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Our Key Beliefs

The privilege of health is critical to the realization of all other rights. Thus, our manifesto contains a radical critique of our current healthcare system and demands equity for Black women in medical spaces.

Key

Beliefs

Current problems include:

1. General mistrust of the medical institution in the Black community

2. Biases of medical practitioners in working with diverse populations

3. Higher maternal mortality among Black women

Experiments on black women's bodies

- A white dominated space

-Recorded experimentation on black women's bodies started in the 1830s.

-James Marion Sims commended for his efforts within the medical community yet tortured black women

-Their bodies were not valued in the same way that white bodies were

-Subjected to extreme mental and physical pain

- Belief about black women not feeling pain (having a thicker skin especially)

- How did this belief about black women's pain tolerance come about?

- Doctors like Sims tried to justify their racism with bad science

-This follows a consistent theme of black women being used to satisfy the needs of others. e.g Ibo women being used for their reproductive purposes in the Joys of Motherhood and Sarah Baartman being used for humiliating entertainment

-Many people think millennials are more understanding yet they still don't fully understand the history because they do not learn about the roots behind why the medical industry fails black women so badly

Iatrophobia

- Black women do not receive the same quality of care as their white counterparts do

- Caused a common condition among black women called iatrophobia

- Iatrophobia is the fear of doctors

- Why should black women trust the system now?

- And as for one of the primary concerns today, why should black women trust the COVID-19 vaccine?

Bell Hooks

Cartographies of Struggle

Chandra Mohanty

• The conversation of feminism is diluted with Western problems and ideologies
• Most women are in third world countries and are women of color. The feminism conversations should be more directed at that demographic

Joys of Motherhood

Buchi Emecheta

• Story follows Nnu Ego and her journey of motherhood.
• Being a wife and a mother in a foreign land as an impoverished black woman has its toll.
• The "Joys of Motherhood" is honestly reserved for the children, husband, and the community that makes up the blocks, the cities, and eventually the country. There's not enough "joy" for the woman.

Weathering

-Repeated stressors over course of lifetime can cause health vulnerability

-Jenga

Joys of Motherhood

• colonialists used Lagos ppl for work/labor
• Book does not mention healthcare
• Shows how underdeveloped/lacking medical care was bc colonists did not value thier lives
• Colonial thoughts mistreat black bodies, saw this in joys of motherhood and translated into modern day society

Relate to Joy

Watermelon Woman Connection

Watermelon Woman

-Lack of representation

-Cheryll trying to voice black history/stories

-mission to identify watermelon woman

-henrietta lacks, her cells replicated infinitely, docs used her cells without her knowledge, saved millions of lives wihout knowing, made big contribution progression of medical field

-"in the history of medicine,few people can say they have saved more lives then Henrietta Lacks"(BBC)

-Relates to lack of representation for POC in the medical system

Teaching Programs

Who: Medical practitioners, other medical field employees, student and employees

What: provide social courses and training programs such as racial equity programs to help inform

What: programs in schools and workplaces informing benefits of hospitals and other resources

Policy Solutions

1. Social Justice frameworks to help eliminate power imbalances

2. Strengthen insurance programs such medicaid

3. Universal Health Care Programs

4. Anti-capitalist Structure

Policy Solutions

Resources

Resources

1. Time and resources in community programs

2. Healthy food options

3. Mental health services

4. Research for pregnant individuals that may not identify as women

On Campus Healthcare Services

On Campus Healthcare Services

- Discrimination at student health?

- Equitable access to mental health resources?

- Representation among healthcare workers?

- Bias training/educational programming for healthcare workers?

- Opportunities for student feedback?

- SCC and Student Health have online patient surveys

- Student awareness of these resources?

- Accountability for incorporating feedback?

Vandy

Pre-med

Vanderbilt Premed Programming

1. Representation

- Support for students?

- Diversity among professors?

2. Education

- Premed core classes: "Out of the 15 required courses for pre-med students at Vanderbilt, none of them addressed medical racism or discrimination in healthcare"

- MHS major: MHS "extensively" covered medical racism, discussing "disparities in healthcare," "implicit biases," etc.

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Community

Engagement

Community Engagement

- Spreading awareness about lesser-known or distrusted resources

-COVID-19 vaccine

- Mental health services

**While acknowledging historical context

- Participating in local elections

- Electing representatives who will:

- Address healthcare discrimination

- Advocate for more equitable access to healthcare

- Discussing healthcare benefits for Vanderbilt employees