Medical students hold “White Coat Die-In” across the U.S.

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Students stage a die-in at Harvard Medical school on Dec. 10 as part of national protests.Students stage a die-in at Harvard Medical school on Dec. 10 as part of national protests.

Image: Rick Groleau, Harvard Medical School/Associated Press

Medical students staged so-called “die-ins” in universities across the U.S. on Wednesday as demonstrations on race issues in America continued.

The students aimed to highlight the lack of diversity in the medical profession in the U.S. with the dramatic action that featured activists dropping to the ground wearing their lab coats.

Medical students rallied online under the hashtag #WhiteCoatsforBlackLives in a series of protests spreading from Boston to Chicago. Protesters toted signs referencing Eric Garner and Michael Brown, whose police-involved deaths this summer have ignited numerous demonstrations across the country.

At Harvard Medical School, both students and faculty got involved in the demonstration. According to the Boston Globe, about 100 people took part.

According to theGlobe, the die-in lasted 15 and a half minutes, a mashup of significant numbers related to the deaths of Brown and Garner. Four and a half minutes were for Brown, the unarmed Ferguson teenager who lied on the ground for about four and a half hours after he was killed and 11 minutes were for Garner, the Staten Island man who told police he couldn’t breathe 11 times before he died in July.

At Yale University, student protesters lay on the ground for four and a half minutes, also in reference to Brown’s death. The failure of grand juries to indict police involved in the deaths of Brown and Garner ignited the most recent demonstrations in the U.S., which have included a multitude of die-ins.

New Haven protesters were quick to point out the inequality that exists within the profession.

“I think right now we’re living in a country and entering a profession where there’s widespread inequities,” said medical student Zak Grunwald, who was quoted by the New Haven Register. “It’s time to bridge some of these gaps.”