The Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare recognition program, along with the woman leaders program we hold every other year, are the two most important recognition programs we have.
We get more attention for our 100 Most Influential awards. But these awards are more important because they have a broader social purpose. They are designed to highlight the importance of maintaining and increasing the diversity of the top ranks of the healthcare industry.
I spoke recently with the CEO of New York City Health & Hospitals, Dr. Ram Raju, who is one of our honorees tonight. He has the unenviable task of needing to close a $2 billion budget gap by 2020 while improving his system to attract private-pay patients.
I have a huge advantage compared to the prestigious academic medical centers against which I compete, he told me. If you go into one of my 11 hospitals or dozens of clinics, you will see a workforce that looks like the surrounding communities. In the south Bronx, the hospital workforce is Hispanic. In central Brooklyn, it is Russian immigrants. Having culturally competent caregivers is my competitive advantage, he said.
The same is true for top leadership. We cannot have a healthcare system that adequately serves an increasingly diverse population unless our healthcare institutions have a culturally diverse leadership.
I would be remiss if I didn't make note of the cultural moment we're passing through as we pause to honor this year's honorees. Last week, Muhammad Ali, probably the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, passed away after living the second half of his adult life with a debilitating disease.
The early years of his career—from his winning the title from Sonny Liston in 1964 to his refusal to register for the Vietnam War era draft in 1967—coincided with my years in high school, where I was sports editor for my high school newspaper. He had a major impact on my life, especially what he had to say about the war.
The media love showered on Ali last week is not how I remember it. Most news accounts sanitized his stance on the war. They repeatedly reported how he said, “I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.” What was forgotten was that within weeks of that comment, black protesters on American campuses—often fighting for increased minority enrollment—would be carrying signs saying, “No Viet Cong ever called me,” and I won't say the last word.
Ali himself would later pick up the phrase. The point is that his courageous stance on the war was intimately linked to the fight against racism then raging in the U.S.—a fight, as we're learning from this year's presidential campaign, which is never won.
In the year 2016, we have a major party candidate proclaiming from a public podium that an Indiana-born judge cannot preside fairly over a trial because of his Mexican heritage. This is racism pure and simple.
It behooves all of us in public life, whether it is because of our high position or because we have a public or media platform to speak out, to condemn this very un-American activity.
And tonight, let it serve as a reminder that it takes courage to fight the entrenched racism of our society that made it more difficult for you, our honorees, to achieve high office and advance in your careers.
So let me add that to our listed criteria for our honorees. Yes, you must serve in a senior executive role; inspire change; share expertise; serve as a mentor; advance diversity in the industry; and provide leadership outside your own organization.
But to do any of that, you must have the courage to stand up against those who would use race or ethnicity to stand in the way of progress and a better America. So for that, I congratulate all of you.
This is an edited version of comments Merrill Goozner delivered at Modern Healthcare's Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare dinner held last week in Chicago.
