Systemic Racism

Medical racism is prejudice and discrimination in medicine and the medical/healthcare system based upon perceived race. From Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, 2013.

African American men find themselves increasingly impoverished, isolated, and in poor health. In the United States, African American men have the lowest life expectancy of any gender, racial, or ethnic group. Segregation is a fundamental cause of such disparities because it shapes socioeconomic conditions for blacks, not only at the individual and household levels, but also at the levels of neighborhood and community. People of Color in the United States: Contemporary Issues in Education, Work, Communities, Health, and Immigration, 2016

May 2019 article by a Native American professor of nursing, published in The Guardian

May 2019 article from The Guardian: "In the US, women of color face more risks in pregnancy and childbirth than white women, and the reason for the disparity has become clear: racism"

June 2020 article from the Washington Post

2016 profile from Colorlines on Harvard professor Dr. David Williams who "pioneered three ways to prove the links between discrimination and poor health."

A study of nearly 200 U.S. medical centers found that even apparently healthy kids suffer racial disparities in complications associated with surgery

Researchers seek better data on pandemic's uneven burden

August 2020 article from the New York Times: "In America, how long you live depends on the color of your skin."

Scholarly study from 2014 that examines the causes of racial disparities in health care and proposes solutions

July 2020 article pubilished by the American Association of Mecical Colleges

The government recognizes that social factors cause racial inequalities in access to resources and opportunities that result in racial health disparities. However, this recognition fails to acknowledge the root cause of these racial inequalities: structural racism. As a result, racial health disparities persist. Covers COVID-related disparities as well as structural racism in general.

This study examined associations between medical mistrust, perceived racism in healthcare, everyday racism, and preventive health screening delays.

The article explores xenophobic acts against Asian Americans in the U.S., noting their uptick since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, Asian Americans have been unfairly targeted by public health officials as sources of disease, leading to a Chinese American man being blamed for a 1900 to 1904 bubonic plague outbreak. Racism is a known social determinant of health and undocumented, low-income, elderly or limited-English-proficient Asian Americans are most at risk for healthcare disparity.

"...[T]his work provides evidence that false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites continue to shape the way we perceive and treat black people—they are associated with racial disparities in pain assessment and treatment recommendations."

One-page factsheet with excellent bibliography of research articles. From The Institute for Healing and Justice, an interdisciplinary, centralized hub for work related to social justice and community activism in medicine developed by medical and graduate students at the Joint Medical Program with UCSF School of Medicine and UC Berkeley School of Public Health

One-page factsheet on BCRA with bibliography to scientific studies. From The Institute for Healing and Justice, an interdisciplinary, centralized hub for work related to social justice and community activism in medicine developed by medical and graduate students at the Joint Medical Program with UCSF School of Medicine and UC Berkeley School of Public Health

One-page factsheet on KDRI with bibliography to scientific studies. From The Institute for Healing and Justice, an interdisciplinary, centralized hub for work related to social justice and community activism in medicine developed by medical and graduate students at the Joint Medical Program with UCSF School of Medicine and UC Berkeley School of Public Health