm not gonna try to look like them. I'm going to try it. I'm going to do it my own way. I'm gonna do my own self. I'm going to be happy with who I am. And there's a lot of people who are students of color, who are in higher education or in medical training, who aren't happy with who they are because they feel self-conscious about how they look and the color of their skin and their background. We've got to get comfortable. We can't worry about other people not liking what we believe in. As long as it's, you're being true to yourself. But too many guys out here faking the phone, trying to get some Instagram love, be true to yourself. Guys. Be true to yourself and be successful. And again, I never, I don't, I don't shoot to offend, but if my truth and the truth of this world offend you, then you're offended. And, and Remember that guys. There's somebody out there who likes you for who you are. You don't have to change.

 

Yes. Yes. All right. Can we quit? If it's seven minutes, this is a good time for everybody to have a good time today. If you have a good time today, like this video right now, let me know. Come to Dr. Neil, let me know you had a good time today. You learn it right onto his fourth year.

 

Dental student here find this very interesting, because as hard as it is, cause as it's hard to get into professional school, it is harder to get out. Right? Exactly. Mental toughness, the whole journey, all his hard Merrill's and medical students are y'all. Ooh, I like that casino. The one book that we don't read is our book.

 

The book inside, Right? David Goggins. Who's bombed. If you guys have not read, David Goggins is good. I like this to lead, to have the grid resilience like Tyson says, everyone has a plan until you get hit in the face, got to be able to bounce back and premed and higher education live and jail gonna hit you in the face. Plenty of times, Island dotted my eye. Many, a times, black guy, black guy, black guy. But I fight through it. Can't be knocked down. Can't quit. Okay. So, uh, we'll be back again tomorrow. He goes, we'll do another day. Should we do another? So we do a fifth day in a row talking about systemic racism.

 

Should we move up into medical school? So we move up into residency. Should we talk about that? Kesha? I'm glad you had a great time. Stay in the core, staying on your grind. I appreciate it. Yes. Knowledge is truly powerful. And jazz. Jay says this I'm a black student with a 3.4 GPA, 3.0 science GPA. I know my stats are low, but I tried my hardest while I was homeless. Lost my job and have a learning disability. How do I talk about this? Well, the sad thing jazz, Jay, is that your story? No, one's going to hear because you're 3.0 sinus GPA is going to get you weeded out at most medical schools. So even if you do tell a great story about what you've been through, a lot of people won't see it because you don't meet the minimum qualifications for GPA.

 

So what you need to do is work through your difficulties situation, figuring out how you can maneuver to improve that science GPA. Because if you don't, you're going to have a hard time having anyone listen to your story. But if you raise it up a little bit and you get in range, then you'll find people who will listen to your store. And if you tell your story authentically and real, it'd be incredible. We just had at bootcamp session where one of our students was we're reviewing one of my students disadvantaged statements and we were all mocking her and making fun of her because her story sounded completely like it was ridiculous.

 

She was like, as I flipped burgers in Burger King, which was one of my three jobs, I was barefoot and the grease was popping and my other job was blockbuster. And it was in a neighborhood of people got shot. It's like this whole crazy story. I'm like, nah, that's not a good story. Tell your story. I said, and we reshaped it. So any story, anything you've been through any progress, there's never a shame in telling your story, but tell it authentically. Tell it the real truth. Don't lie. Tell the truth. Alright, we'll come back for a fit session. The group has voted. Yes. We voted back on the Island. All right. So I'll see you guys tomorrow. Five o'clock we'll get at it. Um, thank you guys for hanging out with me.

 

I appreciate you guys all for being here. I'll see you guys tomorrow at five o'clock. Thank you guys. Joining me again. I'm Dr. Andre Pinesett. My website is thestudydoc.com. If you guys are into that empowerment thing, right? If you're into being your best, get over some generation dot contract website, get into a course, getting a program, something or other. And I'll see you guys tomorrow at five eight o'clock later guys.

Today is the day guys. No more excuses, no more complaining your going to take your future into your own hands. You're going to dominate. You're going to be successful. Get to my website, thestudydoc.com. I challenge you. What are you going to do today to make your life better?

 

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