Isn't it high time we talked openly about racism?

White dominance in nursing education: A target for anti‐racist efforts

“…The equal treatment ideology lives in nurses’ claims that they treat everyone the same; that they treat everyone with equal respect. Both of these expressions and practices serve to erase race, the very real impacts of racism and discredit other social causes of disparity (McGibbon, Mulaudzi, Didham, Barton, & Sochan, 2014; Thorne, 2017). The fact that the age of these students has not precluded them from adopting these forty‐year‐old ideals speaks to the ubiquitous nature of both personal and professional socialization and the persistence of these race‐erasing ideals in nursing.…”

“…The tenaciously predominant culturalist approach to nursing across difference not only misunderstands the dynamic complexity and relationality of culture, but it reifies difference in an Othering process; nurses learn about other people who have something called culture . As such, it silently reproduces Eurocentric normativity and erases processes of racialization and oppression (Baxter, 1998; Browne, 2005; Browne & Varcoe, 2006; Drevdahl, 2001; Duffy, 2001; Hassouneh, 2006; Van Herk et al., 2011; Holland, 2015; Tengelin & Dahlborg‐Lyckhage, 2017; Thorne, 2017). Race and racism are fundamentally underdeveloped in this approach, if not ignored completely.…”

“…A culturalist perspective fails to acknowledge the social construction of these categories of difference and that they are a product of, and reproduce, relationships of dominance and subordinance (Allen, 2006; Blanchet Garneau et al., 2018). In some forms, culturalism has neglected to progress beyond liberal post‐racialism where it is believed that discussions of race are outdated and unnecessary (Cortis & Law, 2005; Thorne, 2017).…”

“…The climate in nursing schools is presented in this body of literature as isolating, discriminatory and unsupportive towards staff, faculty and students that are racialized (Baxter, 1998; Cortis & Law, 2005; Hassouneh, 2006, 2013; Schroeder & DiAngelo, 2010) which leads to poorer recruitment and retention, poorer performance and significant racial stress and ill‐health (Abrums et al., 2010; Alleyne et al., 1994; Beard & Julion, 2016; Cortis & Law, 2005; Schroeder & DiAngelo, 2010; Vaughan, 1997). White, Eurocentric, raciological thinking promotes a deficit appraisal of people from outside of the normative categories (Beard, 2016; Beard & Julion, 2016; Van Herk et al., 2011; Hilario, Browne, & McFadden, 2018; Scammell & Olumide, 2012; Thorne, 2017; Vaughan, 1997). The education and cognitive capacity of internationally trained nurses and nursing faculty is frequently under question (Scammell & Olumide, 2012).…”

Pandemic racism – and the nursing response

“…They have been exposing fundamental inequities in our access to health and the structural violence that perpetuates them (Blanchet Garneau, Browne, & Varcoe, 2018;Hilario, Browne, & McFadden, 2018). They have called on their profession and its partners (in other health professions, government and decision-making bodies, and within communities) to do its part in redressing these structural inequities and ensuring a more level playing field in accessing the resources for health (Thorne, 2017). They have helped us imagine how to socialize the next generation of nurses in understanding the relevance of this issue through their educational programs, and they have helped inform nursing policy documents that encode our ethical and professional commitments to this work (Thurman, Johnson, & Sumpter, 2019).…”