A dire diagnosis

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This article was published 09/11/2024 (631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Revelations of bias and exclusion have ripped away the myth of equality in Canada, from systemic discrimination against Indigenous peoples to the deliberate marginalization of ethnic minorities throughout history.

Today, we would hope our institutions and professions represent our changing population. Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa’s memoir, Unlike the Rest, reminds us that change only comes through advocacy and activism.

Getting accepted into the University of Toronto’s medical school in 2016 was the culmination of Oriuwa’s childhood dream and enormously hard work. The glow she felt dimmed when she realized she was the only Black student in a class of 259, in a city where Blacks constitute about 10 per cent of the population.

Oriuwa details her life’s journey from Brampton, Ont. as the daughter of struggling Nigerian immigrant parents who encouraged her ambitions. She says she always felt the sting of racism, from overt comments to microaggressions about the shade of her skin to whether her hairstyles appeared “aggressive.” She channeled her feelings through the intense storytelling rhythms of spoken-word poetry, an art she carried on through her studies.

The university saw the imbalance, too, and asked her to help right it.

Despite fearing she would be branded a troublemaker and frozen out of favoured positions by a hierarchy protecting its historical structure, she joined organizations challenging the perception that Blacks made it into the school through lowered criteria or special streams.

Oriuwa’s activism included giving lectures and interviews to the media about how economic advantage favours some while perpetually disenfranchising people of marginalized communities. Her outspoken statements inspired young people who had felt intimidated from applying by the financial constraints and racism they might face. As a validation of their fears, Oriuwa recounts the viciousness of online trolls who disparaged her achievements and repeated racist tropes about Blacks.

Not surprisingly, there were teachers and classmates echoing these stereotypes.

Oriuwa managed to do all this while simultaneously navigating the crushing curriculum of medical school, writing exams every two weeks, engaging in clinical care, participating in extracurricular groups and tutoring to support herself. It took a toll, and she discusses her struggle with disordered eating as she sought to control everything going on around her.

Her efforts paid off. In 2018, 14 Black students were admitted to the U of T’s Faculty of Medicine, and 24 were enrolled in 2024, a number at least reflective of the population. For her efforts Oriuwa, now a resident psychiatrist, has been applauded as a role model. Mattel Toys modeled a lookalike Barbie doll after her, with her hairstyle, a white coat, scrubs and a stethoscope.

Examples abound of prejudices in academia, an institution supposedly built on merit. Manitobans might remember the unwritten numerus clausus quota system used by the University of Manitoba Medical School in the 1930s and ’40s to limit the number of Jews, Ukrainians, Poles and other ethnic groups admitted each year to maintain the domination of the Anglo elite in the medical profession, until it was exposed. Queen’s University Medical School excluded Black students from 1918 to 1965, only apologizing in 2018, an embarrassing reflection of how entrenched attitudes remain. Clearly there are more institutions and professional groups that need to self-examine, acknowledge past harms and engage in reconciliation.

At one point in her childhood, Oriuwa announced she would rather become a writer than a doctor. Knowing more than she could have about a writer’s income, her mother and father urged her to study medicine first and write later.

It was sound advice, but Oriuwa’s writing didn’t suffer from neglect — her writing is passionate, detailed and analytical, and worth reading as Canadian society evolves.

Harriet Zaidman is an award-winning writer for young people living in Winnipeg.