Understanding the Role of Race and Racism in Medicine
Speaker: Toni Marie Biskup, Pediatrics Residency Program Director, College of Health Sciences
Abstract
The idea that humanity can be divided into “races” has existed for centuries and the definition continues to change with the political climate. There is no genetic basis for “race”, however socially and politically it is very real and has significant impacts on peoples’ lives due to the influences of racism. Social and medical sciences have contributed to the idea of race as a scientific entity and have supported biases that uphold racist ideologies. To this day racism has deadly consequences to the point that it is now recognized as a health crisis by numerous organizations in the US. In this talk, we will go through the history of “race”, look at examples of racism in medicine and its impacts on our lives. We will talk about ways in which we can work to dismantle racism in medicine, eliminate health disparities, and improve the way we as individuals and institutions provide care to our patients.
