Emotionally-taxing and Unpaid: The Costs of Racial Instruction in U.S. Medical Schools

• In Event: 3176 - Sociology of Medical Education

Abstract

In their attempt to address racial inequalities in health and healthcare, U.S. medical educators perpetuate racial inequalities of their own. Following federal standards overseeing curricular content at the turn of the 21st century, U.S. medical educators implemented curricular measures aimed at teaching medical students to recognize and address societal problems, biases, determinants of health, and healthcare disparities – racial inequities among them. Drawing upon sixty in-depth interviews with medical educators and students, I show how medical schools are similar to other institutions of education that reinforce white privilege and racial inequality, enacting colorblind racism; however, in addition to colorblindness, medical educators also elevate the salience of race. I argue that the combined effect of medical educators’ enactment of colorblindness and race salience creates the conditions under which medical students of color experience more frustration, isolation, disillusionment, and unpaid work in contrast to (and often because of) their white peers.

Author

• Lauren Olsen, University of California-San Diego