We would like to share an blog post by Lauren, an OT working & blogging in SouthEastern America. You can read the entire article here: https://gottabeot.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/brown-like-me-pretty-rare-in-ot/
Although written in 2015, the article still resonates now. First, Lauren describes her experience in watching a slideshow celebrating the Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship:
"I kept waiting for the photos on the slides to change as I watched and the year 2015 approached, but from 1955 onward I saw only 4 or 5 people who didn’t fit the White woman mold. In the SIXTY YEARS that the Slagle lectureship has existed, there have been a handful of men and only one African American woman who have spoken. Since 1969, when Dr. Lela Llorens, PhD, OTR, FAOTA, delivered her speech, there has not been a single Slagle lecturer who looks like me."
She clarifies: "...let me be clear in saying that this is not a comment on the qualifications of any of these leaders or a “call to arms” to start filling every open position at AOTA with the person who looks least likely to get a sunburn. But it is just another very visible indication that within the profession there is a longtime trend that continues to be a very real problem."
"In order to have a diverse profession, you need diverse members. Again, there is clearly more encompassed by the term “diversity” than just skin color – there is diversity of socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identification, language…more things than I can even begin to count. And having practitioners with more diverse ethnic, linguistic, geographic, cultural, and other backgrounds will not only enliven and enrich the professional dialogue, but improve client experiences as therapists will be better able to serve the increasingly diverse clientele who access OT services. I am hopeful that more and more people of diverse backgrounds will become OTs, and I have faith that we are on the way to fulfilling the 2017 Centennial Vision of OT as a “…diverse workforce meeting society’s occupational needs,” although we are not there yet."
It is such a succinct, albeit anecdotal, account of why OTEA exists.