IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 7 ENGLISH | Page 71

Black women and children in Pittsburgh
are to this day continuing their abhorrently low numbers, indicating systemic
lack of access to affordable, quality, not
to mention respectful and culturally
responsive health care treatment. One of
the projects in addition to intensive
weekly gatherings the WHAT'S UP
group participated in was a book club. It
was based around reading and discussing
material on different topics, plus doing
personal and group reflections and research. I felt it was important in a “company town” under the virtual monopoly
of a hospital and university medical center system, to learn more about the history of health care as it relates to the manifestation of racism in the country where
I live. I especially was interested since,
ever since being assaulted and sustaining
a traumatic brain injury, I've had ongoing medical and chronic conditions that
require treatment and follow-up care. A
small group of us read a book called
Medical Apartheid. This was a challenging and difficult read, but a thorough and
well-researched and compelling book,
that treated the topic of health and African Americans in the United States since
slavery. I learned about a phenomenon
called “iatrophobia,” where, due to generations of real torture and mistreatment
of Black patients by doctors, there might
be a mistrust or fear of health care professionals, of thinking that they do not
have the Black patients' best interest at
heart nor in mind. Current studies on
implicit racial bias on the part of treating
physicians confirm that in some cases,
this is true that doctors of all racial

backgrounds mistreat Black patients,
whether or not the doctor personally
intends to behave in a racist manner.
Reading that book would have been utterly depressing had I been reading
alone. While it was difficult emotionally
and intellectually to stomach, I cherished
being able to read it in the company of
others who could also hold the stories,
the information, we were learning. This
is one example of how doing the difficult personal and political work of learning about racism and the unfairly privileged treatment of white people with
other white people can reinstall humanity, hope, and a sense of the possibility of
real healing. Getting involved with
WHAT'S UP has also led me to participate in more social and political actions
in my hometown of Pittsburgh, from
solidarity rallies to parades to fundraising. Getting involved with WHAT'S UP
and healing from my brain injury, which
is still a part of my everyday experience
in many ways; not just because my brain
structure changed by having multiple
nerve connections damaged and necessarily rewired, but because of through no
choice or awareness of my own, having
my little bubble of white privilege that
kept me from seeing any White Supremacy playing out every day in ordinary
America burst. This injury, this attack,
this crazy incident outside the Shadow
Lounge, by the way is no longer in business due to being forced out by gentrification and aggressive economic "whitening" practices of realty and investment in
the area, changed the way I saw the
world. Now, my father got injured in the

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