Throughout history, people were always classified into various groups. Apparently, this phenomenon still exists in current society. No matter in which kind of environment, even in the society of wildlife, hierarchy is deeply inscribed in the soul of creatures. Just like the quotes from D’lgnazio and Klein, “We might edit his statement to add that it’s a measure of who we value in health, too.” In the medical field, patients are treated differently based on their status, and skin color. Although the principle of a hospital does advocate for equality, not every staff has the spirit of selfless dedication. Therefore, the phenomenon of racism couldn’t be fully eliminated. It might be a bit brutal that personnel at the top level do not have time to investigate “little things”. The only way to access and interpret these “little things” is by data. Apparently, those data do not reveal what is really happening. Hence, it is hard to fully eliminate such an unfair phenomenon.
Serena Williams’ case can support my idea. “Why did it take the near-death of an international sports superstar for the media to begin paying attention to an issue that less famous Black women had been experiencing and organizing around for decades?” The quote shows that Williams, with her fame as a tennis champion, still experienced less attention than white women in the hospital. Later, when this case was known and spread by the media. Those top-level staffs start to pay attention to such phenomenon. Following this, policies about equality were made and implemented in hospitals. In addition, this instance indicates that data science is not good enough because it could not reflect all pros and cons. Also, this type of information is interpreted by looking directly at data and not by contact with people/things involved. Therefore, it is hard to fully eliminate unfairness by analyzing data.
I like the point you brought up when you said, “In the medical field, patients are treated differently based on their status, and skin color. Although the principle of a hospital does advocate for equality, not every staff has the spirit of selfless dedication.” It reminds of the issue of police brutality. Police officers are there to protect and serve, but people get treated very differently based on their skin color and, as we know, police officers have a lot of power over regular people. In the case of Serene Williams, the doctors only performed tests that she had to fight for them to do. It makes you wonder, if she had been a white women or if she hadn’t been a famous athlete, would her birth experience been better? We don’t know why black women experience higher rates of mortality at childbirth, but racism amongst healthcare professionals could potentially play a role and without data to analyze these people in positions of power and structures that have been in place for decades, we will never know.