Anti-Racism and Medicine

Part of the series Unnatural Causes. "What are the connections between healthy bodies, healthy bank accounts and skin colour? Our opening episode travels to Louisville, Kentucky, not to explore whether medical care cures us, but to see why we get sick in the first place, and why patterns of health and illness reflect underlying patterns of class and racial inequities."

Part of the series Unnatural Causes. "Why is your street address such a good predictor of your health? Latino and Southeast Asian immigrants like Gwai Boonkeut have been moving into long-neglected urban neighborhoods such as those in Richmond, California, a predominantly Black city in the San Francisco Bay Area. Segregation and lack of access to jobs, nutritious foods, and safe, affordable housing have been harmful to the health of long-time African American residents, and now the newcomers' health is suffering too. As Harvard's David Williams reminds us, "Housing policy is health policy. Neighborhood improvement policies are health policies. Everything that we can do to improve the quality of life for individuals in our society has an impact on their health and is a health policy."

A three episode series. Episode one "examines the contemporary science - including genetics - that challenges our common sense assumptions that human beings can be bundled into three or four fundamentally different groups according to their physical traits. Episode two uncovers the roots of the race concept in North America, the 19th century science that legitimated it, and how it came to be held so fiercely in the western imagination." Episode three "uncovers how race resides not in nature but in politics, economics and culture. It reveals how our social institutions "make" race by disproportionately channeling resources, power, status and wealth to white people."

"At a time when health care dominates the news, there is a strong sense that good health is all about access to doctors, hospitals, medicine, and insurance. This thought-provoking and insightful documentary demonstrates otherwise. Using incisive case studies from around the world, it explores how people’s health and well-being is primarily determined by where they live, their educational, social, and economic status, and the degree of control they have over their lives. The film illustrates that these are the true roots of health – though generally overlooked in the contentious national debate over health care – and they can be improved dramatically for whole communities through social and political action. Roots of Health features three powerful stories filmed in London, England, Ahmedabad, India, and Oakland, California. Each story looks at the socio-economic conditions that contribute to illness, and how people can take charge of their own lives and health."

Part of the series Unnatural Causes. "The number of infants who die before their first birthday is much higher in the U.S. than in other countries. And, for African Americans, the rate is nearly twice as high than it is for white Americans. Even well-educated Black women have birth outcomes worse than white women who haven't finished high school. Why is this the case? WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS explores this topic."

"In this video and audio edition of Ethics Talk, journal editor in chief, Dr Audiey Kao, talks with Dr Ibram Kendi about the impact of racist policies on historically discriminated-against groups and what it means to be an antiracist."

"In this video and audio edition of Ethics Talk, journal editor in chief, Dr Audiey Kao, talks with Drs Joniqua Ceasar and Dorothy Charles about systemic racism, police brutality, and the role of health professionals in securing racial justice and health equity."

"Stigma, inequalities and civil rights injustices remain in our society today. Unfortunately, skin color plays a large part in how people are viewed, valued and treated. We know that racism, both intentional and unintentional, affects the health and well-being of individuals and communities and stifles the opportunity of many to contribute fully to the future and growth of this nation. Join the leadership of the American Public Health Association in a webinar series about racism's impact on health and disparities."

The Boston University School of Public Health cohosted this series, "Antiracism as Health Policy: Race, COVID-19, and Policy Reform," with the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. This three-part webinar series examines the racial health disparities that were brought to public attention during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Lack of trust in the US healthcare system among communities of color is inextricably linked to the history of systemic racism in this country. With fewer than half of Black American adults indicating that they will definitely or probably get vaccinated against COVID-19, understanding the roots of this hesitancy—which dates back centuries—is critical to battling the disease. Discussions of medical racism often focus on a set of famous tragic cases, while failing to address the longer history of the systematic medical neglect and abuse of African American health. Speakers on this panel will examine the roots in slavery of contemporary African American mistrust of the healthcare system, the lack of trust in medical providers fostered by experiences of everyday racism, and the African American community’s long dependence, born of necessity, on care from within the community."

"Angela Saini, British science journalist, broadcaster, and author, will present a lecture on “Gender, Race, and Power in Science”. Saini has a master’s degree in engineering from Oxford University and is a former MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has written for The Guardian, New Scientist, Wired, and Science, and she regularly presents science programs on the BBC. Saini will explore how prejudice can affect scientific research on race and gender and will describe her efforts to uncover manipulation of evidence, abuse, and wrongdoing by those in power. She will also address the inadvertent and inappropriate use of race by mainstream scientific researchers in health and genetics. Drawing from themes in her two most recent books, “Superior: The Return of Race Science” and “Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong”, she will show why researchers need to be careful not to conflate social gender and racial disparities with biological differences."

"This talk examines the impact of racism on African American health, looking at pervasive inequities that drive higher rates of morbidity and death in the United States. Where once explicitly racist theories of African American bodies and minds dominated public and scientific discourse, contemporary understandings of racial inequities in health tend to use less incendiary language, but still conceive of poor health as fundamentally a problem of individuals. Such framing centers health behaviors including diet and visits to the doctor, and leaves the role of social structures uninterrogated. This talk explores the deeply entrenched effects of racism on African American health through institutional policies and practices that defeat socioeconomic opportunity and cause overexposure to harms; stereotypes; day-to-day encounters with racism; and other aspects of American social life. This talk is co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Digital Humanities, as part of the recently reaffirmed partnership between NLM and NEH to collaborate on research, education, and career initiatives."

Dr. Monica Peek speaks as a part of the NIMHD Director’s Seminar Series on “Structural Inequities and Health Disparities: Lessons for Medical Decision Making.”

"Why does race matter so profoundly for health? David R. Williams developed a scale to measure the impact of discrimination on well-being, going beyond traditional measures like income and education to reveal how factors like implicit bias, residential segregation and negative stereotypes create and sustain inequality. In this eye-opening talk, Williams presents evidence for how racism is producing a rigged system -- and offers hopeful examples of programs across the US that are working to dismantle discrimination."

"Racism makes our economy worse -- and not just in ways that harm people of color, says public policy expert Heather C. McGhee. From her research and travels across the US, McGhee shares startling insights into how racism fuels bad policymaking and drains our economic potential -- and offers a crucial rethink on what we can do to create a more prosperous nation for all. "Our fates are linked," she says. "It costs us so much to remain divided.""

"In Zimbabwe in the 1980s, Mary Bassett witnessed the AIDS epidemic firsthand, and she helped set up a clinic to treat and educate local people about the deadly virus. But looking back, she regrets not sounding the alarm for the real problem: the structural inequities embedded in the world's political and economic organizations, inequities that make marginalized people more vulnerable. These same structural problems exist in the United States today, and as New York City's Health Commissioner, Bassett is using every chance she has to rally support for health equity and speak out against racism. "We don't have to have all the answers to call for change," she says. "We just need courage.""

"Social justice advocate and law scholar Dorothy Roberts has a precise and powerful message: Race-based medicine is bad medicine. Even today, many doctors still use race as a medical shortcut; they make important decisions about things like pain tolerance based on a patient's skin color instead of medical observation and measurement. In this searing talk, Roberts lays out the lingering traces of race-based medicine -- and invites us to be a part of ending it. "It is more urgent than ever to finally abandon this backward legacy," she says, "and to affirm our common humanity by ending the social inequalities that truly divide us.""

"In the US, Black women are nearly 300 percent more likely to die as a result of childbirth than white women. Sharing appalling statistics on maternal mortality as well as her own tragic story of loss, Wanda Irving explains how racism and bias in health care minimizes and dismisses Black women's pain -- and makes a personal plea for leaders in the medical community to take steps toward reform."

"T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison, founders of the health nonprofit GirlTrek, are on a mission to reduce the leading causes of preventable death among Black women -- and build communities in the process. How? By getting one million women and girls to prioritize their self-care, lacing up their shoes and walking in the direction of their healthiest, most fulfilled lives."

"Racism is making people sick -- especially black women and babies, says Miriam Zoila Pérez. The doula turned journalist explores the relationship between race, class and illness and tells us about a radically compassionate prenatal care program that can buffer pregnant women from the stress that people of color face every day."

"Ninety-six percent of genome studies are based on people of European descent. The rest of the world is virtually unrepresented -- and this is dangerous, says geneticist and TED Fellow Keolu Fox, because we react to drugs differently based on our genetic makeup. Fox is working to democratize genome sequencing, specifically by advocating for indigenous populations to get involved in research, with the goal of eliminating health disparities. "The research community needs to immerse itself in indigenous culture," he says, "or die trying.""

"Cultural theorist Brittney Cooper examines racism through the lens of time, showing us how historically it has been stolen from people of color, resulting in lost moments of joy and connection, lost years of healthy quality of life and the delay of progress. A candid, thought-provoking take on history and race that may make you reconsider your understanding of time, and your place in it."