Genentech’s diversity and inclusion team is not afraid to ask the hard questions when it comes to the hurdles Black women face dealing with healthcare.
In a new and very cinematic video, Question Reality features a flashback of a young Black girl asking why the doctor didn’t believe her, did she say something wrong? The next scene is the same girl as a teen, wondering if she (and her peers) will have to face the same biases as her parents and grandparents did.
We then see the woman growing all the while asking the hard questions—about clinical trial inclusion and medicines—as she first becomes a lab scientist and finally an exec from Genentech, the biotech unit of Roche. Flashing on the screen throughout are disturbing statistics such as: “Clinical trials are 85% white,” and “Black women are 41% more likely to die from breast cancer.”
The effort is an extension of Genentech’s “Ask Bigger Questions” campaign aimed at both healthcare, and society in general when it comes to progress, in terms of medical breakthroughs and diversity.
“Genentech has actually been very bold in the industry to do something like this. We are focusing—and we were very intentional in making sure that we focus on the voice of a Black woman and her experience because we believe that even when she is telling the story, it represents all communities of color,”
Veronica Sandoval, principal, inclusion and health equity at Genentech said in an interview.
She added that when the video was shown internally to the D&I team and external counsel, everyone agreed that it gave them “goosebumps” in its clear depiction of systemic racism in the healthcare industry.
Not only was the content gleaned from talking to Genentech’s own employees who are people of color, everything about the project was intentional and almost everyone involved was authentically connected to the concept. Directing the short, which was developed in partnership with ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners was a Brooklyn-based, award-winning Black filmmaker and photographer, Courtney Sofiah Yates.
The video, which launched last week, is available in a 30- and 60-second format and is part of a holistic campaign featuring print and digital assets, socials, ambassadors and use of those alarming statistics with plans to continue to build on the campaign.
“It is truly a call to action—asking our community from our payers, patients, health care providers and industry to join us and make a difference, make a change, to deliver—and truly deliver equitable healthcare to all of our patients, regardless of gender, of race, sexual orientation, social economic background, or even zip code, none of that should determine the quality of health care you receive,” Sandoval said.