[ https://vimeo.com/441148851/7cc3aa300b PLEASE WATCH THIS 2-minute VIDEO FIRST. It is a brilliant creation by Chris York's team at Baylor's Grapevine Hospital.] 

   Listen carefully, my fellow European-Americans, to the late John Lewis, "Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."

   The Journal's wonderful weekend essay by Liz Wessel included part of this quote. She also referenced James Baldwin, someone too few Americans know. "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced," Baldwin wrote. His context was racism. 

   Lewis spoke of everyone. I address white Americans because we are the ones that most need to listen, to face anew the searing truth of racial inequality caused by whites who fabricated the lie of superiority. 

   At dinner four years ago a new next door neighbor, Ginny, suddenly said to me, "Erie, black people are tearing us down."

   After that, it got even worse. Obviously, she did not know me. Aghast, I quickly got into some "good trouble." Although later I was chastised for arguing (a frequent criticism) consider the situation. Ginny told me her truth because she assumed I was part of her white conspiracy to demean minorities. If people who look like me do not speak up than I am tacitly encouraging her.  

   The minority of which to which I belong is that one percent of the over-privileged. When it comes to leadership I instantly lose my minority status. Whites, particularly white men, dominate too many leadership positions – including in health care. 

   Speaking up is not enough. As Baldwin suggests: Most white people deny they harbor racist feelings. Many (including the President, who claims to the "the least racist person in the world") imply there is no race problem.

   Would he trade his skin color for black or brown? Would you?

   Whether we are each more racist than we realize is a question being re-asked by millions as racial strife again grips our country. 

   Why is it that so many whites still fail to understand the phrase "Black Lives Matter"? That the slogan means "Black Lives Matter TOO."

   After four decades as a healthcare CEO a painful truth emerges. With rare exceptions (Baylor's Chris York, of course) white men do not get it! As a result, racism in hospitals remains unresolved. 

   Where are America's change agents? In board rooms? In doctor's dining rooms?

   Now, more than ever, American healthcare needs what we have never had, our own versions of James Baldwin & John Lewis & Martin Luther King. 

   As science seeks a vaccine for the COVID 19 a parallel crisis begs for a cure. American healthcare needs a vaccine for racism.

   We need leaders with passions for justice as big as their paychecks. The vaccine for racism is Love.

   And if you wonder what Love looks like, watch the brilliant video created by Chris York's team at Baylor Scott & White's Grapevine Hospital again.* 

   Remember Baldwin's words: "nothing can be changed until it is faced." Then "make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."

-Erie Chapman

I also created a YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icmZ8AfVOQQ