Nineteen Fifty-Six Vol.4 Issue 2

Health is a topic that many Black families find hard to talk about. To keep the Black family strong and together,
the Black community must make more strides in having open dialogues about health, mental and physical.
PHYSICAL
Healthcare is often dubious for Black patients due to both
a lack of access to healthcare and a lack of awareness of
physical health issues. With no reliable place to go, Black
people are forced to suffer in silence.
Black people have a higher risk for COVID-19, heart
diseases, stroke, cancer, asthma, influenza and pneumonia,
diabetes, HIV/AIDS and homicide, according to the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of
Minority Health.
“One possible contributing factor: The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) says African Americans are
more likely to die at early ages for all causes, as young
African Americans are living with diseases that are
typically more common at older ages for other races,”
wrote Pfizer in an article.
While these statistics point out a need for health
awareness, discussions of health within the Black
community are still lacking.
One major factor that bars Black people from seeking
medical help is the price. Many cannot afford insurance
and must pay out-of-pocket. In addition, society has
created an environment that shames Black people,
especially Black men, for vocalizing their pain. The urge
to present as strong overpowers their need for medical
attention.
A doctor’s office can elicit anxiety for anyone, but many
members of the Black community harbor a mistrust in
medical professionals. At face value, it is just paranoia,
but it is the effects of generations of medical trauma.
The Henrietta Lacks story, the Tuskegee experiment
and the forced sterilization of Black women through
the eugenics movement are just a few cases in which
healthcare providers actively abused and mistreated
Black patients. This, coupled with present-day cases of
doctors dismissing Black patients’ pain and misdiagnoses,
the Black community is validated in their fears.
“A lot of people in the Black community feel as if the health
care system doesn’t have their best interest at heart,” said
Sydney Lowe, a sophomore majoring in nursing. “A lot of
Black people, Black women specifically, go unheard and
kind of overlooked in the healthcare setting.”
Lowe said the issue of medical mistrust is one of the
reasons she decided to become a nurse, so she could “be
more of an advocate for Black and brown bodies.”
Studies have shown that Black women have the highest
maternal mortality rates in the United States. Black
mothers’ pains go ignored and untreated on the operating
table.
Serena Williams, a world-renowned athlete, is one
Black woman who almost died while giving birth to her
daughter, Olympia.
In an essay written for Elle magazine, Williams recounts
how she couldn’t feel or move her legs and back and was
experiencing extreme pain. The physicians with her
ignored her cries.
“Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference
between life and death for me,” she wrote. “I know those
statistics would be different if the medical establishment
listened to every Black woman’s experience.”
JoAnn Oliver, a professor at the Capstone College of
Nursing, has worked in the medical field for over 20
years and is familiar with the negligence Black women
experience in medical care.
“It’s a big issue, almost an epidemic related to Black
women,” Oliver said. “Many times, as Blacks, we may not
present with the same type of symptoms, or we may not
outwardly present, we may be in pain, but we’re not, you
know, not screaming to the top of our lungs.”
A common myth within the healthcare industry is
that Black people can tolerate pain more than other
ethnicities. A 2016 study suggested half of white medical
trainees believe that Black people have thicker skin and
less sensitive nerve endings, which leads to better pain
tolerance. Pain assessment is challenged by the subjective
nature of pain and the cultural and social influences on
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