When Freund
calls a race “a biological fiction” he is referencing the myth of race and the
living monster it has created among society. Race is something that was
constructed to create a division, yet as a “biological fiction” it carries
possibly the most power in politics, economic, and culture in society from
hundreds of years ago to present. This social and political assumption is
generated through the ongoing behaviors and motives of certain individuals in
society. Haney-Lopez defines “race” as “a vast group of people loosely bound
together by historically contingent, socially significant elements of their
morphology and/or ancestry…. Race is neither an essence nor an illusion, but
rather an ongoing, contradictory, self-reinforcing process subject to the macro
forces of social and political struggle and the micro effects of daily
decisions.”[1]
Extending from this, his claim concerning race carrying political, economic,
and cultural power holds true on a specific subject of issues of health and
medicine.
For example, in the executive summary from Missing Persons: Minorities in the Health
Professions, “minorities make up less than 10 percent of baccalaureate
nursing faculties, 8.6 percent of dental school faculties, and only 4.2 percent
of medical school faculties. Viewed in the context of demographic projections
showing that no racial or ethnic group will comprise a majority by the year
2050, that decline could be catastrophic.”[2]
Their vision and goal, as they worked with information from Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and
Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, which explains the importance of
diversity:“diversity allows more
people from different backgrounds to look at the same problem and to explore
different approaches and different solutions”[3].
Furthermore,
the readings provide proof of discrimination in the health-care industry. A
study conducted in 2000 which was based on actual clinical encounters proved
that race is brought into account when evaluating a patient: “doctors rated
black patients as less intelligent, less educated, more likely to abuse drugs
and alcohol, more likely to fail to comply with medical advice, more likely to
lack social support, and less likely to participate in cardiac rehabilitation
than white patients, even after patients’ income, education, and personality
characteristics were taken into account.”[4] This
unequal treatment has occurred for decades well after the Civil Rights era.
Given this, numerous questions are raised; why haven’t we taken the necessary
steps and followed the advice given in both the Missing Persons and Unequal
Treatment reports?; as a nation, why are we so complacent in creating a
more equal and unified society?; and lastly, is it possible that racism is more
alive and prevalent in today’s society in comparison to the time around the
Civil Rights era?
[1] Haney-Lopez, Ian F. "Social Construction
of Race: Some Observations on Illusion, Fabrication, and Choice." Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository, no.
1 (1994): 12.
[2] Sullivan, Louis W. "MISSING PERSONS:
MINORITIES IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS." The
Sullivan Commission, September 20, 2004.
[3] Sullivan, Louis W. "MISSING PERSONS:
MINORITIES IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS." The
Sullivan Commission, September 20, 2004.
[4] Smedley, Brian D., Adirenne Y. Smith, and Alan
R. Nelson. "Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities
in Health Care." THE NATIONAL
ACADEMIES PRESS: 11. Institute of Medicine.
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