Good morning, Friends. I'll begin our D&I update for November with a note from Will Alexander about Native American Heritage Month:This week includes both Thanksgiving as well as the start of Hanukkah (November 28-December 6), with Christmas and the end of the year just a month after. These holidays are an opportunity to share feelings of gratitude, enjoy delicious food, and have time with our loved ones.
November is also Native American Heritage Month. We can enjoy all of the festivities of the holidays even as we acknowledge that the story of Pilgrims and Native Americans enjoying a feast together does not reflect the tragic events that followed. Even today, we see substantial income, education, and health disparities among native populations. November is a month to not only reflect on these ongoing struggles, but to celebrate the amazing richness and diversity of indigenous Americans and their many contributions to our culture and society.
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As we approach the season known as “The Holidays,” the D&I Committee discussed at its most recent meeting about how the Neurology Department can be respectful of the various religious and secular traditions of its diverse membership, not just in December, but all year. Certain holidays are observed across the health system and/or university. These include New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. The department does not schedule meetings on these days.
There are a variety of additional holidays where departmental operations are normal but the D&I Committee requests trying to avoid scheduling additional events or meetings out of respect for those who observe these days. This is the list generated by the committee to represent some of the most commonly observed but not Duke-recognized holidays. We acknowledge the many holidays not included here but attempted to list those with the most significance to the most people.
Despite our best intentions, some scheduling overlap will still occur with both the below list and with holidays not listed. When there is a conflict with a holiday of particular salience to a member of the department, we hope that they feel empowered to let the organizer know and to decline the event if it cannot be rescheduled. I will attempt to add these holidays 1-2 months in advance to my monthly emails as reminders since I recognize the difficulty remembering all of these dates throughout the year.
Good Friday
Chinese/Lunar New Year
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Eid al-Fitr
Eid al-Adha
Dia de los Muertos
Veteran’s Day
Indigenous People’s Day
Diwali
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Congratulations to Drs. Sneha Mantri and Kyle Mitchell on their publication:
The past 18 months has led to rapid expansion of telehealth services. However, existing disparities in internet access have meant that not everyone has benefitted from this expansion. Sneha Mantri, MD, MS, and Kyle Mitchell report on some of the racial disparities that have emerged with switching Parkinson’s visit to a virtual format. They found that participation by Black patients was cut in half compared to white patients. You can read their article in Parkinsonism and Related Disorders here.