Healthcare That Kills
America's health care system is racist. There's no reason to sugarcoat the truth. Credited to be the 'father of gynecology, J. Marion Sims experimented on enslaved African American women with no anesthetic. According to NPR, "After perfecting the technique on black women, without anesthesia, Sims went on to offer it [anesthetic] to white women." So basically, Black women were subjected to torture and used as lab rats, only for white women's gain.
I'm well aware that some of you may cry, "But that's the 19th century!" Well, if your wish is for me to assert my position, then your wish is my command.
Quenese Walker, 33, will never be able to hold her twin boys close to her heart because they're dead. I will never be able to help my nephews with their homework. Their father will never be able to watch their first football or basketball game because our healthcare system failed to communicate all possible options that would have been disclosed to a white woman.
One twin was sick, so both had to go. That was the only option given. We asked the question, "Is it possible?" We asked it over and over again, hoping for a different response from my sister's providers, and we kept getting met with rushed answers and no's. After the procedure to remove the twins, we found out a few weeks later that there was a second option. It was a medical procedure that could've saved one of the boys. They didn't offer it because they assumed that we couldn't afford it.
December 2020 Dr. Susan Moore tested positive for the coronavirus. After telling her physician, who happened to be a white male, he seemingly dismissed her complaints about her symptoms and growing pains. Moore was released yet readmitted 12 hours later after a spike in blood pressure. Once Moore's condition worsened, she was put on a ventilator and died two weeks later, on December 20th.
According to Modern Healthcare, Moore recorded a video, "I put forth and maintain, if I were white, I wouldn't have to go through that," she expressed." This is how Black people get killed when you send them home, and they don't know how to fight for themselves."
So what happens when you don't know how to fight for yourself and when everyone is fighting against you? How do you educate a system that believes nothing more is to be said?
According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, "40% of first- and second-year medical students endorsed the belief that "black people's skin is thicker than white people's."
Can you believe that? That bodies that are all formed in the exact same way vary depending on race? That black people's skin is considered to be thicker? That black women are more pain tolerant than white women?
You can scream and holler that the 19th century is far behind us. That there is no way that healthcare could be racially biased, and maybe you're right. Perhaps the healthcare system isn't blatantly racist, but there is a cognitive dissonance against people of color. 19th-century doctors like J. Marion Simms' have left a trail of racist research that our current healthcare system deems as the standard.
These doctors' legacies spread so far that according to Medical News Today, "A 2016 study found many white medical students wrongly believe Black people have a higher pain tolerance than white people. Of all the participants, 73% held at least one false belief about the biological differences between races."
So, dear black woman, the next time your doctor refuses to take that x-ray, the next time they ignore your pain, the next time they refuse that treatment or decide that your life isn't valuable enough to take an extra ten minutes to talk over your concerns, please know that it is not your fault. Please know that our country's health care system is structured on the backs of enslaved people and their glorified racist masters. Make your voice known. Ask questions over and over again until the only option left is to meet your demands. Your life depends on it.
Renee Walker is a student journalist at Cal Poly Pomona