Skin Deep: Exposing Healthcare’s Racial Bias Against Black Women

Though these professionals have had numerous names throughout history — healers, medicine men, physicians, leeches — people know them today as doctors. Although their job is to treat and cure illnesses, like with most things throughout history, biases have made this practice hard to uphold. Due to the flawed belief that race is a biological concept, a harmful bias against Black people grew between patient-provider interactions, treatment decisions, and patient health outcomes. Even though times have changed and further research proves that race isn’t a biological distinction, the existing racism in healthcare makes it almost impossible for people of color to feel safe and receive the treatment they deserve. As the days go by, we see so many black women dying because of doctors’ mistakes.

Early on, people speculated that race was a key factor determining what type of care people deserve and the illnesses people have. Myths abounded like: “Black people are more likely to have asthma,” or “Black people have better kidneys than any other race.” In fact, these medical distinctions aren’t a result of one’s race but rather environment, accessibility, and economic access. Even though ideas like these have been debunked, these ideas still affected how people acted towards people of color and played a major role in the world of medicine. Although race is a social construct, the theory that it’s a biological distinction still lives on in the medical world. Not much has been changed in terms of how things are being taught in medical schools. According to The New England Journal of Medicine, doctors were given a survey in 2016 and “asked to determine whether statements such as ‘Blacks’ skin is thicker than Whites’ were true or false; in this example, 58% of the lay public and 25 to 42% of the UVA medical students and residents responded ‘true.’ The study showed that multiple false beliefs were shared by the public and medical trainees, and it received widespread acclaim for bringing attention to this problem.” This report shows that the belief that race is a biological factor still exists, which is extremely troubling when it comes to how people of color are being treated by healthcare professionals.

When “Black people’s skin is thicker than white people’s skin” is still being believed or taught – even though research continues to prove that this is false — we have cases like the Black Maternal Mortality rate constantly increasing or higher cases of implicit bias towards people of color. As stated by a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black women face a much higher risk of maternal death. This report was done in 2021, yet the numbers continue rising. The CDC reported that 84% of deaths are preventable. These statistics are missing the actual experiences of Black women. In an article with The New York Times, Black women shared some insight into why, stating that “their pain [was] dismissed, concerns ignored, and plans disregarded while giving birth. They recalled walking a fine line between speaking up for themselves but feeling nervous to push too hard.” That is not the job of a doctor. Numerous signs are pointing towards racism is why this happens.

The book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology, documented how Black women were constantly described as “breeders” and their worth was dependent on their ability to reproduce. Black women’s organs were used as clinical matter that was displayed for observation for research to benefit white women, even though research continued to prove that black women’s sexual organs were identical to that of white women. The book continues to state, “Black women were especially exceptional. Scientific theories and, later, medical ideas about their bodies, their fecundity, and their supposed abnormal ability to endure pain during childbirth.” These ideas stem straight from racism, which also leads to why the pain of Black Women during childbirth is completely dismissed.

A lot of Black women are being left terrified of child labor. The fear of being mistreated and even dying during childbirth has led to more Black women preferring to be treated by other Black OB-GYNs during this time. In an interview with NBC, “‘I was terrified’: Black women may prefer Black OB-GYNs due to fear of discrimination, dying during pregnancy,” a Black OB-GYN, Dr. J’Leise Sosa, cited the “effects of not paying attention to pregnant Black patients and not investigating their concerns, including death and severe illness, which can cause long-term hospitalization resulting in physical and emotional trauma. Characteristics of racism are still embedded in the medical curriculum.” Dr. Sosa’s patients often say they chose her because of the shared experience of being a Black woman. Her patients often say, “‘I am afraid of the statistics I’m hearing about pregnant people and I want to be in a place where I feel safe and heard, and this is why I sought you out.’” Black women’s lives depend on finding safe medical spaces.

In recent studies, it has been proven that Black patients with Black doctors will lead to better healthcare results. The recent article “Do Black patients fare better with Black doctors?” from AAMC mentioned an Oakland study which found that “offered screenings to Black men for certain health conditions found that the men were more likely to bring up other health problems when assigned to a Black doctor, and Black doctors were more likely to write notes about their patients.” Again and again, research proves that when patients have a connection with their doctors, it’ll lessen the implicit biases that harm them.

The level of racism against Black people seen in healthcare needs to be stopped. This is a system that has been built up over several decades. The biases won’t simply disappear. So, until then, there needs to be actions taken to protect the people of color that deserve proper care.