By Dr. Sawraj Singh
My family and I have the unfortunate experiences of becoming victims of racism in medicine. However, it is not the personal tragedy or the personal suffering which is motivating me to expose and confront racism in medicine. I feel that it should be done because it has much wider implications.
Racism in medicine is not only affecting the medical profession but is adversely affecting the American people and the people of the world. Some may feel that this assertion puts exaggerated claim of the ill-effects of racism in medicine. However, racism in medicine is an extremely dangerous phenomenon and in this article I want to briefly dwell on this issue.
Doctors and the law enforcing authorities are the two pillars of racism in America. However, there is a big difference in the perception of public about these two. Scandals and atrocities against the minorities by the law enforcement agents is common knowledge. The medical profession is generally perceived in a positive vein. As individuals, many doctors become victims of lawsuits which are primarily motivated by the greed of making a quick buck. There are lawyers, sometimes known as ambulance chasers, who are hovering around like vultures to pounce on any opportunity to make money out of a tragedy. When any doctor becomes a victim of these lawyers, than he realizes the fragility and inadequacy of the American legal system in dealing with all of these lawsuits, which have been primarily generated by the desire to make easy and quick money.
Even if some doctors suffer individually, but as a group, the doctors continue to exert a lot of power and influence not only on the domestic policy, but also the foreign policy of the country. Most doctors hold extreme rightist, reactionary, and racist ideas. They were the strongest and the most ardent supporters of President Bush’s policies, which led to the beginning of the end of the American Era. At home, these policies have deepened the racial division and have set a stage for racial confrontation and even a race war.
There are several studies available which have proved that the medical practice is affected by racism. However, with all the talk of reforming the health care system, no one has tried to address this problem. The existing laws only serve as a window dressing. Many doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, medical licensing and disciplinary boards and the other state agencies such as the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), continue to practice racism without being taken to task.
There continue to be many charges of racial discrimination and prejudice, but no one has seriously tried to address these. The racial breakdown of the victims of the disciplinary and adverse actions should be made public to answer the question about minority doctors being punished out of proportion to their numbers.
In my 25 years of practice in the state of Washington, I have repeatedly seen the minority physicians become victims of the DSHS and the Washington State Licensing Board. However, after repeated requests, no investigation to prove or disprove these allegations has been carried out.
America is a multicultural society. Its future is best served by looking at its diversity as its biggest asset because it fits right into the emerging multi-polar world. Racism, overt or covert, is the biggest challenge not only for the supremacy and hegemony of America, but for its mere survival. Moreover, the racist policies can push the world to a very dangerous and destructive Third World War. Racism, wherever it exists in America should be exposed and confronted. The medical profession needs this approach the most. The Indian people are the keenest people to make their children doctors. Out of all of the minorities, Indians have the largest number of doctors compared to their numbers. They should join the other minorities and all justice-loving people to make the medical profession more transparent and fair. Fairness and transparency always help to make a country stronger.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
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