Pennsylvania State University

 Medical Racism and Misogyny Against Black Women in AmericaSarabeth Bowmaster ______________________________________________________________________________ Dating back to the eighteen-hundreds, Black women have been the victims of medical malpractice and torture at the hands of medical professionals. Starting with the “father of modern gynecology,” Dr. J Marion Sims, Black women were used in medical experiments as they were rumored and stereotyped to be immune to pain and physically stronger than their white female counterparts. Dr. J Marion Sims used enslaved women as test subjects while he perfected his craft, lacking their consent and dismissing any need for anesthetics during these experimental surgeries that lasted hours, leaving many of these women dead or unable to walk. The ugly truth of Dr. J Marion Sim’s revolutionary gynecological methods are overshadowed by the medical discoveries he had made, further perpetuating racial disparities in medicine and society as he is still celebrated today. The issue of medical malpractice and mistreatment did not stop there, as Black women today are still abused by medical professions who perpetuate these stereotypes of the “strong Black woman,” often giving less pain medication than should be prescribed, not believing these women when they describe pain or symptoms, and more. These misconceptions have continued to wreak havoc on the lives of Black women today, as Black women are three times as likely to suffer from maternal morbidity and mortality than Caucasian women in the United States. In a study administered in New York state, “Black…women in labor are less likely than white patients to receive epidural analgesia.” These differences remained even after the study accounted for differences in insurance coverage and clinical characteristics. Even with these shocking statistics, lawmakers and medical educators have not done anything to protect these Black women from medical malpractice. Implicit biases must be address by educators when training medical professions to guarantee the safety of Black women. Black women are regularly facing torture and death at the hands of those trained to treat and heal them. These deadly, inaccurate stereotypes against Black women must be eradicated by policymakers intervening in medical education to ensure that future medical practitioners are prepared to work against misconceptions and biases to guarantee the humane and proper treatment of all patients.“Black women are three times as likely to suffer from maternal morbidity and mortality than Caucasian women in the United States”HistoryDr. J Marion Sims?is known as the “father of modern gynecology”. He was a practitioner in the 1800s who paid slave owners to experiment upon their enslaved Black women in hopes of using them for his medical research. To become the inventor of the speculum and the “Sims’ position for vaginal exams”, he first had to torture enslaved Black women?with surgeries that lacked proper anesthetics or equipment as tens of other doctors watched with curiosity. These enslaved women, three of whom we know as Lucy, Anarcha, and Betsey, screamed in agony and pain as these repetitive surgeries ripped them apart and left them bloody, temporarily paralyzed, and recovering for more than four months at a time.?Anarcha, the woman known for enduring over thirty vaginal surgeries by Sims without any form of pain relief or anesthesia, has become a prominent figure on both sides of the aisle. Advocates of racist medicine call upon her to attempt to rationalize the idea that Black women feel pain differently than white women and that anesthetics would be “wasted” on these women. Misconceptions posed by Dr. J Marion Sim’s torturous research methods and racist stereotypes stemming from slavery have led to the modern mistreatment of Black women in the American healthcare system without any repercussions or interventions by policymakers thus far. In addition to gynecology, racial disparities can be found in other field of study such as psychology and biology. Misconceptions of muscular build, physical ability, and anatomy have been perpetuated by slavery-era scientists and racist empathizers attempted to validate slavery and white power. Without proper training, it is impossible to escape the subconscious holds that racial stereotypes and biases may have upon medical professionals’ minds, therefore inhibiting their ability to properly treat all of their patients. Policymakers must intervene with an action plan to boost bias and diversity training and education as a part of the medical school process to address explicit and implicit racism. Implicit BiasesImplicit biases are “unconscious attribution of particular qualities to a member of a certain social group.” Although unavoidable and held by everyone in our society, training and education to combat these biases is widespread in American education and industries. Many colleges and workplaces administer and mandate bias and diversity training for their admissions counselors and supervisors, yet medical professionals are not held responsible for such training during their medical training.Historical misconceptions on the bases of race and medicine that have seeped into cultural representations and stereotypes have led to medical practitioners holding implicit biases that they may not even know they have. Implicit biases are “tasteless (and) odorless to everybody except the victim,” yet their influences have been deadly for Black women, especially expectant mothers. _________________________________________________________“Implicit biases are ‘tasteless (and) odorless to everybody except the victim.’”____________________________________________________Proposed ChangesLawmakers and educational boards and committees, such as the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, must join forces in mandating and regulating bias and diversity training for medical school students and other aspiring medical professionals. By doing so, countless lives of Black women, and often their newborn children, can be saved. Black women would no longer have to fear death or the horrors of excruciating pain that comes with a lack of proper pain medication and anesthetics. To guarantee the implementation of these educational changes, lawmakers much draft policy that require the completion of professionally instructed bias and diversity training. Discuss trainingHow/what they will be trained uponWho will trainoutcomes of traininghow this can save Black women and otherscite medical docs discussing use of pain meds, epidurals, doctor/patient trust and relationshipsConclusionrecap, emphasize exigence with statisticsstatistical graphreiterate proposed changes ................
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