“Why was school dismissed early, Mommy?” asks my 10-year-old.
Having to explain an unjust judicial system to a child is difficult and frankly uncalled for in a supposedly democratic society. The mere fact that in the year 2017 the social inequities are no different than during the 1940s when Thurgood Marshall was trying the Groveland Boys case in Florida is shameful.
The constant fear, anxiety, and anger that these repetitive injustices invoke should be listed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as major risk factors for early deaths in people of color.
For many in our communities, it is difficult to understand the ramifications of the constant news reports of black men being stopped by police and those encounters ending in a deadly manner. For many it is difficult to fathom that when your teenage son or nephew leaves the house, your heart rate rises to unhealthy levels and your respiratory rate increases as if you are in a fight-or-flight response.
However, for a large proportion of our society, this heightened state of awareness is an everyday reality. This added daily pressure of having to always think about race is overwhelming.
For certain portions of our communities, healthcare and the judicial system share many things in common. One is a lack of trust in the people who administer it. As a healthcare provider, it saddens me to hear people say that, but I cannot trivialize what a person feels and has internalized.
If someone has never felt like they mattered or they have been discriminated against within the very system that is charged with helping them, why would we expect them all of a sudden to have faith in a bureaucracy that fails them over and over again?
My patients are hurting. They are tired of attending funerals of young people who never had a chance to fulfill their God-given destinies. They are tired of burying fathers from senseless violence, and they are sick of hearing that the case is still unsolved or that the perpetrator will not be held accountable. Who is fighting for my patients?
Several studies over the years have documented relationships between racism and health outcomes. For instance, racism has shown a negative effect upon mental health. People who have been discriminated against report a wide variety of symptoms, some of which include low self-esteem, distress, and lack of life satisfaction.
For some, these negative experiences as they relate to race has resulted in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. I recall reading stories about how the teens who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 were bullied, spat on, and even had acid thrown into their eyes. I am certain they remember those events as if they were yesterday.
It is impossible to separate current political and judicial unrest from health and wellness. Lack of sleep, hair loss, and loss of appetite are all signs and symptoms of stress and can result from what is happening right now before our very eyes. Sleep aids and appetite stimulators are only Band-Aids to those problems. In-depth solutions are needed to conquer the underlying problems in our seemingly lopsided society.
All citizens deserve a chance to be healthy and live long enough to see their grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up.
Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D., is an assistant professor at SLUCare Family Medicine and the medical accuracy editor of The St. Louis American. Email her at yourhealthmatters@stlamerican.com.
