Page 178 - South Mississippi Living - June, 2025

FINAL SAY
ANGIE
JUZANG
Legacy Business League, Memorial Health System
In hospitals, healing happens in the context of people’s
lives and requires that we see patients not just as bodies
with symptoms, but as whole human beings – with language preferences, religious traditions, and lived experiences that shape how individuals receive care. I’m grateful to witness this kind of thoughtfulness. Saying “I treat everyone the same” may sound noble in other industries, but true equity requires us to treat people according to what they need, whether they’re 9 or 90 years old, healing from past trauma, or navigating life with a disability.
This is why diversity, equity, and inclusion matter – not as a trendy label, but as values that help us do our jobs better – in healthcare and in every institution that touches people’s lives. Because at their core, these values are about recognizing and respecting our shared humanity.
Communities are strengthened by the stories they carry forward – the values they protect, the traditions they honor, and the truths they choose to keep present and alive. When we erase culture, we erase context. And when we erase context, we misunderstand each other.
Today, we risk becoming a nation where character – and culture – no longer count. Where history is flattened and homogenized. There’s a rising effort to pretend we’re all the same – to characterize anything that acknowledges our unique cultural experiences, our histories, our truths as divisive. The varied and difficult paths we’ve walked – especially in Mississippi, however complicated – deserve to be remembered with honesty and care.
We find ourselves in a time when the richness of our differences is not just being ignored – it’s being erased. Programs, language, and traditions that once acknowledged our histories are being removed, rewritten, or banned altogether. We were once inspired and moved toward judging individuals by the content of their character. However, neutrality, it seems, is rarely applied evenly. Some stories are protected, even romanticized – taught and retold as heritage. But when we start deciding whose history and
stories are relevant, we risk losing the full truth of who we are. To ignore the context of someone’s journey is to misunderstand their present reality. And in the exam room, boardroom, or classroom, that matters.
Each of us can play a role in recognizing the value of others’ culture and history. That’s why I helped create the Legacy Business League – to foster understanding and build a space where underrepresented professionals and entrepreneurs can grow, be supported, and lead. To ensure they don’t have to shrink themselves to fit in, and to make sure every voice has a place at the table. Representation isn’t symbolic. It’s strategic. It’s how systems grow stronger, more responsive, and more whole.
We built this platform not to be seen as tokens – but to be seen as the leaders we already are – for those who deserve to be heard and supported not in spite of their backgrounds, but because of the value those backgrounds bring.
We are not all the same. And that’s not a flaw – it’s a gift. It’s what makes care more compassionate, leadership more representative, and communities more complete. Because brilliance and innovation come from all corners – and every voice adds value.
History lives in me, and I carry a legacy that cannot be erased – no matter the attempts to diminish it. We grow stronger not by excluding others and the adversity they have experienced, but by honoring the stories that shape us and embracing the understanding they bring.
178 | June 2025
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