Author: Isha Yardi
Intersectionality, a term coined by Dr. Kimberelé Crenshaw, refers to the idea that systems of oppression are inherently bound together, and thus create singular social experiences for people who bear the force of multiple systems. In her TED Talk on the urgency of intersectionality, Crenshaw explains that being both a person of color and a woman is strikingly different than being either a woman or a person of color.
Health challenges and issues such as racial inequality do not exist as isolated cases. It is an institutional inability to recognize that social issues exist at the cross-roads of one another, as Crenshaw describes, that is truly the most important health-related problem we face today.
Intersectionality can help us understand how to effectively and sustainably address a myriad of health challenges. For example, the quality of care and the issues that black women face as patients is largely different from the quality of care that black male patients experience in non-racially competent hospitals. According to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control, women of color are 400% more likely to die from pregnancy related complications. Upon close inspection of these deaths, Dr. Ana Langer, the director of the Women’s Health Initiative at Harvard, notes that a “significant portion of these deaths could be prevented” largely because, at the core of these statistics exists inequitable treatment provided to black women motivated typically by a doctor’s implicit bias.
More recently, on July 5th, 2020, The New York Times published an article detailing the racial inequity of the coronavirus. A thorough analysis of data acquired by the Freedom of Information Act suit reveals that Black and Latinx minorities have a significantly higher rate of coronavirus infection than any other racial group. Social distancing, working from home, and receiving vocationally-tied healthcare benefits are privileges inherently afforded to those with systemic opportunities. The coronavirus and its toll on the United States has revealed not only fragility of our healthcare system, but also the dangers of treating public health as exclusive of other social challenges.
In the wake of senseless deaths caused by acts of police brutality and a serious overhaul in the way we approach justice and incarceration, it is imperative that we include a critical reexamination of the biases present in our healthcare systems in this agenda. In order to penetrate barriers that exist in healthcare, we need to consider intersectionality, and the fact that we can’t fully combat one social issue without taking into account the implications of others.