hospital immediately, he will die”. The older doctor responded “So what? He’s just a nigger.”
His grandfather was not admitted by the doctors and he passed the next morning. This is an extreme case of a man getting sub-standard care because of his race. Simply because he was African-American, he was denied care consistent with the standard for a person in his medical condition. As a result, he died.
I doubt that Governor Northam, M.D. has ever performed an autopsy on the victim of a lynching, perpetrated by the Klu Klux Klan or other terrorist groups. If he had, he would be stunned by the horrific physical trauma and sheer brutality of such a death, not to mention the gruesome mutilations that often accompanied lynchings, a common tool employed by the Ku Klux Klan most often on innocent victims. As a physician, he would comprehend the tremendous cruelty of such an act at a level that many of us wouldn’t.
Physicians save lives; Ku Klux Klansmen destroy lives. You can’t do both. If you think it’s a joke to pose as a Klansman and to mock black people by dressing in Black-face, can you really provide good quality care for African-Americans? Do you have the sensitivity to be a true advocate for your patients, in light of our historical reality and the tremendous socioeconomic disparities that lead to worse health outcomes in minority communities? By engaging in this behavior, are you primed to practice medical racism?
Much of medical racism is far more subtle than what Congressman Cumming’s grandfather experienced. One of the best demonstrations of medical racism came from studies with