Was July Black Appreciation Month and No One told Me?!? (Part I)

A month in review.

Mid-July, rumors buzzed about an AMA Apology to be published in the July 16^th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. An apology from the prestigious medical organization to Black doctors who had been boldly denied admission to many medical societies, and thus limiting their opportunity for advancement… for over 100 years. While there has been much talk about the article, I wanted to read it myself to form my own opinions. However, refusing to pay the ~ $125 membership fee to access the documents online, until I can locate a hard copy elsewhere, I will give my initial impressions based on what I can find.

First, the abstract of the article states,

“Like the nation as a whole, organized medicine in the United States carries a legacy of racial bias and segregation that should be understood and acknowledged. For more than 100 years, many state and local medical societies openly discriminated against black physicians, barring them from membership and from professional support and advancement. The American Medical Association was early and persistent in countenancing this racial segregation. Several key historical episodes demonstrate that many of the decisions and practices that established and maintained medical professional segregation were challenged by black and white physicians, both within and outside organized medicine. The effects of this history have been far reaching for the medical profession and, in particular, the legacy of segregation, bias, and exclusion continues to adversely affect African American physicians and the patients they serve.” Source: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/300/3/306

While this is all nice and good, a series of unanswered questions pop into my head.

First and foremost, what is prompting this apology???
This apology seems to be coming from out of the blue. Is there something going on behind the scenes that we the public are not privy to? Or, is something about to emerge in the near future and the AMA wants to go on record as having apologized for a century of misdoings. Call me a skeptic, but I smell something fishy. Rarely, if ever, do people apologize for a perpetuated sin…unless they foresee punishment.

What are you, the AMA, going to do to rectify the situation?
As the abstract states, “…[it] continues to adversely affect African American physicians and the patients they serve.” So, if it continues to affect people, it is still an issue, which a simple apology will not rectify. I would like to see the AMA supporting the efforts of the NMA (National Medical Association, the African American doctor association).

Who are you?
Ok, I know the AMA stands for the American Medical Association, but really, what do you know about the AMA. I remember a Medical Ethics course I took in undergrad. One of the topics we discussed was the AMA, its function, and how it is looked upon by both sides of the medical community – physicians and patients. Where do I even begin?!? To summarize, the AMA is an organization founded by (surprise, surprise) white male physicians, and historically restricting membership to whites. Most doctors are not even members of the AMA, view it as nothing more than a social organization that collects money and power that remains unshared in the hands of a few. Designed to unite the privileged in the medical community, its aim is to retain a form of (white) power within the profession. It is a money making organization, not necessarily held in high esteem by its peers (hence why a majority of doctors are not members). However, to unsuspecting patients, any good doctor should be a member of the AMA, because to the average patient, what other medical association is known?

Are you really only apologizing to Black doctors?
What about doctors of other non-European descent?!? If the AMA, a predominantly white organization, discriminated openly against African Americans, I am fairly certain they did not greet Latino Americans, Asian Americans, or any other non-Whites with open arms.

And what about the patients affected?!? At the end of the day, by limiting progress of the physician, the AMA has limited service and care to the patients – especially within the African American population. So, while Black doctors certainly deserve an apology, their patients deserve one too. In addition to restrictions placed on physicians of color, many patients of color were also the targets of numerous unethical, unmoral, repulsive studies that members of the AMA willfully conducted within minority communities. Most obviously, there is the infamous Tuskegee Experiment that ran (officially) from 1932 – 1972. And who apologized for that? The AMA? The medical community that sat by and literally let an entire community suffer an die? No. In 1997, President Bill Clinton issued a formal apology on behalf of the United States Government, a good 65 years after initiation of the study. Disgust. Surprising, at least to me, is the amount of non-Black Americans that are ignorant of the existence of this experiment. How many have heard of the Edmunton-Zagred Measles Vaccine or the recent Norplant Experiment in Baltimore? I could go on forever…and it makes me sick. (http://www.naturalnews.com/019189.html for more info)

I have been wanting to read Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington (but as I am currently reading about 5 books, I will have to put that on the back burner). I was talking to a friend who had read this book, and she told me that what she was most concerned about reading were the experiments occurring in present-day America, right under our noses. Think about it. Where are most of the major research hospitals and institutions located? Answer: impoverished, uneducated, minority communities. Just think of any top 10 institution. With the exception of one (Princeton, which is not really research-oriented), they are all located in lower socioeconomic areas. Coincidence? I’m not sure… (and yes, sadly my undergraduate institution came up in the book on more than one occasion, causing me to shed a tear)

I really could go on and on about the issues I have with this “apology.” However, for my fingers’ sake, I shall end this discussion here. The apology is accepted and fairly well received, however it needs to be extended and its words must be put into action for it to have true meaning.