Tracie brings up a recent NFL announcement that they will change a racist policy, just another example of the systematic, racist oppression that permeates US society. This leads to a discussion between April and Tracie about the racism found within the United States medical system and why developing an effective racial justice analysis is so important.
Check out our discussion/reflection questions for this episode:
- [Tracie] A recent news article about the NFL dropping their Race Norming, leads us to a conversation about racism, in the medical field.- [April] This is Jews Talk Racial Justice with April and Tracie.- [Tracie] A weekly show hosted by April Baskin and Tracie Guy-Decker.- [April] In a complex world, change takes courage.- [Tracie] Wholehearted relationships can keep us accountable.- Also the news breaking about that the NFL is going to stop the Race Norming of their, um, when they do sort of worker's comp payouts for a cognitive loss because of the multiple concussions that football players get, they used to, they would lower the threshold for cognitive ability, for black players as a "Race Norming", that I'm putting quotes around that basically (chuckles), a black player would have to prove that he had like a much bigger loss in cognitive function in order to get any kind of compensation. Because the fundamental assumption was that black players started at a lower cognitive function ability than white players. And that was just changed this year.- Whew, whew, that, man makes me, whew.- It's like, it's so..- Whew, make my blood boil. Clearly, the definition of systemic oppression you know, and this year 2021, they stopped doing this. This isn't like in 1972, they stopped doing (chuckles). This is, this year. I mean, it just blows my mind how many people had to be looking at this medical professionals had to be looking at this and being like, yup, seems legit. It's one more example of the bias in, um, medicine.- How deeply ingrained, in deeply ingrained this racism is.- Yes. And it, did it, but we have this idea, I think, in American society that somehow like the medical profession is like objective, and therefore immune.(April laughing)- And it's so clearly not.- No.- One, and, oh well, a data can't lie, right? And so the data about...- Not that it, not that it doesn't have like that not that it isn't amazing in a number of respects, but, yeah, no, exactly, yeah, the data doesn't lie, please continue.- Well, you know, the data suggests that, black mothers and black infants have much better outcomes when they see black doctors. You know, the mortality rate for infants and mothers is for black folks is much much higher when they're being seen by a white attending, which is just, it's just heart, heart heartbreaking. And the so-called Race Norming.- And terrifying.- Yeah, totally terrifying.- As someone whose considering, having, you know, trying to start a family.- Yeah, totally terrifying. And the, the numbers around, like the reason that the opioid epidem-epidemic was so rampant is because there was a lot of racism and how pain pills were being prescribed so that, you know, black folks were getting, you know, a 10th of what maybe they ought to have. And white folks were getting 10 times, what they ought to have. There's, this, this idea that black folks don't like have higher pain tolerance or something like, how is that? How do we still subscribe to that? That's, I don't know. I'm sorry, that's a depressing topic.- No, it's important to talk about. We need to face hard feelings. That's a theme for me today, as I think about, as we think about additional programs, we want to run like learning how to, process the tough stuff in general in our lives is what leads us in the direction of progress and greater joy is how we build our skills around moving through the shadow, and doing enough of our own work internally that we get to a place we're actually able to start to shift in transmute that garbage and face it either head on, and or use it to further clarify what we want, and move other things forward that make that racism and nonsense and violence increasingly prevented, and or irrelevant depending upon the specific manifestation we're talking about, right? Like if it's black infant and maternal mortality, then we clearly want to prevent that. And so, but rather than I just think that, much of the time, the darkness or the dysfunction or the challenge for things of this nature are just endless soul sucking black holes. So, it's helpful to become aware of how it operates. And then it's like, okay, so if we were functional, so rather than getting stuck in this sand pit or quick sand of these racist dynamics, how can we think about different, better ways of operating, that are, mindful and equitable and account for the humanity of all and function optimally. You know, and as the, my team knows for better or worse, I really loved this recent book that was recommended and a mastermind that Tracie and I did that our coach, a book that he recommended called the Checklist Manifesto. And we'll provide all the details to the book, in our show notes. And I was thinking about that a lot, the author didn't have an ex didn't choose to take an explicit power or race analysis other than noting that this system, this systematic way of working around having a checklist, to help, competent smart professionals, cover the things that are absolutely necessary that can be missed. And that lead to infections and mortality, in specifically in surgical procedures. And then he also looked at it across different fields. And I was thinking immediately earlier on, as you were talking at the start of this episode, that it seems to me that the checklists likely, like, I bet if we look at the deaths and the lives that were saved, if someone went back and did a review, that it would disproportionately would have helped people with marginalized identities, people who were poor, black, people of color, women, that having..- Trans and non-binary folks, I'm sure.- Thank you. Yes, exactly. Trans and non-binary individuals that, that, this, this checklist that goes over confirm that, that this is the correct patient confirm the ailment, confirm which side of the body doing things that often racial bias has people skipping also cool to note that a simple public health measure like that may already actually resolve, a number of those different challenges, at least at the point of surgery, that things that would be more likely to be mistaken, like mixing up the incorrect black people, like taking the steps to actually make sure that you're operating on the correct person, which I have a feeling particularly for black folks would happen far more than people realize given how many times in my own life, and I'm very light. How many times people have mistaken me for somebody who was like five shades blacker than me, right? It is a multi, like the number of times I've been mistaken or mixed up with somebody who I think I look absolutely nothing like them. Different facial structure different body types of times.(chuckles) Like, you know, so, like maybe after I give birth to four children and live another 10 years, maybe I will look like this person that you, and I'm out in the sun-- I'll never be that dark. Even if I tan, I would just be a darker brown. I wouldn't be that shade, of deep dark brown. So anyways, so, so it's,(long sigh) exciting, for me to notice and remember, that in some of these cases, that it's always helpful to have an effective racial justice analysis. And that there are there's that we live in an abundant world and there is an abundance of different adaptive strategies, that we can start to pilot and test and apply, to lead to greater more racially just outcomes, more consistently, if we're willing, to take the time, to be honest about how bad things are and how much action is needed.- Yeah, yeah. We can't address it if we can't name it.- Nope. And once we do, we don't have to stay in the icky place. It's important to be aware of that, but actually the solution energy is very, different. It's not about either or, it's about both and, and looking at different opportunities. And how can we be in conversation with different folks who are directly impacted by this? How can we look at different studies? You know, that there's, I think people think that part of their avoidance of this is around just staying stuck in the problem. But actually we can say and notice where have there been different, more racially, just outcomes. Can we replicate that? How can we modify and, or replicate that and begin to move in that direction?- Yeah.- I'm here for it. I'm ready. I'm ready to not have to worry about dying. If I try to give birth. Or losing my child, future child--God willing. So, let alone having to, have so many, people of color, have fatal, or painful experiences and or outcomes, that ultimately are completely avoidable with time and not only avoidable, but we can actually have an inverse positive, equitable set of outcomes.- [April] Thanks for tuning in. Our show's theme music was composed by Elliot Hammer. You can find this track and other beats on Instagram@ElliotHammer. If this episode resonated with you, please share it and subscribe. To join the conversation, visit JewsTalkRacialJustice.com, where you can send us a question or suggestion, access our show notes and learn more about our team. Take care until next time and stay humble, and keep going.