Twin MDs battle entrenched racism in the medical world
By Lindsey Tanner - AP Medical Writer
Dr. Brittani James, left, and her twin sister Dr. Brandi Jackson stand for a portrait in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Sunday, May 2, 2021. The identical twin doctors who have fought bigotry all their lives have a lofty new mission: dismantling racism in medicine. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
The inseparable sisters always stood out — identical twins from Twinsburg Ohio, whip-smart students from the side of town with unpaved streets and no sidewalks, excluded from the gifted track because they were Black.
Their friends were white and a classmate’s comment still stings: “’I don’t even think of you as Black.’ I said, ‘’Thank you.’ And I felt pride,” Brittani James recalls, shuddering.