there is actually a clear difference between the pitt showing the painful struggles women of colour face in medicine vs actually representing the problem in a way that does it justice. and i want to talk about what the data shows and three reasons why samira's story wasn't handled well.
what the pitt gets right, is that women of colour are treated marginally worse. women of colour make up a small percentage of doctors, but count for the highest rates of dropout; this along with being treated way harsher, not being taken seriously, and their struggles being dismissed, they have it incredibly hard. this instagram post shares that, along with this larger academic article. the article is a recommended read; i want to highlight this section talking about how recruiting women of colour is not nearly enough, and that our efforts need to be directed towards the women of colour we currently have in the system.
"Such efforts should be directed at addressing the distinct challenges that WoC face, including sexual harassment, stereotyping, discrimination, lack of institutional investment and leadership support, wage/pay gaps, lack of professional networks, and mentoring."
and that brings me to samira, especially those last few lines regarding institutional investment, leadership support, professional networks and mentoring. because samira's work gets undervalued disproportionally, and her crisis is used as proof that she was never enough and that she shouldn't be there. this is a reality for many women of colour(especially black women) in medicine. and while it seems like the pitt really has that reality down, it mishandles and blows past the broad problem at hand.
which brings me to my first point: her flaws being seen as personal and not as the system failing her. what do i mean by that? robby berates samira for two seasons, tells her that she should be better in geriatrics instead of asking her what she thinks, and her crisis is used as the main reason to argue that she doesn't deserve/isn't good enough to be there; the system very often holds the excellence of woc to a higher standard and uses their flaws against them.
which is exactly what robby does. except, he ends up being right. she brings too much personal stuff into work, she takes too long, she shouldn't be here. robby makes her flaws a personal failure and not the system failing a woman of colour as it so often does. samira's situation is used to further robby's 'good mentor' arc, and even makes samira apologise to him. she fails, she leaves, she goes into geriatrics. the problem is not samira failing; that is unfortunately the reality of many people like her. the problem is, that the show doesn't talk about it as if it's a systemic problem, but a personal one of samira's.
which brings me to my second point. her story is not shown from her lens, it's shown from the outside. her story isn't heard, and the pitt lets her go in an irish goodbye. we don't hear from her what she wants or what her plans are besides what others told her, we hear robby making her think she isn't enough, and don't get granted a look into her struggles. if the pitt wanted to share the stories of women of colour in its painful reality, they should have shared her perspective. or at least grant her more interiority, motivations, thoughts, and explanation. instead we see her staring off, looking sad, being told what to do, and her agreeing with it.
my third point is about sharing the problem but not the solution. the story of the system failing her is a devastating one, and could have been done with dignity. instead, it's not framed as the system's fault, and we don't see anything directly engaging in the fact that medicine is disproportionally failing women of colour. here is a section from the article that talks about all the ways that these systemic issues can be improved or even fixed.
"Strategies presented from the literature to mitigate institutionalized discrimination included prioritizing mentoring and early career education/sponsorship; creating support networks and allocating resources to developing avenues of support; professional and formal leadership development programs; expanding promotion criteria to include diversity work and community service; closing the gender pay-gap; advocacy and support from non-minority authorities/institutions; creating minority-based professional societies; improving representation on journal editorial boards; conducting regular assessments/surveys regarding perceived mistreatment; raising awareness of implicit/explicit bias; and identifying elements in the physical environment (like portraits) that might contribute to inequity. Whether such strategies when implemented in a concerted manner with intentionality serve to improve diversity and representation in the healthcare professions remains to be seen."
in order to properly represent and condemn an issue(which the pitt has shown to be able to do), you have to show the ways something harms a person, but also sharing what could help them. the pitt does not do this with samira. it's used as a story beat, not an educational moment. it tells us robby was right in the end, and doesn't tell us that he is the lack of institutional investment and leadership support(and more) that the article talks about. samira failing is shown as an anomaly, not a continuous problem that has heaps of data on it. the pitt doesn't touch on these statistically proven ways to improve the problem, because they don't acknowledge the actual problem: systemic discrimination.
my point is not that samira shouldn't struggle; in fact it's very realistic that she does. it's incredibly hard to watch and to see the system beat her down, but it's not wrong. the data shows how real it is. but the show misses the mark in displaying the reason she fails. they show it as a personal failing, not a systemic one. in addition, she show frames her failing from an outside perspective without hearing her voice, opinion, or thoughts on the matter. and lastly, because the show frames her failure as personal, it avoids having to confront the systemic issues and provide education on how this can be prevented or helped in future situations. something that is decently well documented and very easy to find.
her story is not used to be informational, educational, or as a lesson for what not to do to women of colour. it's not a tragic moment where we're told that people like her shouldn't get treated this badly by the system. it's just another story they have. they say that samira wasn't made for the ed. she just doesn't belong. she's just not on shift next season. oh well. for a show that attempts to be progressive, they sure missed the mark on that one.
