After finishing the second part of
Damon Tweedy’s Black Man in a Black Coat,
the continued themes of race, sexuality, gender, and class and how each affect
medical treatment resonated with me the most. I think that one chapter in
particular, however, “When Doctors Discriminate,” is the most important from
the latter end of the memoir because of the immense implications involved with
discrimination. As discussed in class on Tuesday through the discussion of the
interaction between Leslie and Dr. Garder, it is evident that medical training,
at least in the late ‘90s from Tweedy’s perspective, is flawed; racializing
medicine and having preconceived ideas about the medical history and/or health
of minorities is deeply problematic when it comes to providing “equal” medical
care to every patient. Drawing on this idea, then, I think that it is important
to think through the effects of racializing medicine, making assumptions of
patients based on their identity, and the quality of care provided depending on
health insurance and location. For all of these factors, Tweedy shows that for
African Americans in the country, the community is marginalized the most in
these terms because of race, class, location, gender, and sexuality.
One event that Tweedy writes about
that sticks out to the most is the events involving Tweedy, Carl, Bruce, Dr.
Rhodes and the patient Gary. In questioning the medical decisions that Carl,
Bruce, and Dr. Rhodes want him to follow, Gary shows to the doctors that he has
knowledge of his medical condition and the different steps he can take to
improve his health without having to take medication. The response from Bruce,
Carl, and Dr. Rhodes shocked me the most, though. As Tweedy writes:
Given this data, why did they assume that he
had a psychiatric illness becase he wanted to eat better and drop some pounds
before resorting to blood pressure pills? Because he was black? Because he was
a patient in a public hospital? Because he worked at a hardware store? Or was
it because he challenged their knowledge and authority in some fundamental way?
Perhaps it was a combination of all these factors.[1]
I
think that this passage perfectly exemplifies the effects of race, class, location,
and the power dynamic between doctors and patients, particularly black
patients. In this case, I find it telling that there is a preconceived notion
that patients, especially black patients in a public hospital, cannot have any
substantial knowledge of their health and different medical options even though
this kind of information, as Gary mentions, is provided in medical pamphlets. The
assumption, though, that Gary had a mental illness because he questions the
authority of a doctor and doctors-to-be is very problematic, especially since
Gary is a working-class black man.
Overall, then, this leads me to
think about the power dynamic that exists between doctors and patients and how
discrimination and/or preconceived racial stereotypes affects the care provided
for black patients. Furthermore, this leads me to think about the dangers of
casually joking about mental illness, especially from doctors and others in the
medical field, and the idea of making patients take medication that they may
not necessarily need. The final thought that I have been pondering, highlighted
from this passage but shown throughout the book, is the idea of healthcare and
how one’s medical care changes significantly depending on the quality of the
health insurance or the lack of insurance altogether and how this affects the
African American community exponentially.
[1] Damon Tweedy, M.D., Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s
Reflections on Race and Medicine (New York: Picador, 2015), iBook, 205.
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