Rhetorical Analysis –
Racism in Medicine
Mavel Hidalgo
English Composition 11000
Ian Murphy
The City College of New York
Student Article
Unshackled, but still bound: An exploration of racism in medicine.
In Alexis Griffin’s unshackled, but still bound: an exploration of racism in medicine features the very real activity of racism in our society today. Dr. Alexis Griffin was a 2nd year OB/GYN resident at tufts medical center at the time of writing this article. Her experiences and her being a physician who is surrounded by the medical environment makes her credible. This article specifically touches on what it means to be black in America. The exigence of facing racism in all aspects, when it seems to not matter to those that it doesn’t affect directly. Griffin begins detailing the end of her day. Her tone is of sadness and anger when she reads an article on the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police. She touches on her first struggle with racism which was when she was in middle school and classmates refused to lend her lip gloss because of her skin color. This experience was somewhat of a catalyst for her discovery of racism in society. Then during her first year of being a physician Dr. Griffin states how she observed racism at a systemic and individual level. She noticed minorities oversaw minor jobs while most physicians were white, stating “historically, having a lighter skin complexion granted slaves the privilege of working in the house as opposed to working in the field. Similarly, in the hospital setting, education is what grants privilege and allows minorities to advance, working in higher paying positions.” On an individual level however, Dr. Griffin experienced an attending use the N-word whilst telling her a story. She was fearful of reporting her higher up physician because of the power dynamic. She felt powerless. After a detailing more experiences which are clearly acts of systemic racism and how this all fit to her life in the medical field, she goes on to speak to the targeted audience. Asking things like “will we every truly be free?” and later on saying “The answer is yes.” It’s very clear she is speaking to her fellow minority groups, especially those who are entering or thinking about a career in the medical field. It’s also clear how firm and serious she is on her stance. Her language was very formal and informative, she was able to convey her point on the topic across very well. The genre chosen for this article was descripted and informative. The author found a way to tell her story and detail important information which facilitates the audiences understanding. Her purpose in writing this article is to reflect and shine light on the injustice of racism and how it affects those in the medical field. Not just physicians but also patients of color alike.
News article –
First, do not harm: Lets eradicate the inherent racism in medicine.
Ethnic minority doctors and patients still face too many injustices in the medical field and the news article “First, do not harm: Lets eradicate the inherent racism in medicine” is a prime example of this. Dr. Starane Shepard is an assistant professor of neurology and neurocritical care physician at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. While writing this news article he explains when he first experienced racism as a doctor. A patient mistook Shepard as a member of the hospital’s kitchen staff on his first night working as an intern in the ER. Not seeing him as a young doctor who entered the room to perform an examination simply because of his race. The author is credible in this piece because he speaks specifically on the racism, he as a doctor experienced first-hand. He is also credible because he uses statistics of medical school aiding to race-based facts in teaching matter. The audience to whom Dr. Shepard is directing himself to is to those who are entering the world of medicine and are discouraged by instances where they have been targeted because of race. This article follows a very informative yet dignified tone with the way the author explains the teachings of race-based facts without all the information needed being used. This then leading to racial stereotypes in medical teachings and practices. The language used by the author was very formal yet emotive. It really helped convey the message but also understand to an emotional extent the feel of the struggle being discussed. The purpose of Dr. Shepard in writing this article is to help others understand that continuing to attribute skin color to biological significance has and will continue to result in detrimental causes for those of color. To help those patients and physicians who have experiences some sort of racial prejudice within medical scholarity or field alike not get discouraged by the event. The genre used was descriptive and informative as it easily details the necessary information for the audience to understand the main issue at hand.
Magazine Article –
Doctors on their own when dealing with racism from patients.
What does a doctor who faces racism from a patient do? Answer is, there not much to do. This article written by Lauren Vogel details an experience from Dr. Cornelia Wieman, who is Canadas first female indigenous psychiatrist, says she’s had patients refuse to see her because she’s indigenous. The doctor tried communicating with a specific patient to work something out. Even though she did not have to she tried to, in a sense prove, to the patient she knew exactly what she was doing and how her race didn’t hinder her work ethic. Dr. Wieman said she felt humiliated and her resolve for the issue was to call and outpatient clinic to get another doctor sent to treat the patient. She later goes on to say, “I didn’t feel like I had a choice, and even now, 20 years on, I don’t know if I would, either.” The author’s credibility is apparent because of the data she details from specific medical groups are reliable and Dr. Wieman is a reputable and widely known psychiatrist in Canada. The purpose of the author in writing this article is to shed light on how real the matter of racism is and how doctors who face this in the workplace have very little resources to help. It helps extenuate the reality of the matter and it gives options on what can be done to help and prevent racist situations from continuing to happen in future instances. The exigence is that in the medical world there are no policies or protocols to protect and guide doctors who are targeted and have been victims of racism by patients. The audience this article is targeted to would be the people in power positions in the medical field. Professional medical organizations, medical schools, regulators, all those people who may have a way of helping in the instance that a medical staff or student is targeted in this situation. The tone in this article is very informative since it shares statistics of medical groups who face racial abuse and important recourses physicians can use in the event of them being subjected to racism. The author approached this topic very formally and this helped them convey the topic and Dr. Wieman’s experience with no problem. The genre the author used came off as descriptive yet somewhat persuasive in the delivery of getting the point across. Statistical evidence was present which aided the authors viewpoint.
Website –
Racist patients often leave doctors at a loss.
Dr. Dorothy R. Novick is a pediatrician located in Philadelphia and the author of “Racist patients often leave doctors at a loss.” Which was published by The Washington Post and where she discusses the lack of training in medicine when it comes to racism and racist patients. Dr. Novick narrates how a patient did not want to be treated by a colleague and physician in training simply because they were Hispanic. The patient was 6 years old. Novick goes on to say, “Patients refuse care based on health-care providers’ ethnicity and religion so often that this phenomenon has been dubbed “medicine’s open secret.” It is understood that patients have the right to choose their own healthcare providers but there are two questions Dr. Novick says, emerge when discussing this topic. How do physicians balance the patients right to determine their care with the providers obligation to treat? And how should healthcare providers productively discuss the harmful effects of prejudice with patients? She later goes on to say, “Many of us deal with racism the way we have been trained to deal with politics in the exam room, which is not at all.” “We miss a crucial opportunity for therapeutic intervention. When I treat racist patients but fail to adequately address the effect of their words and actions on my colleagues, I not only avoid teachable moments; I condone hate.” As pediatricians they are in position to address harmful behaviors in children. Whether that may be teaching timeout for toddlers or reaching out to the American academy of pediatrics for recommendation to access and treat bullying. But when it comes to racism Dr. Novick says they are often at a loss because no training or resources has been available to them. This shows how racial intolerance is not seen as a specific problem for high up organizations in the medical community. In other instances when professionals want to help, they find themselves at a loss because in their training there are no sections addressing this. This is where the problem lies dormant. Novick addresses her audience by saying “As a profession, we must learn to address racism as well as we address other harmful behaviors.” Dr. Novick’s audience would be those physicians who are in a privileged position and are willing to help yet don’t know how to do so. The author is credible because she used a lot of information which can be investigated further and proven, as well as her article being published by the Washington post. The Washington post being a credible and reputable source. The tone of this article is very informative because it presents to the audience compiled data and statistics. The language is professional and formal in the way the author is describing all the issues and the data behind her thought process. Dr. Novick’s purpose in writing this article is to find ways to speak out on racial injustice specially for those who are in privileged positions and don’t know which way to help without causing neglect towards patients. The genre for this article would be somewhat persuasive and descriptive yet informative. The author found ways to present all the information and data needed to get her point across.
References
Griffin, A. (2020). Unshackled, but Still Bound. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 136 (5), 1044-1046. doi:10.1097/AOG.0000000000004122.
Starane Shepherd. (2020). First, do no harm: Let’s eradicate the inherent racism in medicine. Chicago Tribune (1963).
Vogel. (2018). Doctors on their own when dealing with racism from patients. Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), 190(37), E1118–. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.l09-5633
Dorothy R Novick. (2017). Racist patients often leave doctors at a loss. In The Washington Post (Online). WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post.
