Alleged racial discrimination is not the same as real racism, yet the medical community treats it as such to the detriment of patients, according to a University of Montana professor.
Stewart Justman (pictured), a professor emeritus of liberal studies at the University of Montana, recently published the article in the Journal of Controversial Ideas titled “What If Perceived Discrimination in Medicine Isn’t the Same as Real Discrimination?”
The article argues the current medical literature often treats perceived racial discrimination and real racial discrimination as the same thing.
“In reality, however, the supposed signals of implicit bias in the clinical encounter are too ambiguous, too uninterpretable, and too conflicting to be discerned with any certainty by anyone,” the article states. “What is clear is that if the perception of bias can lead patients to forgo treatment, so can the misperception of bias.”