Asian American emergency room doctor Esther Choo has claimed that racism is bad for your health.
Dr Choo had recently made headlines after discussing dealing with white supremacists in ER.
“A few times a year, a patient in the ER refuses treatment from me because of my race,” she wrote on Twitter. “I don’t get angry or upset, just incredulous over the psychology of it.”
She added that she finds it “breathtaking” that people were so committed to white supremacy that they would bet their lives on it.
Her Tweets were retweeted over 25,000 times.
In a new article written by Dr Choo on Quartz, the ER doctor states that racism is bad for your physical and psychological state.
For those on the receiving end of the abuse, “racism is a terrible thing for people to experience – on both an emotional and physical level,” Dr Choo writes. “People who are the targets of racial prejudice have higher rates of depression, anxiety, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiac disease.”
Whats more, Dr Choo states that being racist can also have detrimental effects on the racist too. “I’ve had patients refuse to receive care from me in the ED, opting instead to be seen solely by the (white) resident, or choosing to leave the hospital altogether and seek care elsewhere,” explains Dr Choo.
“In those cases, holding tightly to racist beliefs led people to bypass a qualified doctor who was immediately available to care for their emergency condition—a choice that carries health risks in its own right.”
Additionally, the care team may be dissuaded to spend more time with the patient if they are spewing racist abuse at them. “No matter what the medical team’s commitment to fulfilling their medical and ethical responsibilities, they may feel alienated and reluctant to spend extra time with the [racist] patient.”
Dr Choo’s advice for doctors who encounter patients who hold prejudice views is to remind them that they “are hurting themselves,” and to “advise them towards a healthier choice: a life of acceptance, love, and inclusion.”
