The Epistemic Injustice of Racial Injustice.

Abstract

The treatment of essential health care providers belonging to racial and ethnic minority groups is a bioethical issue. Minority providers hold valuable knowledge of the racism they experience. However, they are continuously doubted, discredited, and disempowered as epistemic interlocutors. Such epistemic injustice has ethical repercussions for the treatment of patients. The unwillingness of colleagues to receive the authors' experiential knowledge of racism, their testimonies on its impacts, and their efforts to correct inaccurate judgments amount to a morally problematic epistemological stance. Additional moral considerations include the lack of guidance on dealing with racism in health care institutions, the marginalization of minority providers, an inflexible medical culture, the need for anti-racist frameworks, and the unique vulnerability of students and trainees. These narratives call for a sustained effort in balancing the pursuit of individual virtues and the creation of systemic conditions necessary to eliminate racial injustice.