Racial Profiling in the Medical Field

1390 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racial profiling good and bad

Using race as a means of predicting disease and treatment outcomes in the medical field is like using an SAT score as a prediction of how well someone will do in college. Each person is unique, like different levels of intelligence. That is why they use SAT scores to best match students with a college they will be successful in and use race as a tool to find the right medical treatment for a patient. Race is used as rough prediction on the risks and outcomes of medical treatment. This is where racial profiling is a helpful tool. Throughout history the term “racial profiling” has held negative, racial connotations which impresses upon the public that all racial profiling is negative. Yet, profiling can be used properly and effectively in the medical field and have positive benefits. Race is a broad window into someone’s ancestry, which are good predictors to someone’s health. Doctors are able to use a person’s racial identity to make timely and effective choices for their medical treatment. Add Race is also one of the most common categories used as the basis of comparison between groups in research studies. In no way is the use of racial profiling in the medical field used for demeaning purposes, but to give the patient the best treatment possible. Thesis
Race can be used as a way to link a person to their ancestry, which can lead doctors to critical information that can give their patient the best treatment they can. With all of the advances in medicine there is still no way to determine a patient’s specific genetics and be able to treat each person with respect to their unique genes. Doctors narrow down possible risk factors and medication interactions by categorizing patients, by gender, age, and race. Race is a general way f...

... middle of paper ...

... to be practical doctors would need be able to identify all of the genes in each of their patients bodies and analyze them in a timely fashion, in order to give them timely and proper medical advice. Right now this is unrealistic. Therefore they use racial profiling, not in order to discriminate, but in order to give the best and most efficient medical advice possible.
In conclusion research has shown positive outcomes from the use of racial profiling in the medical field. The ways in which race positively influences medical practices, including in correct type of medication and dosing cannot be underplayed. Race has an important place in the medical field, which is even acknowledged by the US government. With technological advances, perhaps one day the use of race can be diminishes, but in present time it is an important contributing factor to the medical field.

Show More
Related

  • Race-Based Medicine: Ted Talk By Dorothy Roberts

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Race-based medicine is not meant to divide people, but rather to give better medical help to people of a certain demographic. Race-based medicine is created based on knowledge of predispositions of any given race. For example, it is a fact that heart disease is the leading cause of death for racial groups including African-Americans, Hispanics, and whites in the United States. When medical experts have this knowledge, the process of making diagnoses is

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling in Today's Society

    1740 Words  | 4 Pages

    Racial profiling is the tactic of stopping someone because of the color of his or her skin and a fleeting suspicion that the person is engaging in criminal behavior (Meeks, p. 4-5). This practice can be conducted with routine traffic stops, or can be completely random based on the car that is driven, the number of people in the car and the race of the driver and passengers. The practice of racial profiling may seem more prevalent in today’s society, but in reality has been a part of American culture since the days of slavery. According to Tracey Maclin, a professor at the Boston University School of Law, racial profiling is an old concept. The historical roots “can be traced to a time in early American society when court officials permitted constables and ordinary citizens the right to ‘take up’ all black persons seen ‘gadding abroad’ without their master’s permission” (Meeks, p. 5). Although slavery is long since gone, the frequency in which racial profiling takes place remains the same. However, because of our advanced electronic media, this issue has been brought to the American public’s attention.

    Read More

  • Racism in Health-care

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout American history, relationships between racial and ethnic groups have been marked by antagonism, inequality, and violence. In today’s complex and fast-paced society, historians, social theorists and anthropologists have been known to devote significant amounts of time examining and interrogating not only the interior climate of the institutions that shape human behavior and personalities, but also relations between race and culture. It is difficult to tolerate the notion; America has won its victory over racism. Even though many maintain America is a “color blind nation,” racism and racial conflict remain to be prevalent in the social fabric of American institutions. As a result, one may question if issues and challenges regarding the continuity of institutional racism still exist in America today. If socialization in America is the process by which people of various ethnicities and cultures intertwine, it is vital for one to understand how the race relations shape and influence personalities regarding the perceptions of various groups. Heartbreaking as it is, racism takes a detour in acceptance of its blind side. Further, to better understand racism one must take into account how deeply it entrenched it is, not only in politics, and economics but also Health Care settings. In doing so, one will grasp a decisive understanding of "who gets what and why.” The objective of this paper is to explore and examine the pervasiveness of racism in the health care industry, while at the same time shed light on a specific area of social relations that has remained a silence in the health care setting. The turpitude feeling of ongoing silence has masked the treatment black patients have received from white health care providers...

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling: The Color of Justice in America

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    For the past few years there has been an ongoing debate surrounding the issue of racial profiling. The act of racial profiling may rest on the assumption that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to commit crimes than any individual of other races or ethnicities. Both David Cole in the article "The Color of Justice" and William in the article "Road Rage" take stance on this issue and argue against it in order to make humanity aware of how erroneous it is to judge people without evidence. Although Cole and William were very successful in matters of showing situations and qualitative information about racial profiling in their articles, both of them fail at some points.

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling by Police in Canada

    2887 Words  | 6 Pages

    Satzewich, V., & Shaffir, W. (2009). Racism versus professionalism: Claims and counter-claims about racial profiling. Project Muse, 51(2), p199-226. doi: 10.3138/cjccj.51.2.199

    Read More

  • racial profiling

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racial Profiling can happen to anyone, anywhere such as the streets, in the airports, or even just walking home. Racial profiling and the media influence an individual’s perspective on a trial. Racial Profiling is using someone’s race or ethnic background as suspicion for committing a crime. Evidence from past trials dating back to 1920s Sacco and Vanzetti trial to George Zimmerman’s trial in 2013 prove that racial profiling has existed for nearly a century. According to the article “The Quiet Racism in the Zimmerman Trial” by Steven Mazie, he states

    Read More

  • An Argument Against Racial Profiling

    1120 Words  | 3 Pages

    There have been many studies and case reports involving racial profiling, particularly racial profiling issues involving traffic stop and seizures. In a study done of reports on the stop-and-searches done on Interstate 95 in Maryland, it was found that 28.4 percent of black drivers and passengers and 28.8 percent of white drivers and passengers stopped were found with illegal contraband. (U.S. Department of Justice) The disparity between the two statistics is a mere .4 percent and shows that race is not an issue. Further reading into the seventy one page report written by the U.S. Department of Justice sho...

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every day you see and hear about minorities groups complain about cops and their tactics against them stopping them while in traffic taking them in to custody or even getting kill over nothing. Racial Profiling is a common thing in this community and it is causing a lot of trouble. According to Minnesota House of Representatives analyst Jim Cleary, "there appear to be at least two clearly distinguishable definitions of the term 'racial profiling ': a narrow definition and a broad definition... Under the narrow definition, racial profiling occurs when a police officer stops, questions, arrests, and/or searches someone solely on the basis of the person 's race or ethnicity... Some ways to stop it is find out who is guilty of it, look at their

    Read More

  • Healthcare Disparities among African Americans

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    Healthcare disparities are when there are inequalities or differences of the conditions of health and the quality of care that is received among specific groups of people such as African Americans, Caucasians, Asians, or Hispanics. Not only does it occur between racial and ethnic groups, health disparities can happen between males and females as well. Minorities have the worst healthcare outcomes, higher death rates, and are more prone to terminal diseases. For African American men and women, some of the most common health disparities are diabetes, cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and HIV infections. Some factors that can contribute to disparities are healthcare access, transportation, specialist referrals, and non-effective communication with patients. There is also much racism that still occurs today, which can be another reason African Americans may be mistreated with their healthcare. “Although both black and white patients tended not to endorse the existence of racism in the medical system, African Americans patients were more likely to perceive racism” (Laveist, Nickerson, Bowie, 2000). Over the years, the health care system has made improvements but some Americans, such as African Americans, are still being treating unequally when wanting the same care they desire as everyone else.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Racial Profiling

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racial Profiling is a big issue amongst people of color and the police force. In this paper I speak about the relations both have between each other and how stereotyping has affected society as a whole.

    Read More

  • Race: biological or cultural

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the past, races were identified by the imposition of discrete boundaries upon continuous and often discordant biological variation. The concept of race is therefore a historical construct and not one that provides either valid classification or an explanatory process. Popular everyday awareness of race is transmitted from generation to generation through cultural learning. Attributing race to an individual or a population amounts to applying a social and cultural label that lacks scientific consensus and supporting data. While anthropologists continue to study how and why humans vary biologically, it is apparent that human populations differ from one another much less than do populations in other species because we use our cultural, rather than our physical differences to aid us in adapting to various environments.

    Read More

  • Racism and Health Care Disparity

    1336 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the institute of Medicine (IOM), racism is a problem in the health care system, that is, the difference between the quality of health care received by minorities and non-minorities is due to racism. IOM is a nonprofit organization that advises the federal government and the public on science policy. It released a report that on average, minorities receive a lower quality of care, even when factors such as income and type of health insurance are accounted for. The report by IOM states that racial stereotypes and prejudice are the cause of the health care disparities. The article by IOM points ...

    Read More

  • Cultural Competence In Health Care Essay

    814 Words  | 2 Pages

    Despite the substantial developments in diagnostic and treatment processes, there is convincing evidence that ethnic and racial minorities normally access and receive low quality services compared to the majority communities (Lum, 2011). As such, minority groups have higher mortality and morbidity rates arising from both preventable and treatable diseases judged against the majority groups. Elimination of both racial and ethnic disparities is mainly politically sensitive, but plays an important role in the equitable access of services, including the health care ones without discrimination. In addition, accountability, accessibility, and availability of equitable health care services are crucial for the continually growing

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling In The Media Essay

    1513 Words  | 4 Pages

    Racial profiling can have an effect from labeling, media propaganda, the disparency of races questioned at traffic stops, and even the selective singling out of a particular race. The outcomes of these acts of discrimination verily outdo the pros. The fear within the authorities of specific races can lead to outcomes of racial profiling to be clearly displayed. Racial Profiling can see many inopportune actions executed by the authorities, influenced by tension, fear, or human

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling Thesis

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the past few years, racial profiling has become a very prominent issue in American society. In “Racial Profiling,” “Racial Profiling is a controversial and illegal discriminatory practice in which individuals are targeted for suspicion of crimes based on their ethnicity, race, or religion rather than on evidence-based suspicious behavior” (Para. 11). Many people are wronged because of this phenomenon and effects many of them in multiple ways. Racial profiling is effecting many people and it needs to be addressed.

    Read More

More about Racial Profiling in the Medical Field

Open Document