THE OCCURRENCE OF RACISM WITHIN THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM 1

The Occurrence of Racial Issues Within the Healthcare System

Pamela Barra Avila

Arizona State University

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The Occurrence of Racial Issues Within the Healthcare System

Infographic:

https://create.piktochart.com/output/37486341-racism-in-healthcare

https://create.piktochart.com/output/37486341-racism-in-healthcare

Design statement:

This infographic is about racism within the healthcare field along with the effects and solutions

that pertain to this issue. Various articles, videos, and books were researched and with the help of

their content the infographic was organized into four different areas. The title of the infographic

is “ The Occurrence of Racial Issues Within the Healthcare System”, I chose this title because it

gives an introduction to what will be talked about throughout the infographic. To the left of the

title there is a quote by David R. Williams, who is a doctor that spoke about how racism makes

African Americans sick. This quote is important to the project because it is the purpose of the

infographic; there continues to be health disadvantages of African Americans that goes unseen

with little to no solutions and with a considerable influence. The second area is the conflict, there

are a few quotes and statistics that shows why and how racism is a problem in healthcare. For the

audience to move on to the next area of the infographic they must be informed on the actual

conflict and what is occurring in hospitals. The third area of the infographic is giving attention to

the influence of racism healthcare professionals express. The information included the effects on

all of the black community, women in particular. The final and most important part is the

solutions. I included three solutions proposed by different sources in order to have a variety of

opinions on what should be done about the main conflict. Once again, the purpose of this

infographic is to inform an audience that is aware of racism in different areas of the American
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system but is not fully knowledgeable on the racism that occurs within the healthcare system.

The colors that were used were dark blue, light green, dark purple, and light gray. They were

used equally and distributed among different topics in order to bring attention. The readers may

also notice the font changing, oranienbaum was used for general information and abril fatface

was used for titles and subtitles. The areas with “white space” were not used because if they were

the infographic would have seemed cluttered. There are three visualizations and it includes a

graph representing the maternal deaths of black women and there are also two images that are

hospital based that were used because they fit the overall base of the project. Readers are guided

onto the next topic and from one area to another through subtitles and colors. The infographic

provides information on the conflict and effects of discrimination in the healthcare field but does

not exclude different opinions or solutions which are provided by different sources.
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References Page

Hoberman, John. (2012). Black and Blue. London, England. University of California Press.

Johnson, Rucker. C. (2017). The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. Retrieved from

https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Pathways_SOTU_2017_health.pdf

McLemore, Monica. R. (2018, March). Health care experiences of pregnant, birthing and

postnatal women of color at risk for preterm birth. Retrieved from

https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/science/article/pii/S0277953618300

698

Montagne, Renee. (2017, December 7). Black Mothers Keep Dying After Giving Birth. Shalon

Irving's Story Explains Why. Retrieved from

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/07/568948782/black-mothers-keep-dying-after-giving-birth

-shalon-irvings-story-explains-why

Mays, Vickie. M. (2014, Oct 1). Race, Race-Based Discrimination, and Health Outcomes

Among African Americans. Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4181672/

Stallings, Erika. (2018, August 1). This Is How the American Healthcare System Is Failing Black

Women. Retrieved from

https://www.oprahmag.com/life/health/a23100351/racial-bias-in-healthcare-black-women

TED. (2016). How racism makes us sick. Retrieved from

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_r_williams_how_racism_makes_us_sick/up-next?langu

age=en
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