A few months ago, I visited Jackson, Miss., to attend African American Visit Day at the University of Mississippi’s School of Medicine. High school and college students from across the state spent time that Saturday morning with Black medical students and administrators, finding out what they needed to do to become a doctor.
The annual event is one way the medical school is trying to recruit more Black students in a state where almost 4 in 10 people, but only 1 in 10 doctors, are Black.
The University of Mississippi isn’t alone. Medical schools around the country are trying to enroll more Black, Hispanic and Native American students, all of whom remain underrepresented in the field of medicine. Research has shown that patients of color prefer seeing doctors of their own race — and some studies have shown health outcomes for Black patients are better when they see Black doctors.
But a recent swell of Republican opposition threatens to upend those efforts, school administrators say, and could exacerbate deep health disparities experienced by people of color.
Several states, including Alabama, Florida and Texas, have restricted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education. Republican lawmakers in Mississippi have so far failed to enact such a law, though two were introduced during the most recent legislative session. Both died in committee.
“I don’t expect this movement of anti-DEI legislation to slow down or stop at all,” said Anton Gunn, a health-care consultant and former head of the Office of External Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Angela Burks Hill, a Mississippi state senator and former science teacher who introduced one of the bills, said she thinks focusing on race contributes to division. “Can’t we just be happy with more highly qualified doctors no matter their skin color? I thought a color-blind society was the goal,” she said. “The millions spent on DEI salaries and programs should be reallocated to something that benefits all students.”
Demondes Haynes, associate dean of medical school admissions at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, graduated from the medical school in 1999 as one of only four Black students in his class. Today, he estimated, more than 80 students across the four-year program are Black.
“We absolutely are not saying every Black patient has to have a Black doctor,” Haynes said. But because the patient population in Mississippi is diverse, “they should at least have the right to say, ‘This is what I want,’” he added.
On African American Visit Day, I spoke with several medical school students at the University of Mississippi who said they wouldn’t have enrolled if not for one of the university’s DEI outreach efforts.
Jerrian Reedy, an African American student from Hattiesburg, Miss., who recently finished his first year of medical school at the University of Mississippi, said when he was applying, the fact that several of the school’s top administrators were Black made him feel the institution was committed to diversity.
“It just made me think, ‘Hey, well, you — we — are welcome here,’” Reedy said.
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