Black History Month Heroes: John Dolittle from "Dr. Dolittle"

Did he go to Tuskegee?

Michael Vick - Black people's favorite athlete - just received the key to the city of Dallas from Black Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway. The actual mayor of Dallas (a white guy) was unaware:

Without informing Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert — or, apparently, anyone else at City Hall — Caraway on Saturday gave Vick a gold-colored key to the city during an event at Club Cirque in downtown Dallas. In attendance were several children who had come to hear Vick’s story of reform and redemption.

“You deserve it, you earned it. We appreciate you and we love you,” Caraway told Vick.

Black people have entirely different views on animals than white people (same goes for the environment). Most Black athletes defended Vick and dog fighting, just as most Black people have positive views toward him (where white people don't).

The easiest way to see which group of people care about animals is to look into which group comprises the bulk of those who care for animals. The data on veterinarians paints an overwhelmingly white picture of compassion toward animals:

Lisa Greenhill wants veterinarians to talk to classes of kindergarteners and high school seniors alike.
Children should be able to participate in after-school programs, academies, and summer enrichment programs that showcase veterinary medicine and the breadth of the industry's opportunities, she said.
"Make sure students know the profession is open, available, worthy of consideration, and welcoming," said Greenhill, associate executive director for diversity at the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges.

Greenhill is trying to make a diverse population interested in a field where, according to the 2000 U.S. census, 92.4 percent of veterinary professionals were listed as "white non-Hispanic."
At that time, 73.6 percent of physicians and surgeons were listed as white non-Hispanic, as were 82.8 percent of dentists, 86.5 percent of optometrists, 78.9 percent of pharmacists, and 80.4 percent of registered nurses.

But recent increases in minority enrollment at AAVMC member schools have been encouraging, Greenhill said. The number of students from minority groups underrepresented in veterinary medicine has increased from less than 10 percent in 2005 to just less than 12 percent now, she said.
"It's still incredibly small compared with other health professions, but it is a significant increase in a short period of time," Greenhill said.

Black people are not represented in the profession of veterinary medicine, though the vast majority of Blacks in the field graduated from Tuskegee:

Tuskegee’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program, which has graduated 2,111 veterinarians, was established in 1945 to fill a void, “to get more Blacks into the profession,” says Perry, who is a Tuskegee graduate and “the first Black female board-certified veterinary radiologist.”

The great problem of beloved family pets treated by white people can only be rectified with a complete commitment to diversity (which means lowering the academic requirements and professional standards for becoming a veterinarian):

"So many African-American students go into medicine because they want to find a cure for some particular disease that impacted someone in their family or community. I don't think we do a particularly good job of saying you can do that through us," she said.

In an ideal world, there would be more outreach programs exposing greater numbers of minorities to veterinary medicine at an early age; there would be more scholarship money for minorities and economically disadvantaged students wanting to be veterinarians. Greenhill would also like for more veterinary schools and colleges to take the lead in thinking creatively about recruiting nonwhite students.
As for the AVMA, Greenhill applauds its recent efforts at emphasizing diversity within the profession, but she'd like to see the AVMA's role extend far beyond the symposia. "The AVMA needs to make sure that their members understand that this is something they can and should do in whatever practice area they're engaged," she said.

Greenhill suggested that the AVMA create a staff position dedicated to promoting diversity throughout the profession. (The Executive Board disapproved such a proposal from the AVMA Task Force on Diversity this past November.) Another concrete step is for the AVMA to send representation to the dozen or so national meetings aimed at recruiting minority students into the health professions, Greenhill said.

The good news is the veterinary profession is being compelled to give attention to these issues, according to Greenhill. "We know that more diverse professions are more successful professions ... Certainly within the United States, this is something we have to be compelled to create. We cannot continue to be, according to the Census Bureau, a 93 percent white profession. It's just not going to get us to the promised land."

Let's face it: Black people are rarely found in the veterinary profession, and a whooping 70 percent of those Black vets come from one school. Can anyone guess what this factoid means? Could Tuskegee have lower standards then other veterinarian programs (Compare entrance qualifications for all vet schools here and see for yourself)? With less than two percent of current vet school students Black, one wonders what type of entry qualifications this university mandates of its prospective vet school candidates:

Third-year student Lauren Rowe believes she and other minorities have a dual responsibility after graduation. Not only must they deliver high-quality veterinary services, they must also be ambassadors of the profession. "We serve as role models, especially to younger kids, who need to see someone like themselves in the profession to know that it's possible," she explained.

Rowe, who has wanted to be a veterinarian since childhood, believes veterinary colleges and associations can promote diversity without sacrificing competence. Dean Habtemariam went further, saying there is "an ethical and moral responsibility" to make the veterinary profession more inclusive. He referred to Tuskegee data showing African-Americans represented approximately 2 percent of the overall veterinary population, while the percentages of Asian- and Hispanic-American veterinarians climbed.

"In 20 years, when you can not make a difference beyond 2 percent, there's a problem," Dean Habtemariam said. So what can be done? "Commitment to diversity is key," he said. "A commitment of truly saying, 'We will do it.' And then make it happen."

Out of 28 vet schools in America, US News and World Report does not even publish a ranking of Tuskegee.

The entire medical field (for both people and animals) is under pressure to diversify their ranks and to improve the overall percentage of Black participation. Rectifying this historic inequity runs headlong into those pesky academic requirements, standards and MCAT scores. An "obsession of group representation" infects every vocation in America, least of all doctors; and the first casualty in this guest is usually standards. NASA has that obsession too; and with white children now less than 50 percent of the under-three population in America, standards are going to have to lowered universally for every vocation in the next 25 years.

It takes a lot of training to become a doctor (or vet) as degrees aren't handed out overnight or printed off the Internet. You can't pull Black doctors out of a hat (or vets) but you can cast them in movies, television shows and cartoons.

Thankfully movies can fill the void that Tuskegee University is incapable of fulfilling in reality and one character fits beautifully into the Black Fictional Heroes Month theme here at Stuff Black People Don't Like: Dr. John Dolittle.

The film opens with John Dolittle as a child talking to his dog (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres). He asks his dog questions, one being "Why do dogs sniff each other's butts"? Her response is that it's their way of shaking hands. His concerned father (Ossie Davis) hears the question and says that the dog doesn't have any idea what he said. He was wrong. He finds this out when John meets his new principal and sniffs his butt. The dog obviously knows something is going to happen. When his father hires a minister to remove the devil from him (and freaking him out), the dog saves him by biting the minister. The dog is then given-up for adoption. John is very upset and stops talking to animals as his father teaches him to hate them.

A remake of a forgettable Rex Harrison film, Dr. Dolittle and Dr. Dolittle 2 grossed a combined $470 million at the box office. Featuring the talented Eddie Murphy as the doctor/veterinarian that could speak to animals, the movies showcase a rarity in the veterinarian field: a Black male doctor. What better role model for aspiring Black veterinarians could you find then Dr. John Dolittle?  Of course the source material from the novel The Story of Doctor Dolittle was not used in this film:

The original edition of the book included language and plot elements that are considered racially derogatory by present-day standards, though probably not intended as such by the writer. Black African characters are clearly intended by the writer to be sympathetic, but their depiction reflects the paternalistic mindset of colonialism still prevailing in Britain at the time of writing, not to mention the racism in Lofting's adopted United States. Editions starting in the 1960s removed some offensive terms for black people. (Exactly when these revisions appeared is difficult to determine, as the changes are not explicitly noted.)

Later editions changed the plot as well, and noted these changes in a new preface for the book. The original edition had a plot line where Bumpo, the African prince, wishes he were white, so that he can marry the Sleeping Beauty. The Doctor, who is imprisoned by the prince's father, grants his wish in exchange for escape by bleaching him. In the original text, this process is accompanied by a strong smell of "burning brown paper". In American editions, there seems to have been a half-hearted attempt at weakening this by changing the bleaching agent to white covering cream, before the poor prince Bumpo's ambitions are either changed via hypnosis or he wishes to be a lion. Ultimately, he is not excised entirely.

In a 1978 edition, only one sentence is removed from this section: "For the Prince's face had turned as white as snow, and his eyes, which had been mud-colored, were a manly gray!" Since the previous statement was that "all the animals cried out in surprise", the removal of this is rather jarring.

But that is the beauty of Hollywood, to falsify a world that doesn't exist for political gain. Black Run America (BRA) grows in power when popular Black actors portray characters that have very few real-life counterparts.

Black History Month Heroes includes Dr. John Dolittle from Dr. Dolittle. This fictional character that can speak to animals is a true hero deserving of the key to any city, unlike Michael Vick who Black people support unconditionally.