Throwaway

In his New York Times column on how the United States is a racist country, Charles Blow has a throwaway line—he claims that our medical system is presently anti-black. He produces no evidence or even anecdotes. That’s what a “throwaway line” is. It’s delivered in passing without actually dwelling on it. Is our medical system anti-black? I’d genuinely like to know.

One of the things in the column with which I agree is his invocation of Sam Clemens’s famous quip: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’Tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” The word I think he’s looking for is “was”. The United States was a racist country.

Today many people still live with the consequences of that racism. There isn’t much that can be done about it without more injustices which is not a step in the right direction.

5 comments… add one
  • steve Link

    Is medicine racist? Some places it is. At the coal country hospital we took over I had people talk about how they let the hispanics in up there but at least they kept the n**gers out. They were quite proud of that. Medicine in general? My perception is that it is more difficult for poor people to get good care and black people make up more of our poor population. This shows up particularly in follow up care but good emergency care is still worse for lots of the poor. They go to the CAH or run down city hospital nearest them. The quality of staff at these places is often pretty marginal. If you weren’t all that favorably disposed to helping out those less fortunate anyway AND you were also racist would it make it easier to deny aid or even refuse to enforce standards at these lesser quality facilities? I think so.

    That said, there are tons of papers on this issue. White people have many wrong ideas about black people. It was, and still is in some places. believed that black people are less sensitive to pain so they got treated differently. Identical pts, or as near as you can make them, when seem for something like heart issues leads to white men getting sent on for specialty care at higher rates. Not so for women and blacks. Is this the kind of racism that equate to black people should only be slaves? Nope, but it does suggest that black people get inferior care based upon false beliefs about them being different due to skin color.

    Finally, how do we interpret the Covid vaccinations? It is perfectly OK to shoot black people more often because they are more likely to be criminals. That is not, according to a lot of people, racism. Yet suggest that because black people die a lot more often than whites and other groups from Covid that they should receive priority in vaccines and that is racism against whites. We were OK with vaccinating old people first because they were dying at higher rates, but not another group because of their skin color. How do we interpret that?

    Steve

  • My perception is that it is more difficult for poor people to get good care and black people make up more of our poor population.

    which is not itself racist.

    My own view is that thinking the U. S. is a racist country because there is racism in some places is nihilism.

  • Grey Shambler Link

    Hospital staff sometimes mistake me for someone trained in medicine because I’ve spent 34 years advocating for my wife since her diabetes presented and she became insulin dependent.
    It is IMHO, fact that she would not have survived this long without fairly articulate communication regarding her conditions and symptoms.
    I carry with me her medication list, updated whenever there is a change.
    The list is long. UTI, bladder infection, sepsis, (these many, many times) pneumonia, A-fib, COPD, skin infection reaching bone in shin, (we saved the leg), blocked coronary artery requiring angioplasty.
    In 2011, 13 visits to the ER for hypercarbia, resolved eventually by identifying her tranquillizer of many years as the culprit, we almost wore out their bi-pap.
    My point is as regards people who come from poor, white, black, native,
    they fail to act proactively.
    I suspect they don’t even want to bother the doctor with their symptoms.
    The hospitalist asks my wife how she is, she smiles and says, fine.
    I say, no she isn’t and that’s why we’re here in the ER.
    Then I explain her history, medications and current symptoms.
    None of this makes me proud or happy. Quite the contrary. The field is shortening up. The clock is running down. One of these days I’m going to miss something and we will lose this battle.
    I’m not even really sure that being proactive and putting outcomes on your own shoulders is a good idea, but I am who I am and I can’t change.

  • steve Link

    “My own view is that thinking the U. S. is a racist country because there is racism in some places is nihilism.”

    Denying that racism is still a problem in the country is naive at best and just plain wrong. It may not be codified into law so much like it was in the past but it persists.

    Steve

  • The distinction I’m making is between a racist country and a country with racism in it. We are no longer a racist country despite still having some racism.

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