I enjoyed Dixion’s writing more than the previous authors’ works as I found it to be less theoretical and easier to follow. More simplistic language and formation of ideas allows thoughts and opinions to be better accessed and understood by a greater demographic of people. As Dixion’s work focuses on the importance of accessibility and understanding between patients and healthcare, I believe that her formation of language is powerful and indicative of her message.
I found myself tying in Dixion’s ethnographic research with Shange’s, as both discussed how larger institutional infrastructure worked to address social and racial issues within their respective spheres, yet failed to do so, sometimes harming those they were trying to support. Educational policies and officials, while trying to implement advocation of racial equality, unintentionally emphasized racist undertones within the classroom. Similarly, Dixion demonstrates that while healthcare institutions work to make such healthcare more accessible to patients – specifically pregnant mothers – they are actually reducing their healthcare options through a conditioning of ideas.
I think this portrays the imbalance in power dynamics and the inability of institutional officials to accurately represent and respond to the needs of the less privileged. Who is deciding what these mothers really need? Why are these mothers not given a voice? How can true representation occur if needs are not being vocalized from the source itself? These issues may arise from professionals and officials believing certain demographics of people are not educated or experienced enough to speak for themselves. Even if so, there should be approaches implemented to make sure that the patients understand the problems at hand and how they can best address them for their own health and safety. Thus, the question is: How can underprivileged demographics be best represented and given a voice?
I can definitely relate to the comments you made surrounding connections between Shange’s and Dixion’s ethnographies in this post. For me, I agree that both pieces highlight the systematic failures that still exist in some of the largest and most impactful parts of our society. For many, education is something that has a heavy impact on their lives and has the power to completely change someone’s perspective, just like access to proper and safe healthcare can as well. Furthermore, many of the issues that Shange brought up about the education system could apply to Dixion’s commentary on midwifery in Mexico as well, because there were definite struggles that existed between the way the government thought midwives should receive their education and the way education was provided through the three different centers. Unfortunately, I don’ think that your question has a direct answer because of how deeply ingrained these systems are in the way our society is currently functioning, but in my opinion, I would say that to really make sure that underrepresented perspectives and voices are heard in these spaces would be to make sure that these demographics feel comfortable and wanted. For this to happen, there needs to be some substantive change that occurs and not just statements or superficial changes that are not entirely getting at the root of the issue. A lot of this starts with education and making sure that minority voices and issues are talked about within the context of medicine because some diseases or conditions can show up incredibly differently in various races. Overall, what I want to say is that the problems Shange and Dixion are discussing in their ethnographies are unfortunately deeply intertwined and this makes solving them much more difficult. If we aren’t educated about how different demographics are impacted by a disease we won’t be able to provide adequate medical care to them, which is why raising awareness for this need is so important. I hope that in the future as more and more people from marginalized communities are entering medicine that a more fair and culturally competent system is created, but as of right now, I’m not sure how long it will take for us to get there.