Members of the psychiatry residency program at the Yale University School of Medicine have formed the Yale Solomon Carter Fuller Association in honor of the nation’s first Black psychiatrist. Nationwide, Blacks are about 6.6 percent of all psychiatric residents. But at Yale the percentage is more than double the national average.
The lea
der of the new support group is Marilise Hyacinth, a third-year psychiatry resident. “I applied to Yale’s psychiatry residency because it was one of the most diverse programs,” said Dr. Hyacinth. “As we get further into our careers, groups like this become increasingly important, not only to support each other but also to create more opportunities for professional mentorship.”
Dr. Hyacinth is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and a medical degree from George Washington University.
Solomon Carter Fuller, whose parents were former American slaves, was born in Liberia in 1872. He came to the United States to study at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, and later at the Boston University School of Medicine. He spent most of his career at the Westborough State Mental Hospital in Massachusetts and was one of the first scientists to conduct detailed research on Alzheimer’s patients.
If the sole purpose of this group is to counterbalance institutional and systemic racism at Yale University, then the “post-racial” paradigm is a moot point. Thereby, all of the so-called educated Black neoliberals, liberals, and conservatives must realize that the majority of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tier HWCUs will never view or treat you as their “professional or intellectual equal”. I know for many of you these sentiments really break your heart.