Black Girls Sing of Freedom, a poem
"I'd tell her it's OK to be loud...it's OK to challenge and to bring all of you into these spaces where no one looks like you..."
This began a list of things this Black OB-GYN resident said she would tell a childhood version of herself. During our session, she had relayed multiple stories of challenges she faced as a Black physician, as well as stories of the experiences of her Black female peers and colleagues.
These experiences, which she described as highly impactful and demoralizing, demonstrated how Black women interact within a system they aspire to be part of that "knocks them down at every turn."
Often this knocking down came about through interactions with White healthcare team members. She related how they would often question the expertise of her and other Black physicians--even veteran physicians with many years of experience--in ways that they did not treat physicians of other races. Yet often it was her who was reprimanded for speaking out about this treatment. "How am I supposed to show up to work as my best self when I have to worry about their hurt feelings instead of the health and safety of my patient?"
Reflecting on her medical school application essay, she recalled that initially she wanted to practice medicine in a specialty directly working with children. During medical school, however, she realized that the best way for her to help children is to save their mothers. When I asked her what her own childhood self would think of her now, she replied, "I think she'd be proud of me."
Listener Poet Yvette Perry
Health4Equity OB/GYN Residents Project
April 2023
Black Girls Sing of Freedom
Texas-Bama girls,
Negro nose with J-5 nostrils:
It’s alright
G’on and be too loud
too Black and too proud
It’s alright
to have “tone”
and a stance all your own
It’s alright
Speak unapologetically
whenever you have need to be
It’s alright
to keep on going through
for all of those who need you to
It’s alright
Fill up with your faces
those small, frigid spaces
It’s alright
to still be scared
though you know you’ve prepared
It’s alright
Deflect their white tears,
their ridiculous fears
It’s alright
to weep your own cries
drowning out all their lies
Black girls, sing
(and keep it Trill)
of future unreached
but fought for still
Your voices roar
from every hill
Black girls,
sing of freedom
