Challenging Racial Bias in the Health Professions (November 11, 2020) Kelao Charmaine Neumbo ‘22

Challenging Racial Bias in the Health Professions

by KELAO CHARMAINE NEUMBO, ‘22

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

The Human Genome Project, which mapped the entire human genetic code, proved that race could not be identified in our genes. Contrary to popular misconception, we are not naturally divided into genetically identifiable racial groups. Biologically, there is one human race. Race applied to human beings is a political division. . . . Dorothy Roberts, Fatal Invention

That said, humans are diverse, medical students and residents believe but aren’t we the same at our black bodies have less sensitive nerve core? What is our core if we endings and thicker skin. That is more start there? In biology our core comes than 25,000 doctors set to enter the down to genetics and what we physi- medical field. Recently, having had my cally are comprised of, and in that we blood drawn, a nurse said that I had are the same. However, when it comes “thick skin” as she spoke right through to our lived experiences we do not treat me to the other nurses while she contineveryone like we are the same. In my ued to poke and prod my arms to find experiences in institutions where equal- a vein. This is the same bias that is held ity is the premise I have found that it is when law enforcement ignores the calls not always practiced. of a man whose neck they have their Whether it is the name discriminated against on a resume or a research paper, the punishment of a black child over knees on as he begs for life and screams “I can’t breathe” till he cannot breathe anymore. the same behavior of a white child in a Very often you hear heart disease is Kelao Charmaine Neumbo classroom, or the excessive use of force more commonly associated with the by police on black bodies that results black community. But what this fails in murders such as the ones of George to address is the lack of access to good into races at the molecular level . . . Floyd and Breonna Taylor, it is these food sources in low income communi- The other road means affirming our same biases that lead to the increased ties, heavily policed neighborhoods, and shared humanity by working to end likelihood of death in black women the daily stressors of being a minority. the social inequities preserved by during childbirth when in the care of a Generations of trauma are encoded in the political system of race. Which white doctor. our ancestry. Paraphrasing Megan Ming path we choose to follow is not only Racism plays a significant role in the formation of health disparities. Of course, one might think that equality is given in the care of a health provider; however, that is not the case. Hundreds of physicians were asked to look over the cases of either black or white patients who likely just suffered a heart Francis, we are more eager to solve a problem than we are to understand it. Prescribing education to combat racism is a misdiagnosis. Books and conversation will not stop biases and racism but activism, confrontation of our own complicities, and courage to challenge the status quo will. a question of scientific evidence. It is a question of moral commitment. There is no neutral scientific position on this question. We have long had scientific confirmation that race is a political and not a biological category. We must choose the path of common attack. Those that scored higher on a ra- We are not born racist. We learn humanity and social change. cial bias test were less likely to prescribe it—from our parents and our environa drug that would reduce blood clots ments—and challenging it will make us and prevent heart attacks. unlearn it. In fact, as of 2018, half of white medi- Dorothy Roberts, whom I quoted at cal students and residents still believe the start of this talk, writes in her book in false biological differences between Fatal Invention: white and black patients. One myth is that black patients are more pain tolerant than white patients. Fifty percent of This nation is at a crossroads. One path is . . . adopting the view that human beings are naturally divided