About 50 medical students of all backgrounds at Upstate Medical University Friday held a silent demonstration to call attention police brutality and judicial injustices that target black Americans. The students wore their white coats and held signs saying “We can’t breath” and “white coats for black lives”.
The demonstration was part of a growing national medical student movement to bring light to the cross section of public health and race. In a release, second year medical student Candace Hatten says as "future health care practitioners, they must be aware of the racial, political and socioeconomic injustices patients might face in order to better understand them."
The protest was organized by the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), and it was sanctioned by the Upstate administration.