Another woman who was unable to access the healthcare she desperately needed has lost her life after numerous pleas for medical intervention. CiJi Graham has become one of the glaring statistics of medical racism and a victim of the ghastly maternal health crisis here in the U.S, but I wonder if we are turning a blind eye to the truth. What if it’s just plain murder?

According to a 2022 study by the Centers for Disease Control, over 80% of maternal deaths are preventable. Black women are also three times more likely to die from maternal complications than white women. If the deaths are preventable, someone is choosing to let Black women die more often than other women. Someone who has the power to save Black women is actively CHOOSING to let them suffer and die. Yes, this is a choice, but it’s a choice beyond individual staff members. This is a product of a system.

For years, Black folk have highlighted the two healthcare systems that exist in this country. You can guarantee that if you’re Black, it won’t matter how much money you make, your impact in the community, or how nice you speak, you will still likely receive subpar medical care that could cost you your life. The consensus is that this is incidental, but what if it isn’t? What if this is by design?

The medical field is a thankless hellhole of the most dire constraints. It is a place where people must cope with the worst their eyes and hearts can bear, all while smiling for the next patient. We know it’s difficult to detach from the everyday chaos of the medical field, and some of those scenes create long-standing trauma in the body and mind. We also know medical staff can be some of the meanest, nastiest, most terrible people on the planet (see Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman or LaCrista Vaughn). That nastiness has a pattern that often points at Black bodies, but it isn’t a new phenomenon.

The lack of care is noticed and, quite frankly, expected in Black conversations about medical help. When staff is stretched thin, the effect of that weariness is unfortunately patients will be neglected. How are they choosing WHICH patients to neglect is the question? Inside every instance that makes up that 80% is a moment where if someone had just followed the process, the outcome could be different. The data does not lie. Black patients are receiving subpar care due to multiple systemic reasons and in turn we die at higher rates from preventable deaths. Every decision individually culminating into a brutal pattern that disporportionately disrupts Black families.

If that 80% had a little more swirl in it, they would have the process six sigma’d by the end of the week.

If we know what the problem is and we know we are doing a poor job keeping Black mothers alive, why are we forcing them to have children? You can’t keep the ones we have alive! Is it sinking in yet? We can see they are trying to erase our contributions in real time. Removing diversity programs creating catastrophic job loss, judicial kickback schemes on juvenile offenders, Black mothers not surviving attempts to grow their families, it’s starting to feel like part of a plan.

“Oh, and what would you do to fix medical racsim since you got ya degree…” I’m glad you asked, first thing I would address is medical staff need regular shifts like all other working adults. There is no way a nurse who is on hour 18 of a 24hr shift is giving a patient the best that they have. Every human in distress should be able to ask for help and get the staffs best care. Put more medical staff on the floors and get them better work – life balance. Secondly, standardize the care. There is entirely too many judgement calls being made by people who may not be good at that job. Standardize the system (similair to aviation and USPS standards) and get more feet on the floor. Healthcare is a multi-billion dollar industry and it absolutely has the resources to address this abysmal attempt at equitable care.

The “preventability” statistic means these disproportionate deaths are overwhelmingly not due to unavoidable biological differences, but to failures in the care system. As the CDC states, most are preventable “regardless of race or ethnicity.” The excess deaths among Black women represent preventable deaths that the system is allowing to happen at a racially skewed rate. Black women deserve better than that.  –

If you want to learn more about CiJi Graham from her family and friends, visit her obituray page here 👉🏿 https://www.nobleandkelsey.com/obituaries/CiJi-Bonita-Graham?obId=29981452

The CDC Article https://www.cdc.gov/womens-health/features/maternal-mortality.html 

If you would like to share your birthing expereince while Black, we want to hear it. https://expressionoverrepression.com/maternal-health-questionnaire/