Arguments Against Racial Stereotypes

In Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, racial stereotyping against minority patients is predominant in every aspect of health care. Many of these stereotypes in Skloot’s book painted blacks as unintelligent and vulnerable and led to many doctors taking advantage of their patients. Henrietta Lacks was one of these patients and unfortunately doctors made millions off of her cancerous cervix cells without her informed consent. Her cells, named HeLa cells, helped cure the polio virus and contributed to numerous other medical findings, but her and her family received none of the money earned from HeLa cells. Unfortunately, stereotyping based on race still occurs today and it has affected the lives of others terribly just like they did to Henrietta in the 1950s. Hence, racial stereotypes in the medical field should be eradicated because of the frequent deaths of minorities from preventative reasons, and the astonishing amount of blacks waiting for organ transplants. …show more content…
Black women are especially vulnerable to these stereotypes and as a result are not given proper maternal health care. This is particularly apparent in Brazil.
“If a black woman and a white woman both need emergency obstetric care, a Brazilian doctor will assist the white woman because of the stereotype that black women are better at handling pain and are used to giving birth…In Brazil ‘blacks are seen in terms of stereotypes, and that leads to them not having the same guarantees in healthcare treatment as whites have’” (Frayssinet