The Color of Care

This is truly what is happening in America and it's sad that people are upset by the truth instead of being upset about the lack of quality of healthcare care and compassion for people of color. It's real and disturbing... what do we do as a nation.

A lot of people won't want to hear the truth put forth by this documentary. And their negative response is the very sentiment the documentary exposes.

If you have never watched a documentary on race in American medicine, you should definitely watch _The Color of Care_. If you think you've watched enough documentaries about race in American medicine, you should still watch this one. It is a time capsule of the impact of the early COVID-19 pandemic on minoritized populations in the United States. As a physician, I do not want to believe it is true that sick individuals could be turned away from care, but as story after family story is told in this moving film, I had to come to the realization (yet again) that American medicine does not operate the way I would want it to. As a trained medical historian, I can vouch for the accuracy of the interpretation of how it is that we got to where we are today. We can--must--do better both individually and as a society.

Thank you, Oprah!!! A few weeks ago, I talked to my doctor about the mathematical algorithm mentioned in this documentary. It's almost universally used in the US to "correct" black people's kidney test results. This wasn't a matter of me feeling like somebody maybe might have discriminated against me. It had appeared, in writing, in my lab results. Somehow, my kidneys are different because I have a certain level of melanin in my skin. I told my doctor that I did not want that "correction" used in my health care. The "correction" allows me to be sicker than a white person but makes my numbers appear to be better. The better numbers falsely indicate that I'm healthier than I actually am.

So how did we get to this algorithm? People from all over the western African continent were brought to the US as slaves, where they interbred with people from all over the world. Some of that interbreeding was voluntary, and some of it was not. All of the descendants of these people with widely varied genetic backgrounds are seen as being exactly the same. Statistically, that makes no sense.

It appears to be based on a belief that white people and black people are fundamentally different, so the numbers are cooked to reinforce that belief. Jim Crow laws were also based on the belief that white people and black people are fundamentally different. I thought that the country got past that long ago.

Multi-billionaire Oprah Winfrey provides 90 minutes of compelling evidence that the USA is a fundamentally racist country where a black person will never thrive. Multiple examples are detailed showing that non-whites can't even get lifesaving healthcare and are left to die.