Social Implications of Constructive Ideas
Race was developed as a socially constructed way of categorizing people as superior or inferior to justify different treatment in areas such as employment, schooling, housing, and opportunities. While race is constructed, the impacts of treating people based on race are very real. We see this in health care as Black people are tested and treated differently than White people, even in cases when there is no medically supported reason to do so. One example of this different treatment is in the case of wooly hair syndrome. Wooly hair syndrome is defined by White people having abnormally strongly coiled hair in a localized area of the scalp (Pavone et. al, 2017). While Black people tend to naturally have more coiled hair, it is not seen as a medical issue like it is when a White person possesses these characteristics. In part, this is due to racist ideas surrounding hair and who is allowed to have what type of hair. When viewing this type of hair in Black people, it is not considered anything abnormal, simply just the way their hair is. The difference in White people possessing this type of hair is that there are socially determined characteristics that are deemed for one race and when someone outside that race possesses these characteristics, it is cause for concern because a White person having characteristics a Black person does is viewed as not acceptable and therefore something must be wrong with that person. At the end of the day, this medical diagnosis of wooly hair syndrome is absurd and a means of justifying why possessing Black characteristics means that there is something wrong with you out of your control, rather than embracing the beauty that comes with having hair that is different from others. Hair is viewed in terms of European style or not, and this directly translates to people categorizing hair as good or bad.
Another example of a constructed way of thinking is the differences in diagnosis and treatment between White and Black Americans in relation to hypertension. Black Americans have a higher risk for high blood pressure and the onset of hypertension which directly impacts their rates of mortality and morbidity. Often Black people with hypertension are blamed for their diagnosis by saying that it could have been prevented through healthy eating and exercise, but what is not talked about are the structural barriers that cause a lack of access to knowledge and resources such as affordable healthy food or an affordable gym membership. This graph shows the prevalence of hypertension in Black and White adults in the United States. Black people not only have hypertension at an earlier onset age, but represent a significantly larger percent of the population with hypertension than White people. There are a few parameters that are proposed for the difference in the percent of population with hypertension. These factors include salt sensitivity, body mass, and resistant and refractory hypertension. However, it is important to note that racial disparities can be enhanced by lack of prevention and treatment management. Many areas such as social determinants, access to care, fetal/early life origins, and treatment responses can factor into hypertension, but it is important to recognize the individual and structural limitations that affected Black people face, rather than blaming the individual for their medical issues (Lackland, 2015).
A final example of how Black people are not always given equal and humane treatment in health care is in the case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study that started in 1932. Black men were recruited for a study they were told was about “bad blood” in exchange for free medical exams, meals, and burial insurance (CDC, 2007). However, the studies didn’t have informed consent nor were they spared from harm. Not only were these experiments conducted in harmful and misleading ways, but when penicillin was discovered as an effective treatment in 1943 it was not offered to patients with syphilis. This is a horrible case and reminder of how Black patients are viewed as disposable, unworthy of treatment, and blatantly disregarded. Harmful practices continue in today’s health care system and often go undetected as racism. People who are non-white are automatically set up for disparities in health care just based on the racially motivated history behind many medical practices and the intentional underrepresentation of “people of color” in clinical trials.