De´ja` vu is the feeling that one has lived through the present situation before. . .
As we reflect on the past, present, and future, it feels like we have seen this before. Despite significant career and professional growth as an underrepresented academic surgeon, I am actually quite amazed to find myself in this place at this time in these circumstances. I feel proud and fortunate to be one of the very few, if not the first, African American leaders of any Department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. But I am not sure that is the most remarkable thing at all. I am sure that my journey is very similar to others – the life of people of color in America in the postJim Crow Era from the 1950s to now – a combination of hard work, resilience, good fortune, and perseverance in the face of structural racism, discrimination, and explicit and implicit bias. What may have changed, is the realization that the lived experiences of being Black in America are now a point of consternation and concern for those who live in the world of White majority privilege, thanks to social media and irrefutable evidence in the real world of violations of human rights directed against those who are most vulnerable based upon race, gender, socioeconomic status, and color.