Racism in the healthcare system not only affects patients but also deeply traumatizes Black women who work within it.
To comprehend the complex relationship Black women have with the healthcare system, we must delve into its history of trauma and indifference.
A stark example of this is the case of Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey, three enslaved women in Alabama. Dr. Marion Sims, known as the Father of Modern Gynecology, conducted experiments on them without anesthesia, despite its availability, under the racist belief that Black people felt less pain than white people. This harmful notion persisted so long that it was still present in the nursing textbook “Nursing: A Concept-Based Approach to Learning” until its removal by Pearson in 2017, and it continues to pervade modern healthcare.
