Harvard Hospital
Taking Down Portraits of White Men
Portraits of medical legends moved because they
'reinforce white men are in charge'
BY: Elizabeth Harrington
June 15, 2018 4:59 am
Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching hospital of
Harvard Medical School, is taking down its prominent display of its past
medical legends because too many are white men.
Diversity and inclusion initiatives prompted the removal
of 30 portraits from the hospital's Bornstein Amphitheater because the
paintings reinforce "that white men are in charge," one professor
said. The Boston Globe first
reported the news, writing that past white male luminaries will be
dispersed to "put the focus on diversity."
Portraits that had hung in the amphitheater for decades
will now be moved to less visible areas like conference rooms and lobby halls.
Dr. Betsy Nabel, the president of Brigham and Women's
Hospital, said she made the decision to get rid of white men after reading the
minds of minority students looking at the portraits.
"I have watched the faces of individuals as they
have come into Bornstein," Nabel told the Globe. "I have
watched them look at the walls. I read on their faces ‘Interesting. But I am
not represented here.'"
"That got me thinking maybe it's time that we think
about respecting our past in a different way," she said.
Nabel said no one on staff has objected to taking down
portraits of past department heads, which include Dr. Harvey Cushing, the
"father
of neurosurgery," who studied at Harvard and Yale and
became surgeon-in-chief at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1913.
Cushing operated on hundreds of patients each year with
"remarkable results," and his meticulous notes and case studies
provided the "history of neurological medicine from its beginning."
Another prominent portrait to be moved is Dr. William
Councilman, the first chief pathologist at Brigham Hospital. Cushing described
Councilman as "a man of ardent and generous enthusiasms" and an
"inspiring teacher for the young and such a delightful companion both for
young and old."
The portraits of Cushing, Councilman, and Dr. Henry
Christian, Brigham's first chief of medicine, will be moved to the entrance of
the Hale Building for Transformative Medicine. The Hale Building is named after
Robert Hale Jr., a white male and CEO of Granite Telecommunications, who, along
with his wife, donated
$100 million to Brigham, the largest donation the hospital has ever received.
Dr. Nabel said no staff at Brigham Women's Hospital has
"openly" objected to the removal of the portraits and getting rid of
the prominent display of white men has been in the works for years.
The Globe spoke to Dr. Jeroan Allison, a
University of Massachusetts Medical School professor, who recommended that
portraits of white men "should be hung within a broader context that
includes modern contributions from more diverse leaders."
Allison said when so many portraits of white men are hung
together in a small space, "it reinforces that white men are in
charge."
Brigham and Women's Hospital has numerous diversity and
inclusion initiatives, including the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, the
Center for Development and Diversity, and the Committee on Diversity and
Inclusivity.
"Through our work, we have learned that inclusion is
about feeling respected and valued for who you are and that the goal is to find
ways to honor and celebrate each individual," according to the hospital's Diversity
and Inclusion program in the nursing department, which strives to
offer "inclusive care."
"We seek to create a safe space for dialogue and
ideas that can begin to change, where needed, our interactions and behavior in
our day-to-day interactions with one another and with our patients," the
department said. "It is one more positive step toward co-creating a caring
and inclusive environment."
The "Brigham Health Diversity and Inclusion" mission
statement explains that the hospital takes into account "race,
gender identity, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, age, physical or
mental ability, religion, income, and national origin" when giving care.
The hospital provides unconscious bias training,
"diversity and inclusion dialogues and trainings," "community
building," and "reflection rounds" for employees.
"Diversity, a long-standing value of ours, is more
important now than ever before to truly improve our health care system," according
to the Center for Development and Diversity.
Doctors and nurses are also encouraged to take an unconscious
bias test to see how racist or sexist they are.
The diversity department warns against unconscious bias
and provides the examples of making assumptions that "Women are always
primary caregivers," "Someone is gay based on a certain
haircut," or "An overweight person is unmotivated."
"Begin by recognizing that you—and everyone
else—have unconscious bias," the hospital said.
The hospital also works
to "increase visibility, awareness, and understanding of LGBTQ+
individuals" and holds "LGBT & Friends Monthly Meetings."
Brigham also holds LGBT Health Awareness Week, claiming
lesbian and gay individuals are "more likely to get sick" than their
"straight and non-transgender neighbors."
Brigham and Women's Hospital was the recipient of the over
$3.5 million taxpayer-funded study that asked why the majority of
lesbians are obese. The study's findings included the discovery that gay men
have a "greater desire for toned muscles" than straight men, and that
lesbians have lower "athletic-self esteem."
Request for comment on the removal of the white male
portraits was not immediately returned.
No word on whether Brigham and Women's Hospital will
change its name, which is named after Peter Bent Brigham and his nephew Robert
Breck Brigham, who gave the initial endowments used to found the hospital in
the 19th century. Both were wealthy white males.
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