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Black College Queens - Letters To The Editor - Letter to the Editor
Ebony, June, 2002 by Roxanne Redd
I was very disturbed, but not surprised, after reading "Black College Queens" (April 2002), the article profiling young college women with professional goals. I read all 89 biographies, simply to see if any of these intelligent young women were choosing my profession. There were future teachers, lawyers, dentists, physicians, psychologists, scientists, and entrepreneurs, but there were no future nurses!
As an African-American woman who has been a registered nurse for 23 years, I can guess that part of the reason for this is that nursing is not very glamorous. Additionally, young women today, particularly young Black women have many more options. Nursing is no longer an attractive career option as is evidenced by your article.
Unfortunately, only 10 percent of nurses come from ethnic minorities. The nursing profession desperately needs African-American nursing students, men and women. Sadly, we can anticipate that this number will decline. The irony is that nursing's struggle to gain respect as a profession has paralleled the struggle of African-Americans and women. Now it looks as if we, the so-called "invisible profession," will be left behind.
ROXANNE REDD Anderson, Calif.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
