Med. the Mythology of Race

1 Credit · Level: Undergraduate

Medical institutions have played a principal role in constructing and preserving racial mythologies. Mythologies centered on the false notions of innate biological differences and cultural stereotypes have served to both naturalize racial health disparities and uphold a broader racial hierarchy in society. Despite race being a social and political construct, medical institutions (including medical education) have served to (re)invent and carry forward the false notion that race is a natural, hereditary, taken-granted fact about a person that informs a range of biological and cultural tendencies. Within the culture of medicine, the construction and preservation of racial mythologies occur within every aspect of a clinical encounter including the diagnostic and treatment decisions. Students must develop a structural and historical analysis in order to cultivate a critical awareness of these phenomena in medicine. In this course, students will critically analyze contemporary medical (and research) practices – communication, medical documentation, diagnosis, treatment & level of care decisions – that perpetuate racial mythologies, stereotypes, and other false beliefs. In addition, students will trace the roots of these ideas to their origins within European colonization, enslavement, and eugenics.