Spending the past few weeks listening, reading, watching and learning about the #Blacklivesmatter movement, I’ve been humbled by my family, friends and millions across the world who stood up in solidarity. This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend the local protests which allowed me to see and feel the palpable unity as thousands assembled with one thought, goal and mantra: Black Lives Matter.
While this fire was lit because of police brutality, racism occurs in almost every facet of life. Being a physician, I, along with other health care workers, are well aware of the health disparities that plague our medical system. But for my non-medical friends and family, I wanted to highlight just a few things in my field that may not be as apparent but are just as important to acknowledge as we continue our fight against the systemic racism that infiltrates our country.
Historically, western medicine has assumed Black intellectual and biological inferiority for hundreds of years, inevitably leading to unethical abuse & experimentation and overutilization of Black Americans as subjects for teaching and training purposes. There is no doubt that racism laid down the roots of health disparities we face TODAY.
Here are a few examples from the past:
Drapetomania, or runaway slave syndrome, was a diagnosis created and given to slaves that ran away from their owners, which served to pathologize African slaves. The treatment was often amputation of extremities.
The Tuskegee Experiment lasted 40 years (1932 to 1972), in which about 400 African American men who had latent syphilis were never told of their diagnoses and were left untreated as part of a government study. These men were deceptively told they were receiving treatment. In addition to suffering from the consequences of syphilis, this experiment resulted in numerous men DYING of syphilis, 40 wives who contracted the disease and 19 children born with congenital syphilis.
Black bodies were robbed from their graves and used as a source of anatomical and surgical experimentation.
Racial segregation in medical schools, hospitals and the organized health system, continued until the late 1960s. There were only a few Post-Civil War medical schools and hospital institutions in the US that conceptualized Black Americans as normal human beings.
What about now?
Though desegregation, passing of Medicare and Medicaid have created a Civil rights era in health care, Black Americans continue to suffer excess morbidity and mortality.
Black Americans had over twice the sudden infant death syndrome mortality rate as whites.
Black mothers were 2.3 times more likely than white mothers to receive late or no prenatal care.
African-American women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.
Younger African Americans are living with or dying of many conditions (i.e. Diabetes, High blood pressure and strokes) typically found in white Americans at older ages.
Black Americans, aged 18-49, are twice as likely to die from heart disease when compared to White American in the same age group.
Black Americans are likely to die at early ages from all causes.
Health disparities are very real. Racism is very real. How many more videos need to be posted before the very people still questioning why black lives matter will realize that the lives of our African Americans have not mattered for a very long time? We must all dig deep to find our implicit biases and face the discomfort head on. We then need to work together to find creative solutions to make some real change in dismantling racism in every aspect. I know I, personally, still have a lot of work to do, and I encourage you to do the same.
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