In healthcare, discrimination towards minority groups is a dangerous reality for many people. One group in particular is people of color. Many disabled individuals of color struggle to receive adequate healthcare, largely due to a lack of knowledge from the doctors in the field. Many medical schools and textbooks do not have competent curricula on how to treat people of color, specifically identifying traits of an illness or disability as much of the education is done with white models. One group at the forefront of this issue is Black and Brown Skin, founded by author Malone Mukwende who created an online database to help medical professionals identify symptoms and traits of people of color who may otherwise be misdiagnosed.
Medical discrimination towards people of color originated during slavery. Doctors claimed that Black people had a higher pain tolerance and it was therefore justifiable to experiment on slaves without anesthesia. Many medical students believed this even in 2016. (“Racial Discrimination in Healthcare…” 1). These myths and this lack of knowledge lead to a lot of people receiving inadequate care for their illnesses and disabilities. Medical student Malone Mukwende found himself constantly asking, “What does this look like on darker skin?” which never had a consistent answer, often simply an “I don’t know” from his professors. When talking about his experience in medical school on his YouTube channel, he says, “[in] medical school, its almost as if people of color came onto the Earth last week,” (Mukwende).
Many people of color with disabilities struggle to receive adequate healthcare. Many doctors are less likely to prescribe pain medication to Black people, from everything from a disability to children getting tonsil surgery. This stems from the belief that people of color have higher pain tolerances, a lie originating from slavery (“Racial Discrimination in Healthcare…” 2). This lie still manifests itself today, leading to lower rates of diagnosis for Black people for disabilities and chronic pain. Much of this discrimination results from a lack of knowledge. Medical textbooks tend to use examples of conditions for white men. This leads to women and people of color facing doctors who simply do not know what these conditions look like on people of color or women. Many people in the medical field are working to find examples and education for medical professionals to recognize these symptoms and signs. One of these people is Malone Mukwende from London, England.
Malone Mukwende is the author of the medical book “Mind the Gap,” which shows different conditions on different shades of Black and Brown skin tones, which are rarely, if ever, shown in medical textbooks. He was disappointed with the lack of knowledge from his professors and decided to take action for equality (Cassata 1). He is also a founder of the organization Black and Brown Skin, which works with this textbook that he created and works with people of color for knowledge, resources, and support for people with disabilities who do not receive the necessary help and support from their local doctors (Black and Brown Skin 1). This organization helps connect disabled people of color with others as well as medical professions that can provide them the healthcare that they may not have access to in their hometowns, as well as simply helping people feel less alone. Resources like this are important to connecting people who have received bias and discrimination from their doctors, as well as helping them identify the problems and understand that there is nothing wrong with them for how they feel, and it is the doctors’ responsibility to undo this bias, starting in the medical schools. When medical schools train these future doctors to identify and work past bias, the future of the medical workforce will have the knowledge and training to help those affected by this discriminatory practice.
It is very important to have doctors like this in the healthcare system. Many people of color struggle to trust the healthcare system. Generations of racism and discrimination from healthcare providers have led to many people not even trying to find a reliable doctor as they do not believe any of them will listen to them or get proper treatment (Elias and Yin 42). Currently, many cities are working to prevent this mistreatment in the first place, cutting off the cycle of discrimination at the root. For example, Boston has implemented committees such as the Racial Health Equity Advisory Committee and the Office of Women’s Advancement in their Public Health Commission. These committees work to develop plans to advance the public health system in Boston to prevent the common racism and sexism that many healthcare professionals do not even realize they are doing. These committees work with health service centers to provide education and training for the common biases that are subconsciously upheld in the medical system (Boston Public Health Commission 1). While these are beneficial systems, it will take much more to undo decades of systemic discrimination that prevents many people of color from seeking healthcare in the first place.
Organizations like the Racial Health Equity Advisory Committee and people like Malone Mukwende are only the first step in providing equal treatment for all people in the medical system. It will take years to work to repair the broken system, but these are all first steps towards a more inclusive healthcare system. All people deserve to feel safe and respected, and we are at a time when people are working towards this goal. People like Malone Mukwende are crucial to identifying issues in the system and fixing them.
Works Cited
“Black & Brown Skin.” Black & Brown Skin, http://www.blackandbrownskin.co.uk/. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
“Boston Public Health Commission.” Boston.Gov, 2 Feb. 2016, http://www.boston.gov/government/cabinets/boston-public-health-commission#careers-and-internships. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
Cassada, Cathy. “This Med Student Wrote the Book on Diagnosing Disease on Darker Skin.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 11 May 2021, transform.healthline.com/stories/this-med-student-wrote-the-book-on-diagnosing-disease-on-darker-skin#:~:text=London%2Dbased%20medical%20student%20Malone,diagnose%20conditions%20on%20white%20patients. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
Elias, Amanuel, and Yin Paradies. “The Costs of Institutional Racism and Its Ethical Implications for Healthcare.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, vol. 18, no. 1, 2 Jan. 2021, pp. 45–58, doi:10.1007/s11673-020-10073-0.
Mukwende, Malone. “Doctors Are Unequipped to Deal with Darker Skin.” YouTube, 3 Feb. 2024, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnJuSts9s6k. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
“Racial Discrimination in Healthcare: How Structural Racism Affects Healthcare.” St. Catherine University, 15 June 2021, http://www.stkate.edu/academics/healthcare-degrees/racism-in-healthcare. Accessed 11 Apr. 2024.
Sprockets and Springes 