S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. On today's show , we are talking with people in our community who are making black history. Today we'll talk with Doctor Rodney Hood , who has made it his mission to study medical racism and health disparities. I'm Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and engaged. So it's no secret statistics show black people generally receive the worst medical care when compared to white people. Black patients often experience discrimination and implicit bias from healthcare providers , which leads to all kinds of disparities. But today , we want to highlight someone who's been working to change that right here in San Diego. As the first African American to graduate from UCSD Medical School back in 1973 , Doctor Rodney Hood has been dedicated to improving black health outcomes and health care access for more than 40 years. He is president and founder of the Multicultural Health Foundation , where he practices internal medicine. But his work goes beyond San Diego. As former president of the National Medical Association , he's been pushing for nationwide policy to address disparities caused by racism in the American health care system , even testifying before the U.S. Congress and participating in white House health forms. Doctor hood , welcome back to the show.
S2: Thank you for inviting me.
S1:
S2: That gave me an interest. I also was required to do a research project in medical school , and that was on the origin of the sickle cell gene. And that really made me start studying about genes and how they relate to disease. And I think the thing that in my first second year of medical school , I was exposed to a lecture in the psychiatric department to the whole first , second year class about the difference between IQ , between blacks and whites and how blacks were inferior. Mhm. And that kind of incensed me that I was getting this lecture in a medical school. And so I started researching that in others. And long story short , every chance I had , I would start reading about health disparities and how it began the origin of racism in medicine and on my own. I think I've become quite an expert in racism in medicine , in the impact that that had on a health today. Wow.
S1: Wow. It's interesting that you say that because many of the decisions coming out of the white House right now are rooted in that same school of thought. Um , you can look no further than Elon Musk's Twitter page and see him , uh , spewing that same information about black people having inferior intelligence. Uh , and then you see that that is the basis of ending many of the Dei programs to that. It is rooted. That decision is rooted in that idea.
S2: This too will pass. Uh , this is something that we've seen before , I must say. Um , that philosophy , it's really out of , um , I'm going to call it what it is , the philosophy of white supremacy that genetically , uh , intellectually , uh , whites are more superior. That was actually taught in Europe , in medical schools here. And then a touch of that when I was in medical school some 40 , 50 years ago , um , I became very optimistic because , um , I worked on this subject and it was like I could see the in the light at the end of the tunnel. Things were getting better. Uh , people were beginning to listen. Um , and now the concern is that that same seed that's always been in this country is resurfacing. And I think the key is that , first of all , it's chaotic. It's traumatic. But I think we need to teach our children that this too will pass. And they must be taught about who and what they are because they're going to be hearing things. What I'm hearing today is it's difficult to tell truth from falsehood. Falsehoods are being interpreted as truth , and truth is being interpreted as falsehood or discounted. I've never lived during that period. Um , we're seeing this insecurity in white America surface again. It was amazing. I think it began with Barack Obama. There was a backlash to that. Then we had George Floyd in Die Took off , and I think it's threatened , uh , quite a few people. Um , I say I'm a historian , so that helps me understand. This is not the first time this has happened in America on the Supreme Court or wherever , but it's the first time during my lifetime. And so it's it's it's disheartening. But I think , as King said , or some wise person said , you got to keep your eyes on the prize. Indeed.
S1: Indeed.
S2: And much of the research and data that I talk about is based upon. It's not a policy , it's not a philosophy , it's fact. And I base it upon our history. Um , somebody once said , well , Doctor Hood , shouldn't we get away from identity politics ? I said , well , I'm talking about identity , but I'm not referring to politics. You put the politics to it If we really wanted to talk about identity politics. It was created in a constitution where whites were deemed the only ones that could vote. White men , even women couldn't vote blacks. Native Americans couldn't. And then once when they gained the right to vote , there was this voter suppression and order that came , these discrepancies that I point out , that's not political , that's historical.
S1: And can you talk about some of the discrepancies that you find , particularly with this history of medical racism ? Yeah.
S2: Evidence suggests that going way back to slavery. We talk about health disparities. That means that certain populations health isn't as good as other populations. And African American health , whether we measure infant mortality , whether we measure maternal mortality at birth or whether we measure life expectancy , beginning of life and into life. African Americans have the worst , and it has improved certainly over the past 100 years. But even if we take away socioeconomic status for infant mortality and maternal mortality , these are black women who are having babies. The infant mortality in maternal mortality is still worse than their counterparts with same economic status. And so you have to ask why. And it goes to the I talk about a doctor Joy day guru wrote a book called Post-traumatic Slavery Syndrome. She's a clinical psychologist and talked about how the traumas that took place during slavery created an environment where blacks never were really able to express who they really were for fear of of being in trouble. And so they developed this dual personality as a result , developed some very , uh , terrible behaviors later on that contributed to poor outcomes. Well , today , there's now data that can actually measure some of this. So when you talk about stress , there's the concept of alo stasis , which is the body trying to maintain itself during change. However , chronic toxic stress causes the increase. What we call allostatic load in in your body reacts by producing excess stress hormones. There are now studies showing that African Americans , and especially African American women , have higher allostatic load , higher cortisol levels , A1 , CS , um , uh , stress hormones that cause wear and tear on the end organs and adds to this chronic disease that we see higher in blacks than in other populations. That is important , probably for black folks to deal with , because I don't know anybody else that can that we need to develop more relaxation methods , find ways to release our stress because it's killing us. But you don't do that if you don't realize it's happening. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. We were just we just had a show where we were talking about rest as resistance and the importance of that.
S2: I think it is a critical this is a Black History month , but I don't I don't think we should just learn about Negro history. I think we should learn about black history. What was the history that happened to black folks before they came here. Uh , what would the cultures that existed before they came here ? There are many things that have been invented in this country that were invented by black folks. We don't even know where black folks. Um , and there is something within the black community that is referred to as internalized racism , where , uh , through the centuries , whether we realize it or not , we have internalized the negative stereotypes to the point where we believed them subconsciously. Um , I come from a family of nine brothers and sisters , me being one of them , and I had four sisters who had little curly hair , straight hair. We used to call it good hair , bad hair. My father was a light black man. My father was my mother was dark. So some of us were light in and that whole colourism and the whole hair issue that black women deal with , the whole color issue that black women deal with. I remember one black patient female came to me and somehow or another asked me about exercise , and I started talking to her about exercise and whatnot , and she said to me , well , what about swimming ? And I said , well , you know , swimming is excellent , but everybody has to choose what's appropriate for them. And she said , you know , I'm glad I came to you. I said , what do you mean ? Well , the other doctor I went to who was white , she said I should just go swimming all the time. He don't know nothing about black hair. So ? So , um , it's it's a cultural thing that people don't feel comfortable talking about , but our. Let me put it like this. I swim and I think swimming is excellent , but I think you have to choose what you do based upon your , your , um , uh , access to , uh , swimming pools , you know , in that type of thing.
S1: Black physicians face a number of obstacles that white doctors simply don't have to think about.
S2: So when I was a medical student , um , I was one of the first students on the ward. I would commonly be confused with a worker. I had several patients tell the resident they didn't want to see that in word , uh , student or or , uh , resident. Um , so. So that did happen. Um. Uh. Today. Um. I'm sure some of that exists , but it's more subtle. And I think the racism is more institutionalized in the system than individualize. So we talk about personally mediated racism , meaning I don't like you because you're Hispanic , black or whatnot versus structural racism , which is the policies and procedures are are not equitable. That's structural racism. And then we still have what I call internalized racism , where I think , um , people of color , especially black folks , have , uh , not really made good decisions based upon trying to become maybe who and what they're not. I don't know if that makes sense. So , um , I think we need to have honest discussions about this. Mhm. Um , part of racism actually was embedded in medicine. The teachers and medical doctors who were white taught racist theories that blacks were inferior. They should be treated differently. And some of that has come up into modern times. The whole issue around pain. Mhm. Um they did surveys and many white physicians feel that blacks have a different pain tolerance. Okay. Where does that come from. Certainly that's not true. There was , uh , the father of gynecology was somebody by the name of Doctor Marion Sims , who was a white physician , graduated from the University of South Carolina , who gained his reputation by practicing a surgical technique on mostly black slaves. Um , with little or no anesthesia. Until he perfected that procedure before he did it on white patients. A lot of blacks that , plus many other things , have a distrust of the health system , a healthy distrust. So I don't I don't know. I , I deal with it , I think. Some of it can be harmful. I think when we had the pandemic and a lot of blacks weren't getting the vaccination. I think that was harmful to our community. Now I got blacks that disagree with me on that. But but I fought very hard to get as many vaccinated as possible. But I understood why. I understood what the resistance was.
S3: You know , you've.
S1: Done so much research. You're so multifaceted. You've worked to dismantle these , uh , the systemic racism in medicine. And the implicit bias.
S2: My youngest daughter grew up with me giving lectures on racism in medicine. And as she got older in high school , one time she said to me , uh , daddy , are you a racist ? And I looked at her like , what ? What do you mean ? Well , you just talk about race all the time. Well , she now has an eclectic group of friends and the different ethnicities and races , and she's , um. Uh , and I , I told her , I said , well , no , um , think of it like this. For the past 30 years , I've specialized in learning about the impact of race and racism on health. Therefore , I talk about it a lot. It's kind of like , don't condemn a cardiologist for talking about cardiology. Don't condemn a neurologist for talking about neurology. This just happened to be my area of expertise. I realized there are other things outside of that , but the reason why I felt it was important is that not enough people realize the importance of it in the impact that it was having on our community. So I , I just felt that it was my calling. It was something I was passionate about. And I didn't get a degree in history of medicine , but I've been on panels with those that have , and I think I always brought a different perspective.
S1:
S2: First of all , thanks for having me. Um. Uh , I am optimistic that the time we're living in will pass , and I just wanted to give the message to those out there that have been in the field of health disparities , racism die. That there may be some concern and setbacks , but , um , stay steadfast.
S1: I've been speaking with Doctor Rodney Hood , president and founder of the Multicultural Health Foundation and physician of internal medicine , Doctor Hood. Thank you so much for being here today. It's been a pleasure and happy Black History Month.
S2: Well , thank you and happy Black History Month to you. And thank you for all you do.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
