‘Racism is destructive to Black bodies’: Lecturer discusses medical inequality

Dr. Anna LaQuawn Hinton presented “Breathing Life into Black Wombs: Ableism, Misogynoir, and the Reproductive Injustice within the Medical Industrial Complex,” a lecture discussing racism and medical inequality, on Feb. 8 at the VCU Humanities Research Center. Photo by Rani Sisavath.
Anna Lopacinski, Contributing Writer
“Today it is no secret. It is dangerous, deadly, to give birth while Black,” said Anna LaQuawn Hinton, professor of Disability Studies and Black Literature & Culture at the University of North Texas.
VCU Humanities Research Center presented “Breathing Life into Black Wombs: Ableism, Misogynoir, and the Reproductive Injustice within the Medical Industrial Complex” on Feb. 8, according to the VCU Humanities Research Center’s website.
Dr. Hinton delivered the presentation and focused on raising awareness around the inequality in the medical field, particularly concerning mortality rates among Black birthgivers and disabilities within the Black community, according to its website.
The medical industry has enmeshed racism with advances in medical technology by using the white body as the able-bodied norm in research, resulting in harm to Black bodies, according to Hinton. This damage stems from the often overlooked and unconsidered racism that has shaped these developments, she said.
“Racism is destructive to Black bodies,” Hinton said. “There is a need for us to change our relationship to how we think about disabilities and wellness.”
Black birth givers face disproportionately higher mortality rates in comparison to their white counterparts, according to Hinton.
Thanks to the awareness brought by social media, the U.S. culture is being pressured to challenge this issue, Hinton said. However, there is a lack of general knowledge when it comes to disabilities and Black maternal life and death, she said.
“We configure the Black birthing body as simultaneously able-bodied and disabled,” Hinton said. “The Black birthing body is figured as defective and sick, yet unnaturally so because of the racism that is often the loci of debilitation. Consequently, we blame poor health, or ultimately disability, as the determining factor of mortality and morbidity rates.”
Conversations surrounding Black mortality rates tend to focus on biomedical explanations that blame Black women for their deaths, with the rate being three times more than that of white birth givers, Hinton said.
This narrative suggests Black women are responsible for not taking sufficient care of themselves when, in reality, it is the erasure of ableism and prejudice towards Black women in the medical industry that contributes to these deaths, she said.
Hinton believes people need to focus on what it’s like living in the wake of the large amount of Black deaths to solve this issue, she said.
There is limited research when it comes to disabled mothers and society has allowed them to remain invisible without the reproductive rights they deserve, according to Hinton.
“As we enter discourses about the other challenges to reproductive justice, addressing misogynoir and ableism will be more imperative than it has ever been,” Hinton said. “Especially if we want to protect and change the outcomes for Black birthing people.”
The Humanities Research Center at VCU hosted this presentation as a part of their health humanities focus for this year, according to Christine Cynn, director of the Health Humanities Lab.
Members of the lab were interested in Hinton’s work on disability justice and the incorporation of Black mortality rates and approaching healthcare inquiry from an intersectional perspective, Cynn said.
“It’s so wonderful for the HRC to be able to invite speakers who can make connections to a very diverse audience,” Cynn said. “It’s important to reframe issues that a lot of people have been thinking about for a long time, or for people who haven’t really considered these issues, to understand why this is such a pressing concern.”
Understanding racism in the medical field is important when trying to have a more in-depth knowledge of intersectional feminism, said Lars Mattingly, an attendee of Hinton’s presentation.
“I think this talk gives a deeper understanding of issues surrounding race, class and systemic oppression,” Mattingly said. “It’s very enlightening in that way.”