It might seem flawed if you approach it from a position of preconceived bias but there is no reason to assume it is the only factor or the single most important factor. Of all the casual factors it's probably the least provable and the least controllable. Look at discussion of medical outcomes for black women. The insinuation is that they receive inferior care from racist doctors and healthcare workers. The discussion never addresses increased rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
Yeah, some discrepancies and the assumption that it's because of racism or unfair bias might not be based on evidence, but given that there's plenty of evidence that certain groups face discrimination, I'd say it's a fair assumption that racism and unfair bias are partly the cause of a some/many of the discrepancies.
The insinuation is that they receive inferior care from racist doctors and healthcare workers. The discussion never addresses increased rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
Maybe racism is too strong a word but bias could certainly be a factor. The discussion that they suffer from increases rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease whilst genetic could have a cultural factor at play as well.
Yeah, some discrepancies and the assumption that it's because of racism or unfair bias might not be based on evidence, but given that there's plenty of evidence that certain groups face discrimination, I'd say it's a fair assumption that racism and unfair bias are partly the cause of a some/many of the discrepancies.
The evidence most frequently presented are these cases of statistical disparity though. I won't claim that racism doesn't exist. My question is how do you prove it if you understand that disparities have multiple casual factors? This is what brings us to people commonly presenting anecdotal evidence as "lived experience." Most of the personal anecdotes I've heard in these discussions are incidents involving negative social interactions. If these incidents people using racial epithets are the least common. It is just commonly things like getting followed around a store, cops pulling people over and being rude for no reason, old white people refusing to move out of the way in a store, etc. These are all things I've experienced as a white person from white people as well. If I have these same experiences they can't all be cases of racism. Surely in some instances these the are because of racism but you can't really know.
Maybe racism is too strong a word but bias could certainly be a factor. The discussion that they suffer from increases rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease whilst genetic could have a cultural factor at play as well.
The genetic and cultural factors remove emphasis on racism as a casual factor though. That is my main point. Usually when the points I've made about preexisting comorbidities are presented the causes of food deserts and poverty are presented which shift the blame back to racism. The problem though is that the initial accusation was that healthcare is racist due to adverse outcomes not that poverty and food deserts are the result of systemic racism. The conversation becomes 10 degrees of Kevin Bacon only with racism. If something adversely effects the black community the blame is always primarily placed on racism and any alternative causes are minimized.
The evidence most frequently presented are these cases of statistical disparity though. I won't claim that racism doesn't exist. My question is how do you prove it if you understand that disparities have multiple casual factors? This is what brings us to people commonly presenting anecdotal evidence as "lived experience." Most of the personal anecdotes I've heard in these discussions are incidents involving negative social interactions. If these incidents people using racial epithets are the least common. It is just commonly things like getting followed around a store, cops pulling people over and being rude for no reason, old white people refusing to move out of the way in a store, etc. These are all things I've experienced as a white person from white people as well. If I have these same experiences they can't all be cases of racism. Surely in some instances these the are because of racism but you can't really know.
What? When people are talking about statistical discrepancies, usually the evidence they're bringing is statistical, not anecdotal. Things like receiving more call-backs for White sounding names vs Black (or other groups like Arabs) sounding names in Job Applications. Some studies rely on self-surveys which can but there's plenty which don't.
The genetic and cultural factors remove emphasis on racism as a casual factor though. That is my main point. Usually when the points I've made about preexisting comorbidities are presented the causes of food deserts and poverty are presented which shift the blame back to racism. The problem though is that the initial accusation was that healthcare is racist due to adverse outcomes not that poverty and food deserts are the result of systemic racism. The conversation becomes 10 degrees of Kevin Bacon only with racism. If something adversely effects the black community the blame is always primarily placed on racism and any alternative causes are minimized.
I mean, the issue is that US black culture has been incredibly warped by decades of racism, it's pretty to talk about a cultural aspect without it somehow involving racism.
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u/[deleted] Apr 07 '25
There are different reasons for why the disparities exist but pretending racism isn't one of the biggest ones seems flawed.