ABC News reported yesterday that University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey medical student Paolo Serodio was called into the dean’s office several times, forced to undergo a psychiatric exam, and finally expelled for responding to a question by “identifying himself during a class cultural exercise as a ‘white African-American.’” (HatTip to Inside Higher Ed)
He has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court that
traces a series of events that Serodio maintains led to his 2007 suspension, starting with a March 2006 cultural exercise in a clinical skills course taught by Dr. Kathy Ann Duncan, where each student was asked to define themselves for a discussion on culture and medicine.
After Serodio labeled himself as a white African-American, another student said she was offended by his comments and that, because of his white skin, [he] was not an African-American.
According to the lawsuit, Serodio was summoned to Duncan’s office where he was instructed “never to define himself as an African-American … because it was offensive to others and to people of color for him to do so.”
Serodio describes himself as a third-generation African of Portuguese descent whose great-grandfather moved to Mozambique. He came to the U.S. in 1984 to attend NYU, married, and became a naturalized citizen in the early 1990s.
His plan, he said, was to become a doctor and join Doctors Without Borders where he could travel back to Africa to do charity work like his parents, either as an internist or possibly a neurologist. He started medical school, he said, when his eldest child was in first grade.
Serodio’s complaint seems more like 1984, or perhaps Animal Farm, than what most of us imagine medical education to be.
In September 2006, Serodio said he again was asked to define himself culturally as part of another course exercise. Again, according to the lawsuit he said he was a “white African-American.” And again, he was called to the course instructor’s office and told never to define himself that way again.
According to the lawsuit, Serodio then wrote an article for the student newspaper, titled “A More Colorful View Than Black and White,” in an attempt to explain his self-identification and to call for tolerance at the school.
But when complaints started pouring into Dr. I. Thomas Cohen, then the dean of student affairs, the lawsuit alleges that Serodio was called in again and told by Cohen that if he “lay low for awhile” Cohen would see that a record of the incident would not be placed in Serodio’s transcript….
The lawsuit claims Serodio tried to stop publication on the newspaper article, but was too late. In response, the professor of the latter cultural class posted a reply on the bulletin boards at the medical school stating that Serodio “had failed to learn professionalism and humanism.”
….
In January 2007, Serodio was made to promise he would never again write in any public forum at the school at the risk of facing disciplinary action, according to the lawsuit.
After further complaints he was forced to undergo a psychiatric exam. Although the exam found him “fit for medical student functions,” he was subsequently expelled.
There must be another side to this story (musn’t there?), but according to ABC News “[m]essages and e-mails left with Duncan and [Dean of Student Affairs I. Thomas] Cohen as well as UMDNJ Dean Dr. Robert Johnson were not returned.” In addition,
[n]either the American Civil Liberties Union nor the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People responded to messages seeking comment on the meaning of African-American.
Perhaps part of the problem is that there’s too much concern with “culture” at UMDNJ.
Wow. There’s a long list of people who need to be fired at this school. It’s astonishing those students “offended by his comments” weren’t sent to diversity training. But I suppose for that to happen the goal would have to be tolerance, instead of ‘tolerance’.
As an african american I find this story almost unbelievable. The man is white, african and american. What is the problem!!! Duncan should learn a little tolerance of her own. I know we are hearing only one side of the story here but what happened to common sense? My people (Americans) need to realize that not every country loves pinning titles on people as much as we do. Shame on this school administration for allowing this ridiculous situation to escalate as it has.
as a phyician, white dude, and alumnus of UMDNJ I got to tell you this saddens me, i saw the guy on glenn beck and he’s not arrogant but he does stick to his principles, he’s pround to be an African! He’s not out to insult anybody, or at least that’s how he came off that day on tv. They are ready to ruin this guy’s life over some contrived definition that didn’t exist 10 years ago and will surely be gone-history-defunct-relic 5 or 10 years from now. I appreciate the proir coments of the brother, in my opinion it says you think for yourself. A lot of his fellow students support him also. Now i,m an old dude and i admit i’ve got more tolerence to achieve, humbly addmitted, but please allow me to point out that take this story, reverse the colors, put it in the year 1935 and what would one say- “just a clear example of intolerence” but it’s more, like a system that snow balled out of control and that butt head dean had no courage to stop it. 30 years ago- 30 years- i had no race problems at UMDNJ but NOW they do?????
As a (white) student in that class, may I just say that the story is very much abbreviated/slanted to make Paulo appear more of a victim than he is. I highly doubt that Dr. Cohen told Paulo to “lay low,” or took part in any other major mismanagement of the situation, considering that Dr. Cohen himself, a white man, was born and raised in Africa, and pretty much embodied student advocacy during his entire time as dean. What I can tell you with certainty is that the article Paulo put to press, among other e-mails and messages he sent out to the class as a whole, were profane and inflammatory to all of us, even those not involved in the situation. On multiple occasions he put sexually inappropriate jokes and images into scribe notes for the class, and wrote things that were clearly offensive to a wide range of individuals (not just the African Americans in the class), repeatedly quoting his desire to exercise his freedom of speech. These behaviors are what incited Dr. Duncan’s response. I will agree though that cultural competency has become too heavily preached (but not practiced) in the medical school curriculum… but if you have a problem with that, take it up with the ACGME, not UMDNJ- it’s universal.