Treating the Disease, Not Just the Symptom

A nursing student’s perspective on why we should still care about the defacement of the George Floyd memorial

By: Zoë Kondes

On a Tuesday night back in August, a community member was lighting candles at 38th and Chicago when he witnessed a guy in shorts, flip flops and a hoodie spraying black paint on the mural of George Floyd. The vandal blacked out Floyd’s eyes, bringing the paint down in an ugly “X” over his face. Others present managed to take a photo and within hours, he was identified as Daniel Michelson, a medical student at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Within days, students at the U and his peers in the medical school were calling for his expulsion. Within weeks, Michelson confirmed he was permanently discontinuing his medical education and stated he was working on reconciling with the community. Despite his attempts to dodge culpability by claiming he was drunk, the incident has left a stain on his name as dark and corrosive as the paint he put on Floyd’s eyes. So, why should we still care?

Though the former medical student’s vandalism has been addressed, his behavior reflects a larger problem. From forced surgeries on enslaved Black women without pain relief to the egregiously unethical Tuskegee syphilis study, medicine and the health sciences have been developed and used to the detriment of Black communities for years. Black people suffer significant health inequities to this day at both the state and national levels, across age groups, across different markers of wellness. Black women are significantly more likely to not have their pain believed and die from preventable causes than white women. White, upper class citizens contribute most to air pollution, yet Black, Indigenous, low-income citizens of color disproportionately breathe it in. In a healthcare system that is so deeply broken, the vision needs to be larger than just individual accountability. Many of those at the Square and in the surrounding community have already been channeling their energies into restorative justice, creating collaborative solutions and models that don’t just respond to current wrongdoings, but prevent future ones.

Healthcare professionals have an ethical and moral obligation to take part in the movement for preventative justice, the precedent for which lies in their ethical codes. The Code of Medical Ethics states that physicians need to reflect on how they personally contribute to systems of oppression within their individual practices and challenge others when they see bias and discrimination in their care. Not only that, but the profession as a whole has a responsibility to call attention to healthcare inequalities, actively support initiatives that reduce those disparities, and diversify their workforce. The Nursing Code of Ethics goes on to emphasize that structural inequalities “exacerbate the incidence and burden of illness, trauma, [and] suffering.” Medical racism isn’t just about the impact we can empirically observe, it’s about the compounding of suffering, the inheritance of intergenerational trauma. 

Keeping that balance between individuals and the larger systems in which they operate, the Nursing Code also states that though nurses are always accountable for their own judgements and actions, “responsibility may be borne by both the nurse and the institution,” reinforcing that these events don’t occur in a vacuum. Physicians are asked to hold their colleagues to a certain standard while also thinking critically about the circumstances or events that precipitated their behavior. Even as a student, Michelson was beholden to that code. It is why his peers in healthcare voiced their outrage and supported the community, and it is why they must continue to fight for justice. 

The role of healthcare professionals first and foremost is to listen to the patient and treat them as the authority on their pain and lived experience. They collaborate with their patients to figure out how they can feel most empowered in their health, never forgetting that their wellbeing is influenced by their environment, social supports, access to resources, and so much more. It is not enough for us to put band-aids on cuts and generate quick solutions when we know the true work and deep healing lies in pulling racism out at the roots. It was necessary to call for Michelson’s white coat, it is also necessary to set our sights further by cultivating an antiracist practice. Not just in the healthcare field, but in every discipline--from the metaphysical sciences and physical sciences, to the industrial and fine arts. That is how we treat the disease and not just the symptoms.