Angelina Jolie speaks out against racial disparity in healthcare industry

Angelina Jolie has shared her thoughts about racial disparity in the healthcare industry.

On Wednesday (5 July), the 48-year-old actor wrote an op-ed for the American Journal of Nursing where she highlighted technologies that detect bruises on darker skin colours when it comes to survivors of domestic violence.

The Salt star began her piece by noting how medical centres focus more on white skin and “often miss injuries depending on race and ethnicity”.

“As the mother of children of multiple races, I have seen my children of colour be misdiagnosed, at times in ways that endangered their health,” Jolie, who is an advocate against domestic violence, wrote.

The Maleficent star is a mother to six children, three of which are adopted.

Jolie adopted her eldest son Maddox from Cambodia. Her daughter Zahara is Ethiopian while her son Pax is from Vietnam.

In her op-ed, Jolie mentioned how it’s difficult to detect bruises on people with darker skin without the proper tools.

Sharing a story of her daughter Zahara, Jolie wrote: “Reflecting personally, when my daughter Zahara, who is from Ethiopia, was hospitalised for a medical procedure, the nurse told me to call her ‘if she turns pink near her incisions’.

“I stood looking blankly at her, not sure she understood what was wrong with what she had said,” the actor wrote. “When she left the room, I had a talk with my daughter, both of us knowing that we would have to look for signs of infection based on our own knowledge, not what the nurse had said, despite her undoubted good intentions.”

Jolie added that even though her children have “access to high-quality medical care, simple diagnoses are missed because of race and continued prioritisation of white skin in medicine”.

She ended her op-ed by stating that there’s a massive need to improve “diversity and representation in medical research and training” and that “it is past time to embrace new solutions”.