Thread by @RheaBoydMD

The very first Black doctors, back in the 1800s (!!), argued that racial health disparities were driven by racism (and more precisely racial capitalism).

That I have to argue this same basic fact in 2020, doesn't make me my "ancestors wildest dreams." My ancestors already knew.

And you don't need to be a doctor to know racism harms Black folks' health. Black people who are not doctors, know too!

Here is recent data from the @KFF and @TheUndefeated poll asking Black folks how racism shapes their outcomes. They know.

And yet here we are in healthcare, year after year, CENTURY AFTER CENTURY, asking the same essential question when the answer HAS BEEN clear.

RACISM MAKES PEOPLE SICK.

RACISM KILLS PEOPLE.

This is true despite one's income or education status.

That healthcare has yet to fully contend with racism as a cause of health inequities reflects a lack of competency, yes. BUT it also reveals an ongoing ideological battle to pin racial health inequities on anything else (poverty, genetic differences). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3294621/

So to the people who ask me, "Why isn't more being done to address racism in healthcare?"

Because people (scientists and doctors and nurses!) are still arguing about this basic fact. And the stakes of the argument are HIGH. This is thing:

If racism (and racial capitalism) drive racial health inequities, then healthcare systems must divest from racism and the sickness racism creates and unevenly distributes, to advance health. Instead of doing that, we debate the role of racism to benefit from its profitability.