Racial separatism, gender discrimination, and white dominance
have historically thwarted black Americans' occupational
aspirations. Access to medical education has also been limited, and
mobility within the profession, leading to unequal access to health
care. There have, however, been notable triumphs. In "Against the
Odds, "Wilbur Watson describes successful efforts by determined
individuals and small groups of black Americans, since the early
nineteenth century, to establish a strong black presence in the
medical profession. Changes in medical education and hospital
management, desegregation of the medical establishment, and the
contemporary challenges of managed-care organizations all attest to
their achievements.
Watson analyzes sociocultural, political, and psychological
factors associated with African-American medical practice; race and
gender differences in medical education and professional
development; and doctor-patient relationships during and since the
period of racial separatism. He discusses the policy implications
of physicians' viewpoints on issues such as folk practitioners as
health care providers, medical care for the poor, abortion and
euthanasia, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, and the emergence of
managed-care organizations. Through in-depth interviews with older
physicians and comparative analyses of their situated techniques of
coping with racial discrimination and segregation, we gain insight
into the effects of separatism on the minds, selves, and social
interactions of African-American physicians. Finally, Watson
outlines current ethics, demographic changes since desegregation,
the contemporary status of black physicians, and recent changes in
the socioeconomic organization of the profession of medicine.
"Against the Odds "is a unique study of the history,
ethnography, and social psychology of blacks in medicine. Watson
successfully debunks the myth that black physicians were less
competent providers than their white counterparts: a myth that
persists to this day. First-person accounts, from periods of
socially and legally sanctioned racial separatism and the first
three decades of desegregation in the United States, bring readers
closer to the physicians' lived experiences than mere social or
quantitative description. This engaging account will interest those
in the fields of African-American studies, medicine, and
sociology.
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