A good friend who works in College Station, home of the venerable Texas A&M University called. He said. “You know this movement is real when deep in the heart of Texas, medical students are joining in for change.” It turns out, Texas A&M answered the call announced on the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) website. They were engaging.
Lakecia Pitts is a second year medical student at Texas A&M Health Science College of medicine. She helped put the event together. “It was pretty much a national event put on by Medical students all over the country,” Lekecia Pitts said. “in order to bring the country national awareness to the issue of injustice that we are seeing in our country. In particular the authorities reached the decision not to indict the police officers that killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner.”
Lekecia said that this was a very last minute event. The medical students heard about it the day before the event. They immediately jumped into action by using social media to announce the it. Even with a short notice, they got 20+ medical students to participate. Texas A&M’s medical program is not very large, as such their undertaking was very successful comparatively.
According to Ms. Pitts, the event looked like America. It was multicultural. It had Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Asians, and many other ethnicities. They got together and made several signs. They then put on their white coats and had a very organized protest.
“We do not support injustice,” said Lakecia Pitts. “America is better than that. … We want to do our part in helping to bring about justice to the victims and their families. .. Even though it was last minute we wanted to be involved.”
When asked why she felt the zeal to take time out of a medical student’s mentally taxing and busy life, her answer was simple. She said she was outraged. As a Black woman with Black brothers, fathers, grandfathers, cousins, nephews, and others, she understood that every single one of them could be a victim to this type of injustice, to this national cancer.
Lakecia Pitts acknowledged that this injustice has been going on for a long time. The ubiquity of videos everywhere puts it square in front of the eyes of every American. “It really upset me,” said Ms. Pitts. “It’s just not right.”
The Texas A&M students did a great thing in the manner in which they tied this particular injustice that disproportionately afflicts people of color to other injustices that share the same modal. “I am hoping that we can keep the momentum going to keep this from happening,” Lakecia Pitts said. “And that we can really bring some solutions to these issues not just police brutality but racial and subconscious biases as it pertains to healthcare as well as other social injustices as well.”
This event was a national protest at most of America’s prestigious universities from Harvard to Texas A&M to North Carolina. Over seventy universities of stature participated in states throughout our nation. One should ask why a Tea Party rally gets much media attention and this does not.
How many know that the September climate change rally in New York brought over 310,000 participants? How many know there was a large TPP rally in DC earlier this year? How many know there was a large Keystone XL pipeline rally in front of the White House protesting its construction? Not many. Why? Because our traditional mainstream media is being used as a weapon of control. Ignorance causes ‘regressiveness’ and allows the populace to be controlled.
It will take social movements for America to solve all of its ills. Decentralized and independent movements fighting a cause using social media and other alternate means of communication is imperative to force solutions to social injustice, income and wealth disparity, and the many other ills afflicting the nation.
The White Coat Die-ins is a template that works. It is time to ramp up. At the same time one must be vigilant and ensure Net Neutrality (a wide open Internet for all) is maintained lest the movement be crippled before it bears fruit.
Lakecia Pitts’ final statement is one we must all strive for. “I am hoping that through this movement we can actually come together as a nation not just Black people but all people to bring about the justice that we seek.”