Yesterday Salon published an article called “Race and the White Coat” by Dr. Rahul K. Parikh. The article discusses the proven disparities in medical care that occur in our country along racial lines. In general, white people receive better medical care than black people. That’s not to say that white doctors are kicking black cancer patients out of hospital beds to make room for white girls recovering from getting their ears pierced, but implicit biases can inform how much pain medication someone is prescribed, or who is going to be recommended for a renal transplant.
Parikh’s article mentions Harvard’s Implicit Association Test, which I took for the first time yesterday after staring at the Proceed and Cancel buttons for 15 minutes. I’m not positive, but I think the results of my test show that next time my local hospital staff pays more attention to the black gunshot victim in the ER than to the fact that the cafeteria salad bar is out of raisins and I require raisins on my salad, I will be lying if I say I’m not resentful. And that’s science, people. Get on board.