Does being black result in receiving less attentive nurses, doctors, or proper health care? As a black woman myself I’ve personally experienced some bad nurses and doctors who misdiagnosed me or didn’t take adequate care to figure out what was truly wrong with me. For example, for almost 2 years straight I would just randomly black out without explanation. When my mother and I would go to the hospital or doctor appointments no tests were run on me almost all the doctors would shrug and say they had no idea and for me to sleep it off. I want to know if care is less efficient towards black people. A survey was taken and 47% of black Americans say health care has gotten better while 31% say it’s stayed the same in the past 20 years the remaining 20% say it’s gotten worse. Neglect or malpractice causes a lot of black Americans to stay away from doctors because of the fear of dying at the hands of a doctor before the illness. There was a story of a black couple in Georgia preparing to bring a healthy baby into the world. On the day the Georgia mother went into labor the only expectation was bringing home a healthy baby. Instead, they left with tears and no baby. The baby was unfortunately killed at the hands of the doctor delivering the baby. The doctor tugged on the baby and then decapitated the poor child. The hospital tried to cover up the baby’s death by forcing the parents into getting the baby cremated immediately. “It’s diabolical in my mind,” Edmond said. “That they tried to force her to get the baby cremated to basically spoil the evidence. That they lied to them saying, ‘You can’t get a free autopsy at the expense of Clayton County.'” says Dr. Roderick Edmond. This is just one of many stories and I believe unfortunately won’t be the last. The real reason behind black Americans receiving less proper health care is because people think that being black makes you 10x stronger than the average person. This will never make sense to me because if you peel back everyone’s skin we all bleed the same. 

Negussie, Tesfaye. “Baby Decapitated during Labor at Georgia Hospital Ruled a Homicide.” ABC News, 7 Feb. 2024, abcnews.go.com/US/baby-decapitated-labor-georgia-hospital-ruled-homicide/story?id=107036801.

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Funk, Cary. “Black Americans’ Views about Health Disparities, Experiences with Health Care.” Pew Research Center Science & Society, Pew Research Center, 7 Apr. 2022, http://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/04/07/black-americans-views-about-health-disparities-experiences-with-health-care/.

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Hatfield, Jenn, et al. “5 Facts about Black Americans and Health Care.” Pew Research Center, 21 Dec. 2023, http://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/12/21/5-facts-about-black-americans-and-health-care/.