Harvard University’s medical school used to have portraits of former department chairs hanging in its halls, composed of white males. The hospital’s president, Dr. Betsy Nabel, said that these portraits don’t reflect the diversity of the medical school today and could make students uncomfortable because of the lack of diversity.
She told the local newspaper, The Boston Globe, the following:
“I have watched the faces of individuals as they have come into Bornstein…I have watched them look at the walls. I read on their faces ‘Interesting, but I am not represented here.’ That got me thinking maybe it’s time that we think about respecting our past in a different way.”
