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It’s long past time to stand up to injustice;
if you can’t promote change, then step aside
By Rich Liekweg
rom birth, I was clothed in a privilege that would open doors for me that minorities and
women would have to work much harder to even crack. While I worked hard and excelled
Fas a healthcare executive—now serving as CEO of St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare—it
would only be later in life when I would recognize the patterns and injustices of structural racism
and the inherent privilege in being born white and male.

Growing up in Alexandria, Va., in Michael Brown and so many more.
the ’60s and ’70s, my childhood was Their deaths make clear what role
marked by the civil rights movement, I must play as someone who entered
riots in my Washington, D.C., home- this world with a privilege based on
town, and the assassinations of Pres- Rich Liekweg is my race and sex, and now as a health-
ident John Kennedy, Martin Luther president care CEO. With privilege comes enor-
King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. and CEO of mous responsibility.
Before he died, my father encour- St. Louis-based The tragic events the last week of
aged me to pursue a career in hospital BJC HealthCare. May, the 100,000-plus COVID-19
administration. The summer before deaths, and the continued health-
my senior year, my older brother care and racial disparities in our
helped open a door for me at a hos- treated. And it taught me the value of nation highlight the stark realities of
pital in Flint, Mich. That experience inclusion and diversity. our public health crisis. This crisis is
led to my attending the University Today, I live in St. Louis with my not the result of COVID-19, poverty,
of Michigan for graduate school in wife and daughter. St. Louis is still gun violence or underfunding of our
public health and business. It was my challenged by decades of segregation, public health system. I firmly believe
public health education that intro- structural racism and pockets of so- it is the result of structural, institu-
duced me to what are today known as cio-economic despair that exacerbate tionalized racism in America that
the social determinants of health and health disparities between races. The privileged white men have perpetu-
health inequities. shooting death of Michael Brown by ated for far too long.
The situations at Duke University a white police officer in 2014 exposed I cannot deny my privilege, but I
Hospital, where I started my work fol- how volatile race relations were in St. can stand up, step forward and call
lowing graduation, and at Durham Louis, pointing a magnifying glass out these injustices that people who
Regional Hospital, where I would on the root causes. Sadly, six years look like me have ignored, supported
later work, were like a tale of two cit- later, we have made little progress in or promoted. And I will do just that
ies, albeit in the same town. Durham improving the quality of life for those every day. I call on my white friends
Regional was created when a white most at risk in our community. and colleagues to do the same. Let’s
hospital and a black hospital merged use the unearned privilege of birth for
in 1976 to form the town’s public, In late May, we all saw the video the benefit of all.
community hospital. I became its showing the tragic, inhumane death of If you cannot, then step aside, sit
president in 1998. Because of the his- George Floyd. The death of a black man down, and get out of the way. l
tory, race was always a factor in every at the hands of a white man in a posi-
action. Upon reflection it taught me a tion of power. A senseless death that
lesson I would later be able to name: followed so many others—Ahmaud Interested in submitting a Guest Expert op-ed?
View guidelines at modernhealthcare.com/op-ed.
the Platinum Rule, which was to treat Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Send drafts to Assistant Managing Editor David May
others the way they would like to be Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, at dmay@modernhealthcare.com.

June 8, 2020 | Modern Healthcare 21