Module 10 Health and Environmental Racism

History of Helath disparities in the united states

  • involuntary experimentation on african americans

    • slaves had no option to refuse treatment

    • story of john brown (slave)

      • performed experiements on him after he cured his master

      • subjected himt o extreme levels of heat to find cure of sunstroke

      • making him bleed everyday

      • burned him to see how deep black skin went

    • american gynocology founded by testing on enslaved black women

      • tortured them by not admisistering anaesthia and not trating their infections

    • bodies of slaves used by medical college of georgia through grave robbing

    • tuskegee syphillis experiement

      • tested men who they found for syphillis, did not tell them they had syphillis so they coul dod an experiment on the effects of longterm syphillis on the body

      • did not treat them or encourage them to get treatment bc did not tell them they had it

    • radiation testing

      • effects of plutonium (radiation) on body to test effects of nuclear weapons

      • black man in tennnessee in a serious accident, doctors said he would not survive so they put radiation in him to test and them tried to test the radiation posioining on him

      • extracted his bones and teeth

      • he didnt die

  • free black people as mentally and physically unfit

    • used numbers of black mentally disabled people (deemed by govt mind you) to show they were unfit as self governing on census

    • census was innacurate ofc but they did not care

    • used to justify slavery through scientific racism

    • belief black ppl were more naturally prone to diseases, however this is due to economic factors rather than race

    • also used to justify sterlization “mississippi appendectomy”

explaining health disparities by race and ethincity today

  • african american at every age more likely than other racial group to die

    • socio economic status and health disparities by race

      • a.a do not experience same health gaines as white in increase in socioeconomic status

      • all levels of edu, black women more likely to have low birthweight babies (higher risk of death)

    • segregation and health

      • racial residential segregation primary cause of health disparitiy bc effects educational opportunities of children, concentrates poverty, and forces black ppl to live in enviornments that are unhealthy

      • segregation has adverse health outcomes for black ppl bc it creates pathogenic residential conditions

        • buy more alc with liq stores on corner, higher rates of violent crime, food deserts

    • individual racism effects

      • discrimination —> stress —> health outcomes bad

      • coping strategies to dealth with stress leads to bad behaviors that lead to bad health outcomes

  • life course perspectives

    • life course perspectives: how health outcomes change over life course

      • cumulative disadvantage (how disadvanyteges accumulate over life course)

      • weathering hypothesis

        • how constant exposure to stress accelerates health decline

enviornmental racism

  • institutional polciies and practices that differentially affect the health outcomes or living conditions on people of color

  • ex: living next to polluted freeway, toxic waste dumps, food deserts

  • black children more likely than white to have lead posioning bc 68% live within 30 miles of coalfired power plant

  • placement of hazardous waste facilities

    • lack of plumbing facilities more likely to affect black ppl, bad for health

  • cancer alleys

enviornemntal justice

  • dakota access pipleine

  • 1970, hydpe park residents (georgia) struggle to get sewage paved roads and running water for their communities

    • alos toxin emmissions

  • flint water crisis

Race, Gender, and Genetic Technologies: A New Reproductive Dystopia

  • reproductive technologies tha allow for genetic selection

    • select the “best” embryos

  • wealthy white women provided access to technologies while laws discourage women of color from having children

  • eugenics

  • women on public assistance are discourgaed from having more children through reform laws

  • unregulated fertility clinics implant imprivileged women

  • population control ideology and how it affects these groups

    • social inequaities caused by childbearing women of color who are poor

    • sterotypes of black females makes them targeted in these laws

    • lower in the reproductive hiearchy

  • reprodgenetics makes women resposible for ensuring genetic fitness of their children

    • attempt to reduce social welfare

Nothing protects black women from dying in pregancy and childbirth

  • story of epidemiologist at the CDC dying after giving biryh to her child

  • had high educational attainment with a phd from johns hopkins and was a uniformed member of the us public health service

  • black mothers die at 3-4x the rate of white mothers

  • black new mothers in the usa die at same rate as women in mexico

  • black college educated mothers more likely to die in childbirth than white women who never graduated form high school

  • hospitals where they give birth are products of historical segregation (enviornmental racism)

  • unconsious bias in medical system, doctors dont take pain seriosuly, limited diversity in health care field, med field overwhemingly white

  • black women more likely to deliver prematurely

12 examples of enviornmental racism

  • cancer alley between new orleans and baton rougue with pollutants and toxins

  • flint michigan water crisis

  • the bronx with asthma alley

  • pahokee florida with sugarcane burning

  • uniontown oil spill with everyone getting brain cancer and lukemia