Metacognition: 

What have you discovered about your process, your habits?

Throughout the project so far, along with learning a lot about my topic, I have also learned many things about myself. Up until now I’ve always had a set schedule for when I complete things. I would have school, then my extracurricular activities, and then I would go home and complete my homework. This is the first time that I’ve had to completely manage my time and make sure I am staying productive. This was difficult for me at first, because I didn’t exactly know where to begin with my project, and I had a difficult time getting into the rhythm of things. I tried to schedule out things for me to do, but I had a difficult time gauging what was actually possible for me to finish in an allotted amount of time and sticking with my schedule. Especially going to college soon, with a looser schedule, I think it is important for me to understand my working habits. Rather than scheduling my day hour by hour, I have learned that I am able to get more done when I make a to do list. I have also learned that I am more productive and retain more material in the morning rather than at night.

Now, what do you know you don’t know? Circle back to your essential question.

In terms of my essential question, I have recently shifted my focus more on bias and inequalities specific to medicine. There is a known idea of Black Americans having distrust in the medical system; I wanted to understand the root of this distrust. I have been reading a book called Medical Apartheid, by Harriet A. Washington. It is a book of historical events of horrific medical experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial times. At first I was struck at the lack of recognition of these events. But then I began to draw connections at the issues of medical inequalities today. Health care is everywhere in everything that we do. It is never as simple as helping people who are in need of medical assistance. The horrible living conditions that enslaved people were forced into, caused many preventable illnesses (similar to my previous post about zip codes dictating life span today). There was also the fact that people in power often distributed treatment based on economic advantage rather than motives to help people in need. It is difficult to see that many of the issues discussed in this book are reflected in our medical system today. Washington perfectly expresses the dangers of not fully understanding the history of medical inequalities in the introduction of her book. She says, “This historical silence is a grave omission, because trying to ameliorate African American health without understanding the pertinent history of medical care is like trying to treat a patient without eliciting a thorough medical history: a hazardous, and probably futile, approach,” (p.21). Similarly to other deep rooted societal issues that we have, to fully understand, let alone correct the system we have, without fully understanding its history is not possible. It has been very interesting to draw connections between the system we have today and the history of health care. I am hoping to continue to do this and deepen my understanding of medical inequalities in America.