The Colours of Health

I am a White, blond Caucasian woman who is also a Chinese Medicine Practitioner. For years, despite my interest in health, and medicine, and nature, and herbs, I avoided the idea of doing Chinese Medicine in part because of my discomfort with the idea of cultural appropriation. This is the concept of removing one part of a cultural system and placing it into another, dominant, culture. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cultural Anthropology and was worried about this, not wanting Asian people to think I was taking away part of their culture disrespectfully rather than honouring it. And I also questioned, a little bit, in the back on my mind, its effectiveness and value - could this ancient system truly still be complete and effective for our modern health issues and lives?

And then there were my opinions about Communist China and my volunteer work supporting the people of Tibet and fighting for their rights. Although I admire the Chinese people, history, culture, and medicine, I do not support the Communist government and their illegal (and ongoing) occupation of Tibet, nor the abuses it has inflicted upon the minority groups in China, such as Tibetans and Uighurs. I had to remind myself that the people, and the culture, are not the government. The medicine has an over two thousand year history, in comparison with the Communist Party of China’s 71 year history, to date.

I have learned, in my 20 years of studying and practicing the medicine, that Chinese Medicine’s effectiveness and value, even for our so called “modern” health issues and lifestyle, proves itself over and over. Both in official studies on acupuncture and herbal medicine and in my daily clinical practice.

I have also learned that removing it from the language and inherent understanding of the Chinese culture is absolutely a loss. As a non-Chinese-speaking Western practitioner of Chinese Medicine without an inherent understanding of cultural context and language I have no doubt that I miss out on layers of meaning, and I do my best to learn from those who are willing to translate and explain it to us. In recent years I have focused in on the classics, the original texts which predate the Communist “creation” of the “Traditional Chinese Medicine” field, studying the ancient lineages of acupuncture and herbal medicine which directly transmit from their original source.

And so, despite the span of borders and oceans, across decades and centuries and millenia, across languages and cultures and ethnic groups and races, when I assess someone’s health from a Chinese Medicine perspective I use the same tools as were laid out some 2300 years ago. Which could make you think that culture and ethnicity and race don’t make a difference, except they do. Within our original Huangdi Neijing text, differences in social and economic standing were already taken into consideration. Chapter 77 of the Su Wen states that it is essential to take these differences into account when diagnosing patients. Not to stereotype people, but to fully understand individuals.

Social and economic status, and their interrelated racial and cultural aspects, DO make a difference because of institutionalized policies which disproportionately affect the opportunities, the circumstances and the past and present experiences of an individual, a culture, and a people.

And that may well underlie what is going on for that person’s health, sitting in my office in front of me. At the most basic level, if you can’t afford medical care, your health is affected. If you do not have access to fresh and good quality food, your health is impacted. If you have to work three jobs to make ends meet, your health is affected. If you can’t sleep at night due to worry or noise or heat or cold or pain, your health is impacted. And if the colour of your skin has impacted your access to medical care, quality food, economic opportunities, and a safe and comfortable home, then it makes a difference.

What people experience in life, based in part on their culture and race, has an effect. And both historically and right now, in the USA and also in Canada, people of colour are experiencing extreme hardships.

For an obvious example, we just have to look at COVID-19 rates and mortality in the different racial groups in the USA. The US Center for Disease Control states that “current data suggest a disproportionate burden of illness and death among racial and ethnic minority groups” with substantially higher death rates of Black / African American and Hispanic / Latino Americans in comparison with White / Caucasian or Asian Americans. Meanwhile, in Canada, we don’t even have the data because race-based information is only recently being collected, and only in some jurisdictions. However, experts and advocacy groups are putting pressure on governments to do more to identify and better support vulnerable sectors of the population, such as Black Canadians and Indigenous First Nations.

The Novel Coronavirus, and our global response to it, has been overwhelming. It has caused fear and harm and loss. Stop work, stop school, stop travel, don't gather, pare down to essentials. And then we look at how the African American population, and Black Lives Matter supporters worldwide, have responded to the murder of George Floyd by the police, and realize that daily life for many people of colour pre-pandemic is WORSE than the threat of COVID-19. Worse than this thing that has brought the world to a complete halt. Which highlights the inequalities and unacceptable state that is our past and our present, and shines a light on that. And recognizing it, rising up, and committing to change THAT is essential.

Issues of health are inseparable from social and economic conditions. Social and economic conditions are related to racial justice. Social change and racial justice, in and of themselves, are a form of medicine and healing. So, as a health care provider dedicated to preserving and safeguarding human life and health, I stand in support of Black Lives Matter and all movements on behalf of human rights.

Photo from Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada

Copyright 2020 - Anni Elliston R.TCMP.