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Speaker Sheds Light on the Reality of Racism in the Health Care Community
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had a dream. A dream that, according to Dr. Rodney Hood, president of the National Medical Association, has not been realized, nor achieved even 33 years after the death of the civil rights leader.
Dr. Hood was joined by the Morgan State University choir and the NIH Pre-School Song and Dance Troupe in celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the NIH 30th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. observance last month in Masur Auditorium.
Dr. Hood spoke on the theme “Health Parity in the 21st Century,” which he argued is unsatisfactory and for minorities has nearly remained stagnant for 300 years.
“If Dr. King were alive today, how would he judge the progress,” asked Hood. “Everything we know about who and what this man was suggests that he would be appalled and saddened.”
Appalled by the “shameful condition” of health and health care among African Americans and minority groups in America, said Dr. Hood. And saddened by what Dr. Hood termed the slave health deficit - health disparity and the death gap in the African American community, as compared to other communities, that is rooted in discrimination that dates back to slavery.
Just as slaves received some of the worst health care, the same is true today with African Americans, said Dr. Hood.
“African Americans suffer excessive morbidity and mortality rates and have the highest death rate in fourteen of the sixteen leading causes of death in the country,” he said. “Many of these deaths are preventable with known, basic, cost-effective medical treatment.”
According to National Vital Statistics, in 1996, the average life expectancy of a black male was 66 years, as opposed to 74 for other groups. When compared to other groups, 35 percent more blacks die of cancer, 40 percent more blacks die of heart disease and the black population suffers on average 91,000 excess deaths each year that are preventable, said Dr. Hood.
“Causes for the health gap in African Americans are certainly multi-factorial, however the major, underlying insidious factor must be recognized and addressed,” said Dr. Hood. “This factor is racism. Racism that was referred to by Dr. King as chains of discrimination. Today, these chains are no longer visible, but nonetheless, they are chains of the new racism that are manifested in action ... whether intentional or unintentional,” he said.
He added that the manifestation of this racism dates back to 130 A.D. when Roman physician Galen concluded that blacks have inferior brains, sharp teeth and chapped skin.
The teachings continued throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries when European and American physicians and scientists introduced racist teachings into medical books, writing that blacks were inferior and subhuman.
During the 1700s, Benjamin Rush, known as the “Father of American Psychiatry,” presented a paper “and he declared that the reason that black people have black skin was because of a degenerative disease caused by leprosy,” said Dr. Hood.
Dr. Samuel Cartwright, a physician in psychology, theorized that blacks should “medically be treated differently due to the non-human biological peculiarities,” said Hood. “Listen to what I said. They should be treated differently. Is it happening today?” he asked.
Indirectly, Dr. Hood answered yes by briefly citing a handful of studies out of the 400 that he has accumulated.
“In 1994, a study in Los Angeles, Hispanic patients were twice as likely to receive no analgesia when presented to the emergency room with fresh bone fractures,” said Dr. Hood. “The same group from Los Angeles found that black patients with broken arms and legs were less likely than white patients to receive an analgesia when presented to the emergency room.”
He added that a 1999 study printed in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that blacks were less likely than whites to receive surgical treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer, a disease potentially curable by surgery. In the same study, blacks were found more likely to die sooner than their white counterparts because of the inbalance.
“This is not an African American problem. This is an American problem,” said Dr. Hood. “Now is the time to support and eliminate the slave health deficit.”
Just like Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Hood has a dream, a solution for NIH to initiate the cure for racial injustice in health care through the MLK National Racism Institute, or the NRI.
“This institute is necessary to investigate social and scientific means to eliminate racism, a cure that does not lie in biological research alone, but also considers the influence of social-behavioral factors,” said Dr. Hood. “But until that time, we must all dedicate our energy and encourage our colleagues, pressing our government, forcing our health institutions to engage in an honest and diligent effort for the eradication of the aspects of racism all over America.”
-by Tanya Brown