Dr. Niran Al-Agba

The Color of Running: the crisis our nation should be talking about

In America, Blacks cannot walk (RIP Trayvon Martin,) run (RIP Arbery,) or sleep (RIP Breonna Taylor) without being shot and killed.Blackness is not the root of inequity—racism in the system is the primary problem. White Americans must acknowledge complicity in maintaining systemic racism and the epigenetic trauma it inflicts upon Black Americans. To be sure, Clifford Glover and Ahmaud Arbery have taught me the meaning of white privilege in a way I never understood before. Isn’t it past time to change the conversation about the responsibilities of holding privilege in America? My message boils down to this: we can be good, kind, loving people who have benefited from a system steeped in white supremacy and still have the humility to say—this must stop.

Niran Al-Agba2020-05-26T01:22:04+00:00May 15, 2020|Categories: Equality, Policy|Tags: Ahmaud Arbery, Black Lives Matter, Lynching, Racism, Trayvon Martin, white privilege|

What Will Be Covid-19’s Legacy For Schools

As a pediatrician, I am even more concerned about those students who are homeless, food insecure, or being exposed to violence more regularly at home as a result of school closure. School is the one place where children can feel safe, fed, and supported. Children with disabilities—who receive speech, language, and other therapies—have been unable to continue their specialized services at school, which are essential to foster learning and development.

Niran Al-Agba2020-05-23T22:54:51+00:00April 19, 2020|Categories: Equality, Patient, Policy|Tags: Coronavirus, Covid-19, Education, Reopening, Schools|

No Apologizing For Being a Woman

First, we must stop judging women by their demeanor, personality traits or “makeup application” skills. Only when we see women as assertive instead of aggressive, dazzling instead of dominant, and enlightening instead of emotional, will women be able to take their place in the sun.

Niran Al-Agba2020-05-23T22:53:00+00:00March 6, 2020|Categories: Equality, Policy|Tags: Gender Equality, Inequality, Presidential Debate|

When Even a Surgeon is Slighted

Why do real-life images of camouflage-clad women soldiers or female surgeons wearing scrubs make us more uncomfortable than the highly sexualized images of fictional women warriors, like Wonder Woman? Are many of us more nervous boarding a plane that will be piloted by a woman than a man? And why hasn’t a woman been elected to the highest office of the land? Does society believe female physicians are less qualified than male physicians?

Niran Al-Agba2020-05-23T22:52:41+00:00February 23, 2020|Categories: Equality, Physician|Tags: Discrimination, Female Physicians, Female Surgeons, Gender Bias, Gender Equality, Women in Medicine|

Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte: A Doctor Who Thrived Against Inequality

La Flesche’s motivation to pursue medicine came from a haunting experience she had as a child, watching an elderly woman die in agony awaiting the arrival of a local doctor. Despite being summoned four times, he never came. In her opinion, the doctor’s absence made one thing painfully clear: It was only an Indian. She wrote years later, “It has always been a desire of mine to study medicine ever since I was a small girl.”

Niran Al-Agba2020-05-23T22:50:26+00:00February 3, 2020|Categories: Equality, Physician|Tags: Female, Female Physicians, National Women's Physician Day, Native Physicians, NWPD, Susan La Flesche, Women in Medicine|

When Lawmakers Try to Play Doctor

An ectopic pregnancy cannot be relocated like a potted plant. Lawmakers got the hairbrained idea from a century-old case report published in the journal Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, by C.J. Wallace. The author claimed to have successfully transplanted an ectopic pregnancy from a woman’s fallopian tube to her uterus in 1917.

Niran Al-Agba2020-05-15T00:45:26+00:00January 1, 2020|Categories: Equality, Policy|Tags: Abortion, Fake News, Pro Choice, Pro Life|

Consenting to Learn Publicly

Battling organized racism has never been about a single person or one moment in time—it is about exploring deeply ingrained beliefs each of us hold about those individuals who we see as different from ourselves. Outcome disparities due to race are not limited to the healthcare arena; they affect our education system, justice system, law enforcement, social media and everyday life.

Niran Al-Agba2020-05-31T00:29:21+00:00December 30, 2019|Categories: Equality, Patient|Tags: BIPOC, Native American, Officer Involved Shooting, Police Shootings, Racism. Black Lives Matter|

When the Excuses for Assault Blame the Victim

Society must endorse the idea that a woman must consent prior to being touched. And when there is a power differential, consent may not meet the necessary criteria to avoid allegations of sexual assault. In fact, it might be equally plausible that Mr. Lauer “lured” Nevils to his hotel room as it is that she showed up of her own volition. I ask this question because of my own experience of having been lured by a physician colleague to his home in the evening under false pretenses. It is a mistake I have never made again.

Niran Al-Agba2020-05-15T00:54:07+00:00October 31, 2019|Categories: Equality, Patient, Physician|Tags: Gender Bias, Gender Equity, MeToo, Rape, Sexual Harassment, Times Up, Victim Blaming|

Tijuana’s Perilous “Waiting Room”

This past summer, I volunteered in Tijuana, Mexico at a clinic serving patients in the Migrant Protection Protocol program, or MPP. Also known as “Remain in Mexico,” MPP sends migrants who appear at official places of entry along the U.S. border seeking asylum, back to Mexico to await future immigration hearing dates.

Niran Al-Agba2020-05-15T00:55:44+00:00October 30, 2019|Categories: Equality, Policy|Tags: Equality, Human Rights, Immigration, Inequality, Mexico, MPP, Racism|

Do Not Turn Away from the Casualties of Immigration

Why did this picture seize our attention? Is it because Valeria’s’ tiny body is tucked inside her father’s shirt and we can vividly see her clinging to him as they drowned? Or is it because we know if they had made it across safely, the two would have been separated anyway? Or is it because every parent understands the desperation it took for a father to swim across a swirling river while carrying his 2-year-old daughter on his back?

Niran Al-Agba2020-05-15T01:12:58+00:00August 26, 2019|Categories: Equality, Policy|Tags: Border Patrol, Drowning, Illegal, Immigration, Internment, Oscar Ramirez, Racism, Valeria|