<p>A prominent medical journal’s provocative tweet was meant to prompt interest in a podcast on racism. Instead, the Twitter post and the podcast stoked backlash and admonishment from the doctors’ group that publishes the journal.</p>
<p>The tweet from the Journal of the American Medical Association said in part, “No physician is racist, so how can there be structural racism in health care?" It was promoting a podcast episode featuring two white doctors: a deputy journal editor and a physician who runs a New York City health system.</p>
<p>They were discussing how structural racism worsens health outcomes and what health systems can do to address it, JAMA said in an online description. </p>
<p>The episode, designed for doctors, was <a href="https://edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/audio-player/18587774">first posted</a> last week and was billed as a discussion for skeptics. It included comments that racism is illegal and a term that should be avoided because it evokes negative feelings.</p>
<p>The journal later removed the tweet. Its top editor, Dr. Howard Bauchner, issued an <a href="https://twitter.com/JAMA_current/status/1367546743789862912">apology</a> Thursday for the tweet and for portions of the podcast.</p>
<p>Outcry continued Friday on Twitter. Some called the podcast “cringeworthy″ and said physicians who have experienced racism should have been involved.</p>
<p>The American Medical Association, which owns and publishes JAMA but has no editorial control over its content, <a href="https://twitter.com/AmerMedicalAssn/status/1367551058256531459">tweeted </a> Thursday that the podcast “was wrong, false and harmful." The association’s CEO, Dr. James Madara, said in a statement that “structural racism in health care and our society exists and it is incumbent on all of us to fix it."</p>
<p>The AMA’s chief equity officer, Dr. Aletha Maybank, who is Black, <a href="https://twitter.com/DrAlethaMaybank/status/1367501829433683968">called</a> the JAMA tweet and podcast “absolutely appalling.”</p>
<p>Dr. Brittani James, a Black Chicago physician who co-founded the Institute for Anti-Racism in Medicine, <a href="https://twitter.com/DrBrittaniJ/status/1367363801784451073">accused the journal</a> of “whitesplaining racism."</p>
<p>Dr. Uche Blackstock of Advancing Health Equity <a href="https://twitter.com/uche_blackstock/status/1367504962968772617">tweeted</a> that, “Yes, physicians can absolutely be racist”’ and that JAMA should not have deleted the tweet. Her group works to confront racism in medicine.</p>
<p>A journal spokeswoman said Friday that Bauchner would have no additional comment.</p>
<hr />
<p>Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at @ <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyTanner">LindseyTanner</a>. </p>
<hr />
<p>The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. </p>
