I wasn’t 100% sure where to start so I just started with some basic searches about racial injustice in healthcare and tried to branch off of that. I was able to find some articles relating to racial injustice that primarily focused on women’s reproductive health, which I thought fit well considering how much the YWCA advocates for women’s reproductive health rights. One of the articles was written by a woman whose mother worked at the same hospital she now works at in the same department. The opening line was “In the shadow of our finest medical facilities, where kings, queens, and shahs travel thousands of miles for the best medical care in the world, Black mothers and babies continue to die (Carter).” According to the CDC, black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy related cause than a white woman.
Another article I found still talked about racism in reproductive health. They did a study on black women, mainly in the cities of Boston, Chicago and Atlanta, who were born here and identified as women, they posted a convenience sample on Facebook and Instagram as well as posted advertisements in women’s health care clinics in Boston. Some of the participants were quoted in the article talking about things that they had gone through while growing up and then moved onto how some of the experiences they had during hospital visits just didn’t feel right. One woman talks about how she feels like black women get sexualized at such a young age that it robs girls of their girlhood. Another talks about a statistic her aunt showed her about how her demographic had the highest amount of new cases of HIV among black women. Some women talk about different hospital experiences mainly relating to healthcare, specifically reproductive healthcare. One woman says that pregnancy and labor stress them out and it frightens them. Her exact words were “do I have to write my will within that time frame of being nine months pregnant, or within that year postpartum (Treder)?” Another participant talks about how she got an IUD so she could be in control of when she gets pregnant, where she is able to give birth and everything that goes with that, then after she saw the news stating that black women are more likely to die, she was scared to get pregnant in the future. One woman says that when she went to get her tubes tied the doctor tried to crack a joke saying that she was the first black woman to be responsible, the woman was very much in shock. When the topic of IUDs was brought up they talked about pain that didn’t feel normal and the doctors just disregarded them. One lady even says that when she got it implanted, they told her to wait six months and if it was still giving them problems to come back and they could figure out a different alternative. Six months go by, the woman goes back saying something felt off and they told her just to wait another month and that it was normal and she would be fine. One of the participants talks about how black parents will talk to their children about what to do if they run into the police, and they said “I don’t know if that same conversation is happening as explicitly—[that] you might experience racism while you’re in this place that’s supposed to make you healthy (Treder).”
The reason these articles felt right to me was because the YWCA is very heavily involved with reproductive health rights, empowering women and racial injustice. Their mission statement is, “YWCA of Alton is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.” The YWCA believes that an enhanced understanding of racial justice issues will promote a peaceful relationship and create a safe, nurturing environment. There are two different types of racism, individual and institutional or systematic. Individuals deal with individual attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviours. One thing that comes to mind here was one of the participants in the study said that there was this image or stereotype that black women were “promiscuous”. Institutional or Systematic racism is taking the form of practices, customs, rules, and standards of organizations that unnecessarily disadvantage people based on their race, color, or ethnicity. The thing that comes to mind here is multiple women were saying that their pain or discomfort was being dismissed, ignored and they were acting like it was normal even though the patients would repeatedly say that something didn’t feel right. One thing I love about the YWCA is that while they are advocating for racial injustice, they also advocate for educating people as to what racial injustice is. On their website one of the things they wrote is how important it is to teach people about the importance of racial and gender equality. Which leads me to the next part, women’s empowerment. A section of their website is specifically set aside for woman’s empowerment and economic opportunities for women and girls. The YWCA in Alton offers two different women’s support groups, one of them being Mother’s Grief Support Group which unites women who have gone through the unfortunate and tragic experience of losing a child. They also have a group called the Know Your Worth Support Group which has a goal of encouraging, empowering and loving one another. YWCA serves women in the community by having annual empowerment events, scholarships, the support groups we just talked about and vital programming. They also have an advocacy page which covers violence against women and young girls considering that there has never been a more urgent time to expose the challenges facing women and girls. The advocacy page also includes racial justice.