The murky truth behind healthcare for minorities

An apple a day sometimes leads us astray.

I have said it once before and I am going to say it again: healthcare is an elemental aspect of the human condition that promotes the fortuity of our external and internal affairs. Not only does this governmental facet aid in the continued sustenance of the population, but also accounts for the prospective treatments for all its individuals. And although healthcare may be tailored to the variance of gender, the several subsets of racial minority groups, and the LGBTQ community, the acquiescence of their health-related benefactors isn’t necessarily present or actively publicized.

Now, why is that? It is estimated that nearly 5.9% of minorities and 7 million immigrants countrywide don’t have access to healthcare given the absence of enrolling for this mental and bodily necessity. Some may think of this as a foolish reparation of human ignorance that is completely avoidable if these individuals “actually put in some effort for the benefit of their health.” But the abstinence from this policy is not merely rooted in the incapacity of affording treatment (a whole other topic that contributes greatly to this dilemma), but is due in major part to the stigmatization and bigotry behind the race, gender, and sexuality of these individuals throughout the entirety of history.

This commonwealth of idiosyncrasies has been shamed, abandoned, manipulated, segregated, and victimized by this societal impropriety, thus explaining the drastic nature of these statistics. These people are blatantly hesitant to receiving treatment from an aggregation that has never had their best interest in mind and has immaturely ignored the importance of their health in relation to the rest of modern society. According to Sanaz Kharazmi (12), “the desecration of healthcare for minorities is most obviously a reparation of corporate America, an aggregation of authority that is deeply rooted in white traditionalism. And while these white, affluent individuals refuse to acknowledge their privilege and advocate for a universal sense of health coverage, they decide to turn a blind eye to the subject as they don’t believe that this societal indecency concerns them.”

A definite example of this cultural malignancy is the defilement of healthcare for Black Americans. Ever since slavery was introduced to the United States in the 17th Century, those of African descent have been appropriated for their bodies parsimoniously without their consent or definitive jurisdiction. And as a country, we ardently celebrate these medical professionals as prolific prodigies, completely ignoring the circumstances surrounding the collection of their data. For instance, James Marion Sims who is regarded as the father of modern gynecology is commemorated for his progressions in the area of contemporary surgery for the invention of the “Sim’s Speculum” (a device that gynecologists use for examinations) and the repair method for Fistula (damage done during childbirth) (Vox). But even in correspondence to these felicitous advancements, the methods to uncover the prospects of his achievements were only perpetrated by the manipulation of African American women. He inexorably experimented on those chained to the confines of slavery, often without sedation, sterilizing several women in the process of his agglomeration of data.

Not only have African Americans been infringed upon medicinally, but also those belonging to the LGBTQ+ community as well. During the 1980’s, the AIDS epidemic came to fruition, thus finding a scapegoat for this disease became just as easy, given that there was a community so vulnerable to the hostility against an aspect of their own humanity. Hence the denouncement of LGBTQ+ individuals progressed, further distancing those who needed desperate medical attention due to this disease.

Luckily as a society we have progressed past the greater and more disturbing animadversions towards the minority, but the social stigmatization and ignorance towards the medical conditions of these individuals are still present. The rate of those belonging to a minority group and being covered by healthcare is still surprisingly low and is solely the result of human ignorance. We have scared these people out of receiving necessary treatment and lost the trust of our peers, but there is still the possibility to reconcile these individuals. The answer is simply representation in the media and the promise of universally equitable healthcare. Although that this solution is vague, it has the potential of maintaining unity between all races, genders, and sexualities, all while allowing for the affirmation of all-inclusive health coverage.