I wrote about the trial of George Floyd's body & the history of medical racism for @AlterNet. Chauvin's defense attempted to paint Mr. Floyd as both so weak & so strong that he was responsible for his own death. This is reflective of systemic prejudice. https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/george-floyd-2652760645/

This was a tough piece for me to write, both intellectually and emotionally. The connections were clear to me: we abuse Black bodies from birth until death. We also treat Black people as dangerous. But, when Black people suffer, from choke-holds to COVID, we blame their weakness.

There were things I knew before writing and researching this piece. I knew about maternal health disparities. I knew Black people were less likely to receive kidney donations. But there was so much I did not know. And, as I absorbed it all, I wanted to scream.

Black babies are less likely to receive hearing diagnoses & care.
Black adults are less likely to have early heart intervention.
Black women are less likely to have breast cancer, but more likely to die.
Black people are more likely to have amputated limbs from kidney disease

When I started to write this piece, I wrote down a list of every organ and diagnosis I could think of. From brains to bones to skin to breasts to prostates. And I found, at every level, the disparities exist, even when socioeconomic status is controlled for.

This is racism.

I also knew, intuitively, that we blame Black people for disparities. I saw this throughout the literature. 1 reference after another about "medical literacy." I thought, if I saw just one more article that blamed Black people for outcomes, I would throw my computer out a window

I also knew that Black people's pain was less well recognized. I didn't know that this lack of recognition extended to the treatment of children's broken bones or failing appendixes. I didn't know that white people literally sweat less when they see a Black person in pain.

This all, of course, converges in our society's reaction to COVID-19 disproportionately affecting Black Americans. How many Black people had cops called on them for "looking dangerous" in 2020? And how many suffered from respiratory or kidney failure that we blamed on them?

From the moment a Black child cannot hear to the moment a Black man cannot breathe: this is American society. And we should all sit with this. As soon as Black babies are born, we deprive and even abuse them. And then we blame their own hearts when white violence kills them.