Deirdre Cooper Owens is with the Department of History and the Humanities in Medicine Program, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Sharla M. Fett is with the History Department, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA.
Am J Public Health. 2019 Oct;109(10):1342-1345. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305243. Epub 2019 Aug 15.
The legacies of slavery today are seen in structural racism that has resulted in disproportionate maternal and infant death among African Americans.The deep roots of these patterns of disparity in maternal and infant health lie with the commodification of enslaved Black women's childbearing and physicians' investment in serving the interests of slaveowners. Even certain medical specializations, such as obstetrics and gynecology, owe a debt to enslaved women who became experimental subjects in the development of the field.Public health initiatives must acknowledge these historical legacies by addressing institutionalized racism and implicit bias in medicine while promoting programs that remedy socially embedded health disparities.
当今奴隶制的遗留问题体现在结构性种族主义上,导致非裔美国人的母婴死亡率不成比例。这些母婴健康差异模式的深层根源在于将被奴役的黑人女性的生育能力商品化,以及医生为奴隶主利益服务的投资。即使是某些医学专业,如妇产科,也欠了被奴役的女性一笔债,因为她们成为了该领域发展的实验对象。公共卫生倡议必须通过解决医学领域的制度化种族主义和隐性偏见,同时推广纠正社会固有健康差异的项目,来承认这些历史遗留问题。