The need for someone who “looks like me” has become part of the American psyche. There are tens of thousands of articles about how people of color need someone who “looks like them” if they are to be inspired – or even able to achieve. A lack of “people who look like me” is also used to explain why people of color may receive inferior medical treatment.
This perspective is now found throughout the medical establishment. St. George’s University sums up the belief of many medical schools today. The Medical School states: “When a patient cannot find providers that resemble them, their beliefs, their culture, or other facets of their life, they run the risk of not being understood or being able to receive the appropriate treatment.”
Or as the University of Michigan Health Lab claimed: “Minority Patients Benefit From Having Minority Doctors.”
The National Library of Medicine lists dozens of articles claiming that healthcare outcomes are significantly impacted by discordant patients and medical providers. All of these claims are made in an effort to justify the need for more “people of color” in the medical field.
Yet, few ask how such a medical system would work. Would such a system mean that white patients would not be treated by Indian or Asian doctors? Should Blacks only be treated by Black doctors?
Currently, Asians comprise 17% of America’s doctors while only being 7% of the population – should they be limited to only treating 7% of all Americans?
Moreover, one has to ask how such a system could ever play out. According to one medical school, there are over 135 medical specialties and subspecialties. That includes everything from allergies to ophthalmic surgery to urology. Is it even possible that there can be the right ratio of doctors of all races and nationalities in every specialty?
There is no scientific basis for patients requesting that their doctor reflects their racial makeup. In fact, false claims that people differ biologically by race are exactly what has led to racism. Yet the American Medical Association continues to tout the political line that “diversity” in medicine leads to better health outcomes.
There is a constant flow of articles claiming that “racial discrimination permeates the healthcare systems” in the United States. But all accusations of racism are generalized. None of the articles ever discuss any specific doctors – nor any specific allegations.
If these associations learn that any doctors are indeed providing inferior care due to racism, those doctors should be disciplined. But no such charges have ever been made – despite the medical establishments’ ubiquitous charges of racism in the healthcare system.
If anything, the medical community has gone above and beyond to specifically protect black patients.
During the early days of the pandemic, many public health authorities gave black Americans priority access to vaccines – even before elderly white patients. The federal government and many local governments invested significant money marketing the vaccine to black patients specifically. Now, white Americans are more likely to die of covid than black Americans, according to Harvard’s School of Public Health.
Prior to the vaccine, black Americans were dying at higher rates due to increased levels of comorbidities – including diabetes and heart disease. At the time, the racial disparity in death rates was a top conversation sparking questions about racism in the medical profession. But even after the disparity reversed, the media continues to smear the American healthcare system as racist.
In the very article that described the white death rate surpassing the black death rate, the Washington Post wrote: “When it comes to racism, most people think of something that occurs between individuals. But it’s as much about who has access to power, wealth and rights as it is about insults, suspicion and disrespect. Prejudice and discrimination, even if unconscious, can be deadly — and not just for the intended targets.”
The Harvard professor interviewed for the report claimed that the American healthcare system needed to further address “the cumulative impact of injustice” in the same article, too.
Even when the medical community moves mountains to protect non-white patients, it is accused of harboring unconscious bias and constructing a system of injustice.
Rather than promoting scaremongers – that somehow white doctors are callous to the concerns of non-whites – the medical association and the media should be promoting a rational message based on science. After all, our bodies are essentially the same. The heart functions no differently in a black person than it does in a white person.
Constant claims that America’s healthcare system is racist will only lead to distrust. People may avoid treatment. Or people may equate vital medical advice like “stop smoking” or “improve your diet” to racism rather than science.
Yes, cultural differences can impact our health. Yes, some diseases tend to be more prominent in some races than others. However, white doctors are quite capable of understanding those variations. Just as Asian doctors are capable of treating a Jew who suffers from Tay-Sachs Disease more often than other nationalities.
Nothing is to be gained – and much is to be lost by racializing our healthcare system. Yet, in the name of supposed racial equity, our medical system seems to be moving toward a system based on race rather than science.
You ask “Should black people be treated only by black doctors?” Considering the state of academia these days, very soon now, only blacks and non-whites will be admitted to medical schools.
Problem solved, I guess.
Well the thing is they are going to use CRT in medicine to discriminate against white people and insure that whites are put at the lowest priority for care, despite that it’s white people’s tax dollars and insurance dollars paying for everything.
This is a subtle kind of genocide, but genocide nevertheless directed against white people.
But the question is… who gonna pay for blackie’s free stuffs when whitey all dead n gone?
Ignoring comorbidities like diet and heart disease is ignoring science
“ Prejudice and discrimination, even if unconscious, can be deadly ”
What a load of nonsense, their mRNA injections are more likely to be deadly. So they prioritise coloured people.
Fine by me. I only go to white and Indian doctors anyway.
Maybe blacks should also only take their cars to black mechanics.
Well, blacks are typically admitted to medical school with far lower objective qualifications than their white and Asian counterparts. So if blacks go only to black doctors, they’ll likely be going to doctors that were at the bottom of their classes and they’ll likely have worse health outcomes. Is that what they want in the name of racial solidarity?
You know, that would be absolutely fine by me. As a white woman, I absolutely do NOT want to be treated by a black doctor. The odds are high that they are a doctors not by merit but thru affirmative action BS. And no white person can trust any black person with there physical welfare in this day and age. Whites are constantly targeted by blacks for crimes, like the knockout game, robberies, rapes and murders. Blacks are responsible for that vast majority of violent crimes in this country, despite them being only 13% of the population.
Let blacks treat only blacks. They will be getting the healthcare they deserve.
I would argue that most people who watch NFL & NBA games are white as I am. I’d like to see more players like me.
The same standards should be applied to all students and no more affirmative action. This is so that all doctors will be qualified regardless of race, religion, etc. Obviously there are already competent black doctors, pace Ben Carson the heart surgeon. We should simply not give underqualified doctors certificates in order to have a certain number of black doctors. That is not what counts. What matters is for all blacks to have qualified doctors.
Maybe Doctors should be making Housecalls again Biden needs a Headshrink ti figure out what’s wrong with him
Besides – staying healthy, it has become my policy to always remember who I am and to act accordingly. I still believe it is the individual that matters and the actual condition of the individual that matters, but as so many blacks want this new segregated world – okay. But, it won’t change anything actual. It will, instead, create divisions. However, this time – this separate and more than equal is what blacks wanted. And it is blacks who can have it.
“…Or people may equate vital medical advice like “stop smoking” or “improve your diet” to racism rather than science…”
Reminds me of that black diet ‘guru’ out west who was recently saying a healthy diet was nothing but a racial construct. The black race pimps are already doing racism and racial bigotry over science in diet and medicine.
And what would a white patient that insisted their doctor “looked like them” be called? CRI demands double standards and racial bigotry.