Feb 26, 2024 3 min read

By Car’Liyah Walden

First-place high school essay

The pain African American women have experienced because of racism in the healthcare industry is unbelievable. Women of color have had to second guess whether they were getting adequate care for centuries because of the racism that plagues our healthcare system.

First, women’s rights to end an unwanted pregnancy were abolished two years ago. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women’s maternal mortality rate in 2021 was almost three times the number of white women. This rate has only risen after the overruling of Roe v Wade. Consequently, with most women of color falling under the poverty level they would be unable to travel somewhere to get the procedure done, putting their health and body at risk.

Second, another example of cruel treatment towards African American women is James Marion Sims’ experiments. From 1840 to 1849, Sims had performed a series of experimental operations under the racist notion that Black women didn’t feel pain like white women. It was only after 30 operations on one 17-year-old African American girl that he honed his method. These dreadful experiments were performed without anesthesia, meaning that those women had to endure this invasive surgical operation awake and alert. Yet, he was adorned with the title of “Father of modern Gynecology.” That kind of racist ignorance towards Black women is what African American women fear today.

Third, I would like to give notice to Rebecca Lee Crumpler. She was a woman who challenged the prejudice about women and African Americans by becoming the first African American woman to earn a M.D. degree. Women like her changed the atmosphere of hospitals around the U.S. They give hope to the women of America that their pain will be recognized and taken seriously. Rebecca Lee Crumpler has become an inspiration for African American women in healthcare.

Finally, I find the health and safety of African American women to be of most importance at this time. According to statistics from the FBI, in 2022 even though Black people only made around 14 %of the population they made up around 37% of missing people (Katharina Buchholz, July 26, 2023). Even though Black women missing were so high the news almost never covered them. When we compare the amount of news coverage white women get to Black women it shows that white women are overrepresented in comparison to Black women. This kind of bias is dangerous for Black women for fear that if they went missing there wouldn’t be anything said about it.

In conclusion, America must do better to protect the health and safety of African American women. From cruel experiments to being the first black M.D., Black women have built themselves up even when in the hands of danger. Now it is up to the people in power to help and protect these women.

Car’Liyah Walden is in 10th grade at Washington High School.