In her TED talk, a sociologist and law professor Dorothy Roberts examines the faults of race-based medicine. She critics the Western medicine's tendency to consider the race as a biological rather than a social category, pointing out the injustices and negative implications of this biased and outdated practice.
Roberts argues that race is used as a useless proxy that more often than not distracts rather than helps with diagnoses and treatments. When doctors focus on race they disregard patients' symptoms, family illnesses, as well as other potentially useful information. She asserts that these variables are more evidence-based than the race category (Roberts).
Roberts provides many specific examples of the harmful effects that this kind of misguided practice brings. GFR, an index used to determine kidney function, is frequently interpreted by race based on the assumption that African Americans have more muscle mass compared to people of other races. Furthermore, she points out that black and Latino patients are twice as likely to be denied pain medication than whites because of the outrageous stereotypes claiming they exaggerate their pain and are predisposed to drug addiction (Roberts). There is even a race-oriented pill called BiDil that aims to treat heart failure in African Americans. Roberts states that the pill was developed without having race or genetics in mind, but that it was marketed to black patients for commercial reasons. This approach ultimately backfired because black people were suspicious of a medicine that was designed specifically for them.
Roberts concludes that there is a huge disparity between the many breakthroughs of modern medicine and doctors' insistence on using an outdated classification system. She suggests that we should abandon these antiquated practices and replace them with what we now know to be true about human genetics.
Work Cited
Roberts, Dorothy. "Dorothy Roberts: The Problem with Race-based Medicine." Dorothy Roberts: The Problem with Race-based Medicine. 17 Apr. 2016. Lecture.
