"Black Pain Isn't Real Pain"
The Black Pain Myth stems from racism and slavery and has a large impact on medicine today. There is a common misconception that black people have a higher pain tolerance than white people due to black people having thicker skin and less nerve-endings. This myth has perpetuated health disparities among black people in the United States.
Studies have shown that a significant number of current and future health care professionals believe there are physiological differences between black and white people, including the pain myth.
Women are typically taken less seriously in a health care setting and they are often not believed because of the preconceived notion that women exaggerate things. This has only exacerbated the health inequities that black women experience. The maternal mortality rate for black women is 2.6 times higher than the maternal mortality rate for white women. Black women’s pain is often disregarded which necessitates black women to constantly advocate for themselves in a medical setting.
Amy Mason-Cooley, a black patient with sickle cell disease, was taken off of her pain medications after physicians decided her pain should have already subdued. It wasn’t until she began having a medical emergency that other hospital staff listened to her requests for more pain medication. Almost immediately after she was listened to, she began to stabilize again.
This is just one example of black women in America today not being believed by medical professionals about their pain levels.
Hoyert, Donna L. “Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States, 2021.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 Mar. 2023, www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/maternal-mortality/2021/maternal-mortality-rates-2021.htm#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20the%20maternal%20mortality,for%20White%20and%20Hispanic%20women.
Rao, Vidya. “‘You Are Not Listening to Me’: Black Women on Pain and Implicit Bias in Medicine.” TODAY.Com, 27 July 2020, www.today.com/health/implicit-bias-medicine-how-it-hurts-black-women-t187866.
Trawalter, Sophie. “Black Americans Are Systematically Under-Treated for Pain. Why?” Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy | University of Virginia, 30 June 2020, batten.virginia.edu/about/news/black-americans-are-systematically-under-treated-pain-why.
Villarosa, Linda. “How False Beliefs in Physical Racial Difference Still Live in Medicine Today.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Aug. 2019, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/racial-differences-doctors.html.