The program of my choosing is a USD Humanities Center series coined “Baked In: Systemic Racism Around and Within Us.” I specifically chose the episode on “Perspectives on Racism and Health,” which I did because I wanted to better understand the Black experience throughout the social sector of healthcare. This program goes into the trials and tribulations many that are a part of the Black community have had to face in the past and still have to face, concerning healthcare and the receiving of fair and right medical treatment. Whether it be to the extent of daily health needs, or to the institutional level, the Black community has had a far harsher experience when it comes to basic health support and needs compared to other groups living and residing in the U.S.
Mistreatment in the sphere of healthcare has been a present obstacle for the Black community since the beginning of America. Most recently, the 2020 pandemic showed just how prevalent systemic racism is in the American healthcare system and how the Black experience having to do with the fair receiving of healthcare is seriously compromised on a daily basis. Studies have shown that “the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on the Black/African American population” (Okoro, Vosen, etc, 2022). The program lead speaker, Jullian Tullis, speaks to the disparities in health and the consequences of racism. She speaks to the recent uptake in disparities for the Black community with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and how this too became a part of the Black Lives Matter movement which effectively forced the Black community and allies to keep rallying and protesting through the pandemic. They persisted with the protests through the time of COVID-19 because they felt that their lives once again were being overlooked and undermined compared to other communities in America concerning the healthcare system during the 2020 pandemic. Due to the extent to which the Black community felt ignored and neglected throughout the pandemic, Tullis says that a number of politicians had sworn to take action against active systemic racism and to make that a top priority going forward. For example, on January 12th, 2021 the San Diego County Board of Supervisors had officially decided on categorizing racism as a public health crisis – the point to which systemic racism around and within us had gotten to was quite clear and critically disturbing. The reality of the situation was that individuals of the Black community – on top of having the anxiety of catching a potentially fatal disease – had to battle the persistent anxiety of being treated fair and right by the healthcare system if they contracted the disease, or even for prevention purposes. The Covid-19 pandemic is, in my opinion, one of the clearest forms of systemic racism being present throughout our society in America’s history. During a health crisis – a full on pandemic where you feared losing your life on a daily basis – people of the Black community felt less confidence and had less trust in institutional health spaces and organizations. “Pre-existing structural inequities are implicated in the mental health impact, as well as the under-utilization of and limited access to healthcare services in the Black/African American population” (Okoro,Vosen, etc, 2022). Speaker Kristopher Hall bridges the gap between psychological factors such as having chronically strong anxiety about the high possibility of being mistreated on any given day due to the color of one’s own skin, and how this can impact health in a dangerous way even before contracting a potentially fatal virus like that of COVID-19. This to me is blatantly a different experience than most other groups that occupy America. Moreover, the program speaks to how for certain communities having to do with everyday life needs, if there is disparity present to a certain extent, then health for that community would be impacted and compromised to a damaging extent. A dynamic connection is made between systemic racism present in the U.S. causing parts of the Black community to be majorly economically disadvantaged. Along with the reality of lacking resources to sustain even somewhat healthy survival, then there would most likely be a great deal of struggle for the most essential entity in life – which is health. The program gives the example of how struggles for the Black community in America concerning sectors of life such as high crime rates or low educational levels, can impact the way healthcare is given and taken by individuals of the Black community. A major reason why health is impacted living around high crime and/or low educational levels Speaker Dr. Martha Fuller says, is because “wealth” is usually seen to be associated with low crime rates and higher educational levels. Speaker Dr. Martha Fuller drives the point that social factors gravely impact the way one would receive healthcare, and further highlights the point that the long and on-going systemic racism present in America has set up the Black community for poor health outcomes on top of battling a fatal virus like that of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Looking further into the history of this subject, the mistreatment of the Black community having to do with healthcare dates far back and has come a long way. Still, significant advancements still need to be made when talking about systemic racism, the Black community and healthcare. Many carry trauma for what relatives and ancestors had to go through when it came to something as vulnerable as healthcare. The trauma for the Black community in America having to do with the healthcare system dates far back and can be viewed as disturbing and quite horrific. One example of a truly terrifying instance of grave mistreatment to the Black community – because American society permitted such heinous levels of racism at the time – was the Tuskegee Syphilis Study which was performed in Macon County, Alabama in 1932. This study aimed to understand syphilis more and conducted experiments on living bodies that contracted the disease and were left untreated. The participants were only Black males. It started off as just a study where Black men who were “desperately poor, uneducated male sharecroppers scattered throughout rural Macon County” were recruited to help in a medical study, and which many did because they never really received true medical treatment before and didn’t know any better (Freedom On My Mind, 2021). cheapest Montblanc penAt first the study was not supposed to be directed at better understanding syphilis and its fatality, but “the study took a turn in 1933 when a decision was made to follow the men until death because only an autopsy could determine the true effect of syphilis” (Freedom On My Mind, 2021). Though there are many other instances, this is a heavy example of just one instance of racism against the Black community concerning healthcare where generational trauma has carried on and caused severe distrust from the Black community towards the American healthcare system.
In conclusion, the program speaks to the point that awareness of systemic racism is good but meaningful action needs to be taken against it and most importantly in the realm of healthcare. Hall gives the example of how the healthcare system could utilize ways to combat the systemic racism that leaves individuals from the Black community feeling neglected and that it’s just a part of the norm for them to have to feel that way because that’s the society and reality that they live in. Hall strongly rejects this and gives an example of an individual who is a part of the Black community who needs to see a Black woman therapist. And how then that should be a readily available option for that individual. Additionally to this point, it’s important to note that due to income inequalities put forth by unattended systemic racism throughout the U.S. (which usually impacts the type of schooling you receive growing up as well as for higher education), the number of Black physicians isn’t climbing at the same rate as the rate for the need of Black physicians. These types of social complexities make the Black community’s experiences with healthcare significantly difficult on a daily basis.
Work Cited
Okoro, O., Vosen, E. C., Allen, K., Kennedy, J., Roberts, R., & Aremu, T. (2022). ssssCovid-19 impact on mental health, healthcare access and social wellbeing – a black sssscommunity needs assessment. International Journal for Equity in Health, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-022-01743-z
White, D. G., Bay, M., & Martin, W. E. (2021). Freedom on my mind: A history of African Americans, with documents. Bedford/St. Martins.
Program Link