Today African American people are scared of the medical field, and rightfully so. A history of misinformation, racism, and abuse of African Americans has caused the community to be fearful of seeking healthcare. This lack of faith in our healthcare system does not go without consequences, mostly in the form of bad quality healthcare for minorities and poor overall health of the community. Most prominently, is the reluctance to even see a healthcare provider in the first place, African Americans are risking their lives because of their traumatic experiences. The most important thing for medicine to do now, is try to mend this broken relationship. While there are numerous ways to go about this; such as establishing consent, or improving the black and POC doctor numbers, ultimately it all comes down to giving the African American community a connection to healthcare that is familiar to them, a newfound sense of trust.

Might be good to discuss research related to reluctance to seek medical care among African Americans here?

First paragraph will cite “Restoring Trust in Medical Research among African-Americans.” and I will talk about how establishing consent is a good way to build a connection with African Americans. This is basically a righting wrongs because of how the life of Henrietta lacks went down, This is a good chance to introduce some of the historical aspects of why the community is fearful, acknowledging is good progress. Cite Henrietta Lacks book. This may not be enough.

Build off of last paragraph to say how new experiences should be built, leading into racial discrimination, How to combat this, giving minorties new postive experiences to remove the old, racial bias training. Cite “Black Americans Don't Trust Our Healthcare System - Here's Why.”

Second paragraph will be about the best way to bridge the gap between African Americans and healthcare. More black doctors means creating a racial connection which can help alleviate fears of being mistreated or dismissed. Cite: “How Healthcare Is Starting to Heal Damaged Black Patient Trust.” to see connection & “Race and Medicine: We Need More Black Doctors. These Organizations Can Help.” for outreach to the community. Find the image that shows African Americans prefer/ have better experiences with physicians of their own race.

Build off community outreach by familiarity. Cite: “Regaining Minorities’ Trust” which gives a real life implementation of community outreach, talk about the importance of having a strong sense of familiarity, by location/people, or having important community leaders advocate for healthcare.

Elaborate opinion based on familiarity, talk about why it is the most helpful to address the issue at hand, and start with more ideas on implementation.

Incorporate more multimodality here: Ideas; more photos, personal accounts, perhaps a podcast.

More history incorporation? More ideas to solve this issue? More opinion articles? Find more sources for all three topics, work on wording and flow more.

Today African American people are scared of the medical field, and rightfully so. A history of misinformation, racism, and abuse of African Americans has caused the community to be fearful of seeking healthcare. This lack of faith in our healthcare system does not go without consequences, mostly in the form of bad quality healthcare for minorities and poor overall health of the community. Most prominently, is the reluctance to even see a healthcare provider in the first place, African Americans are risking their lives because of their traumatic experiences. The most important thing for medicine to do now, is try to mend this broken relationship. While there are numerous ways to go about this; such as establishing consent, or improving the black and POC doctor numbers, ultimately it all comes down to giving the African American community a connection to healthcare that is familiar to them, a newfound sense of trust.

Many African American people are reluctant to seek healthcare when it may be necessary because of a combination of factors, including a not so great history with medicine in the past. There are multiple ways the medical community could address this. And it is important for them to do so as it is beneficial to the overall health of the African American community and it helps equality in medicine in the long run.

One way trust can be established is by gaining the consent of the African American people when conducting research. In “Restoring Trust in Medical Research among African-Americans.”, Morgan discusses what he believes to be the most beneficial way he is tackling the trust issue in medicine. He writes about informed consent, and how participants in his studies are made aware of everything going to happen to them. This is obviously an attempt to correct one of the most infamous cases of wrongdoings against African Americans by the medical field. The case of Henrietta Lacks, her cells were stolen from her and contributed to the creation and advancement of things such as; chemotherapy, the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization, among others (Skloot, 2). Lacks did not give her consent to have her cells be harvested, but doctors did so against her will and without her knowledge. This event caused minorities to not trust healthcare providers, in combination with other horrific events. By addressing consent, it could alleviate the community's fears. However, I do not believe that this is the best way to help African Americans regain trust in medicine. While consent is important, and it has the right sentiment, many people may feel like they are being lied to anyway. Because of the lack of trust already, why would anyone trust the medical professionals now even if they say only the consented to parts are occuring?

African Americans are facing not only past communal experiences, but also racial bias present in today’s healthcare system. African Americans need to be met with new positive experiences with the medical community today in order for them to start building trust. Which brings me to my next solution to the issue. Using the education system to tackle mistrust. This can be done simultaneously in two different ways. One; through educating doctors in medical schools about implicit racial bias. (Williams, J. Corey). If these racial biases are addressed and minimized before African Americans interact with doctors, they can start building new experiences. These positive ones will not replace the old ones, but may encourage African Americans to seek healthcare knowing that now history will not repeat itself and they will get the proper treatment they need. Expand on this paragraph or completely split up arguments.

Two; Increase the number of black doctors and healthcare workers. A discouragingly low number of doctors identify as black, just 5% (Purks, Ebony). Even so, African Americans often prefer a same-race doctor as them, and rate them higher than other races doctors. (Citation Needed). This may be since they can relate to each other, the patient is not fearful they will be racially discriminated against. There are many outreach programs available such as Society of Black Academic Surgeons, Association of Black Women Physicians, among others. (Purks, Ebony). Since African Americans are more likely to rate Black doctors as being more satisfactory, it is reasonable to assume an increase of black doctors would help a newfound trust develop. More black doctors means creating a racial connection which can help alleviate fears of being mistreated or dismissed. Cite: “How Healthcare Is Starting to Heal Damaged Black Patient Trust.”

The previous solutions are definitely a step in the right direction, but I believe they are a bit too narrow for addressing the issue fully. The best way to encourage trust between African Americans and medicine to intertwine them. In “Regaining Minorities’ Trust” Clark discusses the real life application of reaching out to the African American community. A “community-based clinic” was put into place in a predominantly African American area through a church that had already been serving the community and their at risk population. They hoped that a connection with religion and the familiarity of the location would encourage vulnerable people to trust the medical center and help preventative measures be spread throughout the community. (Clark. Peter) I believe this a perfect way to foster trust. Not only is there an aspect of familiarity with the location being in an area where African Americans live, but it also connects them with religion. Many people put heavy importance on and trust in religion and this helps African American people feel comfortable with healthcare.

Essentially, the best way for the medical community to build trust with African Americans is to use their own communities. They trust each other already, when they are able to have familiar faces advocating for their health, they will be more receptive to medicine.

Incorporate more multimodality : Ideas; more photos, personal accounts, perhaps a podcast. More points need to be elaborated, increase word count.