Rethinking the Use of "Caucasian" in Clinical Language and Curricula: a Trainee's Call to Action

• Authors: Luwi J. Shamambo, Emory University; Tracey Henry, Emory University
• Journal Title: JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE
• Volume: Volume 37, Number 7
• Publisher: SPRINGER | 2022-02-25, Pages 1780-1782
• Type of Work: Article | Final Publisher PDF
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-022-07431-6
• Subjects: Health Sciences, Health Care Management; Health Sciences, Education
• Keywords: Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Health Care Sciences & Services; Medicine, General & Internal; General & Internal Medicine

Abstract

As a 2nd year medical student with a public-health-oriented undergraduate education, I have been attuned to observing dialogues around race and medicine. As a Black woman at a predominantly white institution, I have had recurring concerns about the way we speak about race in medical curricula. I continue to wrestle with questions such as why do lectures and exams indicate patients’ race in clinical vignettes in which race has no bearing? Why do we use race as a proxy for ancestry in cases where genetics is relevant? Why do we remain inconsistent in using race terminology, from oversimplifying race by using “African American” and “Black” interchangeably to hierarchizing it by using outdated terms like “Caucasian”?