After seeing all of the amazing works on Wattpad about the Black Lives Matter movement, I've decided to create my own. This project is going to be a series of posts, essays, and links. I want to focus on everything from police brutality to the Black...
It's a bit of a forgotten problem, at least by the white community. Yet, it's important and needs to be dealt with.
Black women's relationship with doctors.
(Hint: Black women did nothing wrong).
Now, I have a quick disclaimer. Yes, I am talking about doctors here. And I'm talking about how many have their flaws, which is dangerous to black women. However, I recognize that doctors right now are heroes, and deserve a massive thank you. Many are overworked and are constantly in danger. So to those doctors, I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. This article is just me explaining the current problems with doctors' treatment of black women, which is especially important during the global health crisis of COVID-19.
Racial stereotypes concerning health have been around for a long time. Doctors often dismiss black women, thinking they don't develop as serious of health conditions as white women. This doesn't just affect the lower class: middle and upper class black women experience the same thing. Their ability to pay is questioned. Being denied pain killers is not uncommon. As Tina Stack (the author of Invisible Visits, Black Middle-Class Women in the American Healthcare System) wrote, during her mastectomy, she had to have a drain in both sides of her chest. However, the left one felt wrong. It felt like there was an issue. So, as one does, she called for the nurse. However, the nurse said that she was fine and would have to be out of the room soon. After consulting a second nurse who said the same, the author had to call upon her mom, two friends and a hospital administrator just to get the nurse to call her plastic surgeon. After a five minute fix, her drain was working perfectly fine. She reports that black many women in her BRCA (a gene mutation making it more likely for one to develop breast and ovarian cancer) support group experienced similar things, unlike the white women in her support group. Black women are 243% more likely to die of childbirth in the United States. Black babies are two times more likely to die as opposed to white babies. Black women are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer, even though they are less likely to develop it than white women. Black women are less likely to get prescriptions, even when showing the same symptoms as white women.
Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Thick and Other Essays and a sociologist, explains her experience with being pregnant as a black woman. At four months, she started bleeding and went to a doctor. The doctor told her that it was her weight (a common excuse) and that this was normal. Then when she started feeling pain in her butt, she called the doctor. The doctor said it was constipation. The next day, Cottom had to go to the hospital. At first the doctors said she had eaten something bad, but finally they performed a mammogram.
There were two tumors surrounding the baby.
After the doctors blamed Cottom for not coming sooner, and a begrudging anesthesiologist came and helped reduce the pain. She delivered her daughter who died almost instantly. And the doctors blamed her for the incompetence that lead to her daughter's death.
Serena Williams's stardom might have saved her when she gave birth to her daughter. It took convincing to get treatment when she was in pain. Convincing for treatment that may have saved her life.
Doctors tend to use "weight" as an excuse for black women's health problems. Many black women tell a half truth to their doctors in fear of being dismissed. Black women are at a higher risk for multiple health problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's (along with black men on this one), major depression, and obesity. They also have twice the risk of stroke.
So, what can be done?
High quality healthcare is a start. Accessible, discrimination-free health care that's high quality and available for all. Another thing we need to do is talk about this more. We need to train our nurses and doctors to not discriminate, and we need to eradicate stereotypes. Our doctors need to hear these stories and listen to black women, that way they can know that simply turning the away is unacceptable.
It's also clear that black communities are infected with COVID-19 at much higher rates than white communities. They are also far more likely to die from the virus.
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Black people have more underlying health problems, essential non-health related jobs (thank you so much essential workers, you're heroes and should be treated better), and are not as protected structurally. Thus, our government needs to be making an effort to help protect black communities. In Harlem, you can see long lines for food in the black community. We need to take a step farther. We need to understand that these communities need our help.
We cannot deny that there are serious problems concerning race and healthcare. Black people should not have exponential death rates. Black people should not be denied healthcare. Doctors shouldn't be going by stereotypes. Stereotypes aren't conditions. They are lies. And there is no cure for a lie other than a truth.
