Susan Moore: Mural featuring stereotypes at Kaiser has been removed

During a recent visit to the Kaiser Medical Center in Modesto, I had a moment during lunch to contemplate the mural that lined two of the walls of the cafeteria. With the current media focus on racial and cultural bias, it suddenly occurred to me that the portrayal of diners in the mural’s café scene were all pictured as Caucasian, except for one seated Asian man stereotypically wearing thick glasses. All of the servers were Hispanic or black. Every line cook in the scene appeared to be an Hispanic female, with the exception of the head cook, who resembled a Caucasian male in the mural. I decided to share with member services my perception of what I viewed as a display of a lack of diversity, and within one week, the murals were gone.

What began as a lesson for my grandchildren of what discrimination looks like ended as a lesson in the power of speaking out against what you feel is wrong. I commend Kaiser management for listening.

This story was originally published August 31, 2015 at 7:16 PM with the headline "Susan Moore: Mural featuring stereotypes at Kaiser has been removed."