One woman’s cancer fight: a case study in structural racism
One woman’s cancer fight: a case study in structural racism
Despite the growing body of evidence showing that social forces like income, housing and educational attainment have a greater bearing on health outcomes than behavior or genetics, healthcare leaders remain reluctant to identify racism as a root cause of racial health inequities.
In an April 18 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Rush Medical College student Kristen Pallok with Dr. David Ansell and Dr. Fernando De Maio –– from Chicago’s Center for Community Health Equity –– use the experience of a 60-year-old African-American woman’s breast cancer fight to illustrate how intuitionally and culturally embedded racial hierarchies prevent people of color from meeting their basic needs.