The idea
This documentary is intended to clarify the relationship between racial and/or ethnic discrimination and health. It plays out on two parallel tracks. One will show that the stress caused by discrimination leads to illness. We are creating a narrative of the existing discrimination-stress-health literature, illustrated by interviews with public health researchers. The other track consists of stories drawn from street interviews and from structured meetings. They will serve as the everyday examples described in the literature.
There is also a third component.
This documentary’s premise was born from my experiences with blatant (but subtle to everyone else) discrimination and from my partner witnessing (and validating) my discrimination. Most recently, he noticed my diminished ability to catch a yellow cab, whenever he was present, i.e. taxis passed me (who is darker-skinned) by in order to pick him (who is white) up. Again, it was a clear and unmistakable example of discrimination, although not easily conveyable to others.
As a result, I took a rudimentary camera-use and editing class and planned to make a discrimination-and-taxis documentary. But it occurred to me that this project could slowly deteriorate into an anti-taxi piece, which I didn’t want. Besides, because the majority of taxi drivers are people of color, I feared that it would be dismissed as a brown-on-brown/black issue. Also a worthy topic, but not mine.
As I presented the taxi-documentary idea to others, I encountered some resistance to the thesis, i.e. that discrimination happens; it can be subtle; and it can have negative health effects. Mostly, I heard that people of color, and especially Black people, create their own discrimination. I was also told that taxi drivers may have plenty of non-racist reasons for not picking up people of color, e.g., they may not get a fare back from a Black neighborhood, or that someone dressed in a certain manner rightfully produces safety concerns. I found these arguments to be ignorant at best.
There was also a lot of resistance to the science of discrimination and stress and their proven effects on health (”What’s the big deal? Isn’t stress good for you?”) Again, I found these claims specious. Why, when it comes to the social sciences, are the data called into question? The statistical analysis methods used in this area of public health are the same as the ones used in most others. Why are people so ready to question other peoples’ experiences? Or, are they? Maybe they wouldn’t question just anyone’s perceptions…
As much as I hated this resistance, I realized that the documentary has to respond to it. If a few people feel this way, how many others do as well? Accomplishing this requires us to make epidemiology and biostatistics very accessible to those without statistics backgrounds. In addition to breadth and depth, this project has to have clarity.
So while this is no longer a taxi documentary, the NYC-taxi backdrop is a great vehicle (no pun intended) for this work. It’s appealing and, luckily, salient—In NYC, everyone needs a cab at some point. It also serves as a great springboard to other examples of discrimination.
Research so far leads me to believe that minor, or everyday, incidents of discrimination, like being passed over by a cab driver, do not have the same statistical or empathic importance as that of major incidents (e.g., harassment, violence, etc.). But does that make day-to-day types of discrimination less problematic? Should discrimination be judged by its severity, its frequency, or its effect? We hypothesize that these isolated, microagressions have an effect and that the effect is greater in the aggregate. The literature will support us.
As an example, our preliminary interviews showed that, based on their previous experiences, men of color in NYC attempt to catch yellow cabs with much less frequency than their female and White counterparts. (Self-disclosure: When we’re in a hurry, I ask my partner to catch our cabs.) If this one example of discrimination or the fear of discrimination can lead entire portions of the population to retrain themselves or to change their behaviors, can it not also lead to other, more subtle changes? Changes in our bodies and psyches? Under our skins, literally? Changes that transcend skin color? And if these changes are occurring en masse, whether or not racism or discrimination is intentional is suddenly beside the point. (When a house is on fire, does the origin of the fire make putting it out any less necessary?) Now we have population-based health issues that need to be addressed.
Addressing the effects of discrimination is urgent, because they are negative, invasive, character-forming, and they disproportionately burden people of color. But the often-ignored or unknown links between discrimination and health are the focus of the film.
Discrimination has some symptoms that are apparent and others that are less so. And just like any other disease, discrimination has a better chance of being treated when it manifests itself clearly; after all, insidious disease kills quietly. This leads us to believe that by highlighting the less conspicuous forms of discrimination we are making them easier to treat.
The health literature shows that “perceived” discrimination, or “race-related stressors,” play a significant role in the production of blood glucose, arterial plaque, the suppression of necessary immune responses, etc. This should come as no surprise, because the negative effects of stress on health have been shown and popularly accepted in our society. Research has also shown that discrimination is a type of stressor, but this hasn’t yet garnered the same acceptance. Our goal is to present the relationships between stress, discrimination, and health in an accessible manner.
If the path between discrimination and illness becomes clear, can it be ignored any longer?
Alejandro Varela, M.P.H.
public health filmmaker