This session was part of Day three of the 2021 Humanism and Healing Conference: Structural Racism and Its Impact on Medicine, hosted by the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS).
Othering’ involves mechanisms that propagate inequality across a wide range of human differences. Othering manifests through expressions and behaviors of prejudice that are exclusionary and dehumanizing. Othering is manufactured; it is a social and political construct that undergirds “us” vs. “them” culture, as well as the marginalization of group identities which frames our personal interactions as well as major global conflicts. In this session, we examined the mechanics of othering. The session opened with individual stories. Then, through a panel discussion and Q/A with physicians and community leaders, we dove deeper to explore how this topic specifically relates to racism in medicine as we identify tools for equity. Aims: 1. Define othering. 2. Identify one institutional strategy to effectively address othering. 3. Identify an action you can take personally to confront othering, particularly within medicine. 4. Describe how othering perpetuates racism in medicine.
The speakers:
Erica Johnson, MD, Medical Training Program Director, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Alexander Wade, MD, BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lynda Nwabuobi, Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology, New York Presbyterian Hospital – Weill Cornell Medical Center
Rana Elgazzar, Medical Student, President, Ohio State University Gold Humanism Honor Society
Autumn Glover, Government Affairs and Community Relations Consultant, The Ohio State University
