Racial Disparities in Healthcare

Black women are forced to navigate life through a focal point of racism and sexism; they are strong undoubtedly. However, the concept of the “resilient and strong black woman” has been taken into the hands of American society and morphed to its own benefit. Over the past few months, the world's fight with COVID-19 brought these disparities into the spotlight more than ever. A statistic done by the American Heart Association states that for every 100,000 black patients admitted to the hospital, 92.3 will die from COVID-19, but when white patients are admitted, they have an expected amount of 45.2 per 100,000.

These stereotypes are not only damaging to WOC in need of help but ultimately racist. In the 1980s, an OB-GYN by the name of Adam Parsons states that he recalls being taught that, if a black woman were to come in for help regarding their pelvic area, they were to assume it has something to do with a sexually transmitted disease due to their “provocative nature.” One main issue that disproportionately effects WOC is childbirth. Black women are three times more likely than Hispanic women and 2.5 times more likely than white women to die from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Consider this: Serena Williams is objectively famous and wealthy. The medical care she received during the birth of her first child included what was arguably the finest faculty and they still did not fail to treat her unjustly during her birth period. What about the women who don't have these resources?

Kira Dixon Johnson died at 39 in 2016 after internally bleeding for more than 10 hours after a routine c-section. Yolanda Kadima died at 35, three days after giving birth from her routine c-section. Black women's pain in American healthcare is repeatedly overlooked. In a study conducted by the US National Library of Medicine and Institutes of Health, healthcare workers were asked to report the amount of pain they believe their patient was in. Overwhelmingly, these physicians were shown to disregard and misconstrue the pain black patients were experiencing against those who were not POC. America has taken it upon themselves to segregate people into neighborhoods. Structural racism like this puts POC in a state where they don't have access to basic resources such as healthy food, good housing, healthcare and job opportunities, which all impact the health of WOC. These disparities are not only disastrous and devastating to families but to communities at large.