Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. The notion of a “black and transgender” female Doctor is only absurd if you believe that white men are legitimate, full human beings and everyone else is a novelty. The Doctor, they seem to believe, is yet another white male birthright, like the American presidency, like the planet. The internet can bluster all it wants, though — arguments against diversified representation are inherently self-defeating. Representation teaches us who we can be, but it also teaches other people who we are and how to treat us.

Source: New York Times July 19, 2017 07:18 UTC