Southern Reckoning With Medical Myth Of Race As A Diagnostic Tool
Throughout my early medical education in the Deep South, race was ever-present, shaping the way we were taught to diagnose, treat, and even perceive human beings. It wasn't just a footnote; it was the lead. At medical schools across the country, we were trained to introduce patients starting with their race: "An 82-year-old Black female presents with…" as if the race descriptor was a biological diagnostic tool in itself.
Our lecture slides often oversimplified the complexity of human life into neat, racialized boxes. Clinical "risk factors" were organized by skin color, and certain diseases were described as if they only belonged to specific groups.