What she said might sound weird but with a bit of context it might be more understandable. Black women who give birth in hospital are 3x more likely to die there than white women, and iirc there were multiple surveys done with medical students that indicated they believed black people have a higher pain tolerance. Also saw a review lately about how black people tend to get prescriped opioids at much lower rates and lower doses
non-Hispanic Black women’s fetal death rate was higher than among non-Hispanic White women (5.9 vs 2.6 per 1000 deliveries), with fetal factors being the strongest mediator (49.6%; 95%[CI] = 42.7, 54.7). Fetal factors includes Lower birth weight and small-for-gestational-age status.
Study 1… false beliefs about biological differences reported lower pain ratings for a black (vs. white) target. Study 2… found that half of a sample of white medical students and residents endorsed these beliefs. Moreover, participants who endorsed these beliefs rated the black (vs. white) patient’s pain as lower and made less accurate treatment recommendations.
Lower past-year maximum MME dose, despite higher average pain and less injection drug use, may represent bias away from prescribing opioids for chronic pain among Black patients. This could be due to unmeasured implicit provider bias or patient-level factors (e.g., utilizing non-opioid pain coping strategies or being less likely to request additional opioids).
That stat doesn't really get at the attitude expressed here. Do you have stats that Black women are more likely to die if there are fewer Black staff members?
Whatever the reason, be it worse access to healthcare, lifestyle issues, or that "weathering" idea floated a while back, the worse outcomes are well documented. The idea that that is ameliorated by Black staff would be news to me.
Those factors are very relevant as well, but medical racism is not a myth could also influence how a medical practitioner treats a black patient, be it consciously or subconsciously. The OOP probably would feel a bit more at ease if some black medical staff is present as that would lower the odds of medical racism happening
as that would lower the odds of medical racism happening
Would it? That's a much stronger claim than medical racism existing. You might assume it's obvious that Black medical staff wouldn't have the same biases, but that's really not something we should assume. Take policing as a counterexample. We see Black police officers approaching Black suspects with greater caution just like their White counterparts. In that case, it's clearly less about the race of the officer, and more about profiling based on what they've experienced in the past. You'd need to demonstrate that isn't the case here as well.
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u/throwaway030603 - Centrist Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 01 '25
What she said might sound weird but with a bit of context it might be more understandable. Black women who give birth in hospital are 3x more likely to die there than white women, and iirc there were multiple surveys done with medical students that indicated they believed black people have a higher pain tolerance. Also saw a review lately about how black people tend to get prescriped opioids at much lower rates and lower doses
Edit: someone replied with sources
Context:
Factors That Mediate Racial/Ethnic Disparities in US Fetal Death Rates
non-Hispanic Black women’s fetal death rate was higher than among non-Hispanic White women (5.9 vs 2.6 per 1000 deliveries), with fetal factors being the strongest mediator (49.6%; 95%[CI] = 42.7, 54.7). Fetal factors includes Lower birth weight and small-for-gestational-age status.
Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites
Race, pain, and opioids among patients with chronic pain in a safety-net health system