The simple fact is that as a lover of Black women, I am extremely concerned about health outcomes for Black women. Recently on YouTube a young intelligent sister in medical school lamented the fact that maternal health outcomes for Black women were so poor. She attributed this in large degree to issues of training, and the history of testing medical and anatomical procedures on Black women going back to slavery days. This is a line traced through the Tuskegee experiments, the case of Henrietta Lacks, etc. The obvious answer, nay even the easiest answer, is that we need more Black female and male gynecologists and doctors. Except we of Negritude never get to this answer! Instead, we complain and protest about racism and racist outcomes in medicine in America. As such, one would think that Black America in general, and Black women in particular, would put up intelligent Black females in the sciences, and Black female doctors as role models for our girls. But instead, somehow the most powerful women in Black America, treated as worthy of being role models for our girls, end up being Beyonce’s, Cardi B’s, Nikki Minage’s, Rihanna’s, Meg tha Stallion’s and a host of these types. Certainly not a Black female doctor in the bunch! Black men have the same problem with our role models being vastly different from what we as a community actually need.
