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       #Post#: 4170--------------------------------------------------
       Clinicians' antiracist documentation practices under scrutiny
       By: agate Date: September 28, 2023, 2:04 am
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       Whenever I've looked at any of my medical records, I've found
       myself described by giving my age, sex, and race, which is
       described as either "white" or "Caucasian." Since I was never
       asked about my race, it was just assumed that I was "white" or
       "Caucasian" because I looked "white" or "Caucasian." I've often
       wondered about this practice because I've known any number of
       people who looked "white" and yet were not. I've also known
       people who looked "black" and yet were not.  This article in the
       New England Journal of Medicine was available to me as one of a
       certain number of free articles, and I am not sure it will be
       accessible to other readers, but here is the link to "Antiracist
       Documentation Practices--Shaping Clinical Encounters and
       Decision-Making" (September 28, 2023):
  HTML https://tinyurl.com/44ma23hp
       Excerpt from the article:
       [quote]
       [font=trebuchet ms]Clinicians typically “socially assign”
       patients a racial identity on the basis of physical
       appearance.[/font] The process of social assignment of race
       (also called observer-based, perception-based, or “eyeballing”)
       is rooted in clinicians’ culturally constructed understanding of
       associations between racial groups and certain physical features
       (e.g., darker skin tones are associated with Black people) —
       constructs that are often based on flawed, harmful assumptions.
       In addition, every racial category includes many phenotypes, and
       the meaning assigned to someone’s hair, lips, skin color, and
       eye color varies with clinicians’ cultural socialization and
       background. By utilizing social assignment, under the guise of
       “objective” observations, clinicians promote flawed assumptions,
       often evoking stereotypes and negative attitudes toward
       patients.
       [/quote]
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