Black Lives Matter

Over the last month, people have been flooding the streets and social media platforms to rally as part of the “black lives matter” movement. They condemn the racism, violence and brutality faced by the Black community. Racism and white supremacy are strongly ingrained and prevalent in many institutions, including the medical community.

Medical history is tainted with racism and ill treatment of black citizens. One example of this is the 1932 Tuskegee syphilis clinical trial. This is considered one of the most unethical trials in clinical history as 50% of the trial subjects were given no treatment and led to a significant number of patient deaths. All of these patients were black. They were denied treatment even after 1947 when clinical research found that penicillin was an effective treatment. The study was only shut down in 1972. This research was conducted by government funded researchers. No monetary compensation can be considered enough for this immoral and unprincipled trial. These trials are known to have caused an increase in medical mistrust and mortality and decreases in outpatient physician interactions for black men.

Gynecology is another field which owes so many of its findings to black women who were mistreated and harmed in the name of research. Dr J Marion Sims’ ( ‘The Father of Modern Gynecology’) medical findings are tied with slavery. His research was conducted on enslaved black women without anesthesia or consent. He invented the vaginal speculum which is used to check for dilation and examinations along with surgical techniques to fix a vesicovaginal fistula. This research also began when the constitution banned slave trading so the only “solution” was “natural increase” which meant that they had to ensure that slaves reproduced more and had healthy children. Despite being integral in so much gynecological research black mothers still have a 3.5 times higher maternal mortality rate than their white counterparts. In my opinion this field has really failed black women.

Black patients have been undertreated for pain and have been called “drug seekers” for decades. A study surveyed 222 medical students and residents helped us discover that beliefs such as “Black people’s nerve endings are less sensitive than white people’s nerve endings” exist in this community. This is a dangerous discovery since it was found that these false beliefs led to inaccurate advice and treatment for black patients in around 15% of the cases. These disparities came into being in order to justify the use of slaves for medical testing and reduce their guilt. for A study published in 2014 to discuss how these disparities even existed in pain management among children as black children with appendicitis were less likely to receive pain medication. Medical professionals fail to acknowledge and treat the pain of black people and widen the racial empathy gap by doing so. This empathy gap was originally created to justify medical testing or harsh treatment toward black slaves and to reduce white guilt, and it’s tragic that these ideas have not left the medical community yet. The empathy gap is further broadened by calling black patients “drug seekers” and dismissing their pain.

For those who found this interesting or hope to do further research on this topic here are a few books and articles to read:

Black and Blue: The Origins and Consequences of Medical Racism by John Hoberman

Black & Blue is the first description of how American doctors think about racial differences and their way of thinking affects the treatment of their black patients. While other studies focus on the historical abuses in medicine this book examines the behaviour and thinking of physicians today. It discusses how racial identities have been assigned to different organ systems. Lastly, it urges medical schools to include a medical curriculum on race.

How Racism Creeps Into Medicine: The history of a medical instrument reveals the dubious science of racial difference by Hamza Shaban.

This article addresses how spirometers were used to differentiate between lung capacity and show how black bodies were only fit for planting. It also discusses how a race correction factor still exists while using this device and that almost everyone in the world is seen to have a lower lung capacity than whites.

The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This book highlights the ignorant treatment of doctors toward Henrietta Lacks as her white doctors believed that she didn’t have the capacity to understand their decisions. This belief was also seen in their treatment of her children throughout the book. Throughout the book, it discusses how race played a part in the way Henrietta Lacks and her family were treated by doctors.

February 17, Kara Manke|, et al. “Historian Uncovers Gynecology’s Brutal Roots in Slavery.” Berkeley News, 17 Feb. 2020, news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/17/historian-uncovers-gynecologys-brutal-roots-in-slavery/. Accessed 7 Aug. 2020.

Brandt, Allan M. “Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.” The Hastings Center Report, vol. 8, no. 6, 1978, p. 21, dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3372911/Brandt_Racism.pdf?sequence=1, 10.2307/3561468. Accessed 17 Nov. 2018.

Hoffman, Kelly M., et al. “Racial Bias in Pain Assessment and Treatment Recommendations, and False Beliefs about Biological Differences between Blacks and Whites.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 113, no. 16, 4 Apr. 2016, pp. 4296–4301, 10.1073/pnas.1516047113.

“How This Black Doctor Is Exposing the Racist History of Gynecology.” TODAY.Com, www.today.com/health/racism-gynecology-dr-james-marion-sims-t185269

- BHAKTI ALMOULA