Navigating Institutional Racism and Improving Campus Climate: Culturally Diverse Graduate Students Breaking the Mold

Abstract

Institutions are widget factories. They have become the handmaiden of the status quo, cranking out clinicians and researchers who view the world through a universal lens. A universal perspective to the understanding of human health and education leads to the assumption that all humans are the same and fails to acknowledge human diversity. We know this prac tice to be harmful; institutions, researchers and healthcare providers have a history of discounting the importance of culture, race and ethnicity resulting in harm to students, patients and humankind. A diversity of perspectives promote ingenuity and scientific progress. We need to train diverse students, clinicians, and researchers who will engage in society with originality, passion, and responsiveness to traditionally marginalized groups