Welcome Back & Happy BLACK HISTORY MONTH! For the month of February, I would like to highlight Black Communities and Healthcare. I will unpack ways a clinician can better engage this population. In today’s video, I discuss the diversity that you will find in the black community.  Like any racial/ethnic or cultural group, the black community is mulit-dimensional and each patient encounter should be addressed as case by case and not as the collective.  I hope after this month, you will gain a better understanding of this unique population and as always, thank you for your support!

3 Takeaways are:

• Understand the multidimensional diversity that is within the black community

  • With any unique groups of people there is nuance. There is different levels of socioeconomic status, education, support and resources

• Avoid blanket statements or ideals that speak of the collective and not the individual

  • I’ve mentioned this before in previous post HERE and HERE, but the general idea is that one person doesn’t represent the group and the group doesn’t necessarily represent the individual. Therefore, we must be careful how we describe, view, approach the black community in order to avoid offense.

• Broaden our view of the black community past the American lens

  • Black people populate more areas in the world than just America and with that comes more cultures, beliefs and customs. The black community is considered a diasporic community meaning that at some point there was a scattering across the globe and the people reside in the land that is not their country of origin or ancestry. Stay tuned because I am going to unpack this more later in the month.

To hear more about the above takeaways, watch my recent YouTube video where I discuss the diversity within the black community!

• For more related videos, check out the below videos:

  • Engaging Black Patients with Diabetes LIVESTREAM

  • The African American & Diabetes YouTube Playlist