Ways to Help (General Population)
- Address the problem
- Educate yourself on the issues of racism within healthcare
- Understand and recognize unconscious bias and speak out
against it
- Speak out about inequities that you may see throughout daily
life
Racism In
- Support the expansion of health insurance coverage
- Sign petitions and support organizations fighting against
racism
Ways to Help (Health Care)
-
-
Recognize the problems within healthcare
Increase awareness in the workplace and support changes
Healthcare
- Integrate cultural competency training for providers
- Support the expansion of health insurance coverage
- Raise awareness for expansion of diversity in the workplace
- Increase quality of care by eliminating implicit biases
Organizations to Support
Black Women’s Health Imperative : For 35 years, the Black Women’s
Health Imperative has been at the forefront of the fight against health
disparities for Black women, from convening the first National Conference
on Black Women’s Health Issues in 1983 to recent initiatives such as its
Positive Period! Campaign and All of Us research program.
- bwhi.org
Black Mamas Matter : The Black Mamas Matter Alliance represents the
voices of Black mothers to change policy, drive research, and reframe the
conversation for better Black maternal health and justice.
- blackmamasmatter.org
HEALTHCARE SHOULD BE COLORBLIND
National REACH Coalition: community-based organization that promotes,
develops, and implements health equity programs in both urban and rural
communities
- Reachcoalition.org
What is Racism? Examples of Racism in
Racism is prejudice or discrimination against someone based on his/her
race; belief that certain racial groups are superior to others; beliefs,
attitudes, behaviors, and institutional and systemic approaches that Healthcare
degrade, belittle, and devalue groups based on the color of their skin or
ethno-racial background.
Types of Racism • Unequal access to quality education for POC →
leads to less medical professionals in healthcare
Individual/Internalized Racism – racism that exists within individuals;
private beliefs and biases about race and racism, influenced by our • Lack of access to healthy food and water for POC
culture; may be unconscious or psychologically rooted.
→ leads to more illnesses and diseases among
• Having the belief that you are superior than POC
POC
Interpersonal Racism – racism that occurs between individuals; holding • Non-Livable Wages → lack of access to healthcare
of negative attitudes towards a different race or culture; biases that occur
when individuals interact with others and their private racial beliefs
or health insurance
affect their public interactions • Unknown subconscious prejudice (implicit bias)
• Using racial slurs, hate crimes, and racial violence, job/housing that can affect the way we treat patients → lack of
discrimination quality healthcare
Institutional Racism – occurs within institutions and systems of power; • 25% of black Americans live in an area with a
unfair policies and discriminatory practices of institutions that routinely shortage of primary care physicians → not
produce racially inequitable outcomes for people of color and advantages
for non-people of color, usually unintentional enough medical professionals leads to below
• School system that concentrates POC in the most overcrowded
average care
schools, least challenging classes, and the least qualified teachers • Black women die from pregnancy or childbirth
Structural/Systemic Racism – racial bias among institutions and across 243% more often than white women
society; social, economic, or political systems featuring public policies • The infant mortality rate is 2.3 times higher in
and practices, cultural representations, and other norms that perpetuate
blacks than it is whites
inequities; cumulative and compounding effects of an array of societal
factors including the history, culture, ideology, and interactions of • Inaccurate beliefs of POC by doctors and medical
institutions and policies that systemically privilege non-people of color students
and disadvantage people of color; forms the foundation that supports
internalized, interpersonal, and institutional racism
• Depiction of people of color as criminals in mainstream media,
redlining, lack of healthcare quality, mass incarceration
(segregation of neighborhoods, over policing neighborhoods)
5
Facts and Figures Facts and Figures
Infant Mortality Rate COVID-19
- Common causes include low-birthweight, congenital malformations,
maternal complications, accidents (unintentional injuries), and
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome ; Could be caused because of lack of
- Due to occupations that POC hold, less social distancing in
prenatal care due to lack of access to healthcare
crowded areas, less access to healthcare, greater prevalence of
co-morbidities such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes and lung
disease
Maternal Mortality Rate
- Could be due to increased susceptibility of certain health conditions,
as well as the lack of access to healthcare or quality healthcare. Inaccurate Beliefs by Medical Students
4 1
3
