User:Libra279/Medical racism in the United States

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Medical Racism in the united states

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In a modern context, medical racism and its history has created a deep distrust of health professionals and their practices in marginalized racial and ethnic groups. Studies within the last couple decades have elucidated varied treatment from health professionals still occurring that reveal racial biases. These racial biases have impacted the way in which substances such as painkillers are prescribed or the rate at which diagnostic tests are given. Black patients in particular have a long history of contrasting medical treatment based on different perceptions of the pain thresholds of Black people. The eugenics movement is an example of how racial bias affected the treatment of women of color, specifically African American women. However, medical racism has not been limited to Black people in the United States. While infamous studies like the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male may be known, the U.S. Public Health Service Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Inoculation Study of 1946-1948 notably impacted Guatemalan prisoners, sex workers, soldiers, and mental health patients in a detrimental fashion by purposely infecting victims with STDs such as syphilis and gonorrhea. The push to forcibly sterilize Indigenous women as young as 15 years old occurred from 1970 to 1976 by the Indian Health Service as revealed in researcher Jane Lawrence's paper "The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women." These are only a few examples of the many that exist in American history of the unethical actions of health care providers, researchers, and government entities pertaining to the health services of minority groups.

Personal experiences

"He gave me this prescription. I think it was (name of medication). And I heard on TV where (name of medication) is causing all these problems and they were having a lawsuit. So I think sometimes doctors will push certain medications…I think they help out the prescription industry."

"These guys go in front of me with a broken finger… I sat there like four hours and I didn’t get in. And they said something about insurance… so I had to just sit there and wait in the waiting room"