Black people have contributed greatly to the advancement of medicine, oftentimes at the risk of our well-being. Particularly, the Black woman. Henrietta Lacks is a prime example. After being treated for a cervical tumor in 1951, cells from Lacks' cervix were taken without her permission and used for research. Her cells became known as the HeLa immortal cell line, the first able to replicate infinitely, and are basis for medical breakthroughs like the HPV vaccine.
READ: Is Black Pain Treated Less?
This left an indelible mark on an existing open wound for Blacks and healthcare in the United States. J. Marion Sims, known as the “father of modern gynecology,” used female slaves to treat vesico-vaginal fistula (abnormal fistulous tract extending between the bladder and the vagina that allows the continuous involuntary discharge of urine into the vaginal vault.) Sims didn’t anesthetize these women during these excruciatingly painful surgeries.
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His belief was that Black women, unlike upper class White women, could endure the pain at a higher level. During an 1857 lecture he said the surgeries “were painful enough to justify the trouble.” Sims, a slave owner, set the precedent for a practice that still continues to this day.
Dr. Vanessa Worthington Gamble is a physician and scholar widely regarded for her studies in medical humanities. An NPR article with Dr. Vanessa Worthington points out these medical atrocities.
“There was a belief at the time that black people did not feel pain in the same way. They were not vulnerable to pain, especially black women. So that they had suffered pain in other parts of their lives and their pain was ignored.”
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Ignored is often how Black people feel in the medical sphere. You might’ve heard your parents say that you should always dress up in your best threads when you go to the hospital. This systemic belief comes from a history of being treated as less than human in America.
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“These women were property. These women could not consent. These women also had value to the slaveholders for production and reproduction - how much work they could do in the field, how many enslaved children they could produce. And by having these fistulas, they could not continue with childbirth and also have difficulty working,” states Dr. Worthington.
While Black women aren’t enduring the same level of mistreatment that Sims' slave patients, Lucy, Betsey and Anarcha received, there is a growing amount of evidence that Blacks are still....treated with less anesthesia than Whites. The research points to hip and knee replacement surgeries where Blacks receive 10% less anesthesia than Whites. Lack of anesthesia has a great impact on the outcome of the surgery according to doctors. Social healthcare program Medicaid, which benefits a great number of low-income Black families, shows an even deeper problem. Medicaid recipients receive 22% less anesthesia than privately insured patients.
Is this another case of Black lives not mattering ? Experts have turned to race and class studies for the answer to this medical outcry. A study entitled, “Racial Bias in Perceptions of Others’ Pain” shows how medical professionals often overlook the pain of Black patients. The paper pointed out an experiment where participants were asked to point how another would race would feel in painful scenarios, such as stubbing a toe or getting shampoo in your eyes. In each experiment Black, White and nurses alike all assumed that Blacks would feel less pain than Whites. This study also delved deep into how Black players were more likely to play through pain than their White counterparts. Are Black people tougher, or are we worried about being called “lazy” and other things to minimize our pain?
Our children are also suffering from this empathy gap as some call it. A study conducted by the Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Pediatrics showed that emergency room doctors were less likely to give Black children pain medication than children of other races. In fact, only 12% of Black children were administered pain medication.
Where do we go from here? Be open and honest with your physician about your pain. Don’t suffer through it at the expense of feeling like you have to be tough or “too Black” to cry. Ask for and if you need to, demand what you need. Your health and well-being are important. Black pain matters!
