Rene Salazar

Like it or not, all of us hold unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, many times we think about bias and unconscious bias — they are incompatible with our conscious values, right?

I was struck, particularly being in the health professions and wanting to serve diverse communities, to learn that I had these biases — it was a bit disheartening.

I grew up in south Texas — 99% Mexican-American. Mostly Latino. In my high school, we had one black student, and so, up until age 18, you can imagine, a lot of my ideas — a lot of my attitudes, a lot of my beliefs — about folks who were black came from what? The media.

You know we all have them, it's important to pause for a second and normalize this. And be OK with this.

What happens when that door closes? What happens in the interaction when I can't see the patient and the doctor talking? that's a little hard to capture.

Well, I can share with you my story. by Rene Salazar

Well, I can share with you my story.

A lot of folks come to San Francisco thinking, 'Oh it's such an open-minded place, there are no biases here,' that's not true. You're going to see this in every hospital. It's going to be an issue.