Racial Profiling in Health Care: An Institutional Analysis of Medical Treatment Disparities

Authors

René Bowser, University of Illinois College of Law

Abstract

This Article links unscientific, race-based medical research to a broader, institutionalized pattern of racial profiling of Blacks in clinical decision-making. Far from providing a solution to the problem of racial health disparities, this Article shows that race-based health research fuels a collection of dubious background assumptions, creates a negative profile of Black patients, and reinforces taken-for-granted knowledge that leads to inferior medical treatment. This form of racial profiling is unjust, and also causes countless unnecessary deaths in the Black population.

Recommended Citation

René Bowser, Racial Profiling in Health Care: An Institutional Analysis of Medical Treatment Disparities, 7 Mich. J. Race & L. 79 (2001).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl/vol7/iss1/3