Doctor Goes Viral for Explaining How Biases Affect the Healthcare Black Patients Receive (Distractify)

_{By Robin Zlotnick, June 9, 2020, Distractify.} 

If you want concrete evidence of deeply ingrained racism, look no further than our doctors and healthcare workers. Dr. Jennifer Lincoln is going viral on TikTok for explaining just how rampant implicit bias is in hospitals and doctors' offices. 

She highlights a 2016 study, which found that about half of white medical students and residents subscribed to the false narrative that Black people feel less pain than white people and were more likely to "suggest inappropriate medical treatment for Black patients," according to Stat News. The video really says a lot about how unconscious biases result in poorer treatment for Black people. 

These medical students believed that Black people had "thicker skin" or that "their nerves didn't work the same way," two absolutely false beliefs. Dr. Lincoln explains that these myths are not new. They, in fact, are "holdovers from the days of slavery, when white people had to feel better about using slaves."

Please click here to read more.