Medical illustrations are what doctors see when they are visualizing caring for actual patients, and Black bodies have all too often been left out of the conversation when it comes to care. When medical illustrator and student Chidiebere Ibe recently posted his medical illustration of a Black fetus, it quickly went viral because it struck a chord when many of us realized Black moms and their babies had been left out of medical books.
Chidiebere is a 25-year-old Nigerian medical student studying medicine in the Ukraine. When he realized that all of the medical books in his curriculum only showed white patients, he decided to create Black medical illustrations. Then, he posted them to his Instagram and Twitter accounts. His Twitterpost of his illustration of the Black fetus sounded the loudest alarm, garnering international attention and news coverage after being liked and shared hundreds of thousands of times across social platforms.
According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, there were 62,443 students enrolled in medical school this year and much more diversity in the 2021-2022 school year than in the past. With an increase in diversity and increased discussions on the effects of systematic racism comes a greater demand for equity and representation.
The biggest surprise of the lack of representation in the medical field came from outside the medical field when folx realized they had never seen an illustration of a Black fetus and that this fact has slipped by unnoticed for most of their life.
“I’ve literally never seen a black foetus illustrated, ever. This is amazing,“ writes Aliyah @Liyahsworld_xo on one of the shared tweets that went viral.
Other commenters chimed in to agree:
“It’s so true !!! And I’ve never even realized it until now damn. But it’s also the fact that black mom’s are never represented in anatomy’s pictures and that is absolutely crazy,” writes a commenter on the tweet.
It made others reflect on white privilege.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a black fetus illustrated as well. It’s little things like these that white people take for granted. White people get to be a human. Black people are still “human” but otherized.”
On Instagram, author Luvvie Jones wrote, “Privilege is EVERYWHERE, White supremacy is in EVERYTHING. I am 36, and I have never seen pregnancy anatomy pictures with Black women and Black Babies in Utero.” She goes further to add, “Racism isn’t just in violent cops, it is in the erasure of us, from womb.”
The tweet also brought to the surface other inequities when it comes to Black women, like the disparity of the Black maternal mortality rate. Black women have often stated that their pain or request for care are ignored. It reminded others of the painful gynecological history of Black enslaved women being used for research.
“Gynecology was founded on the study of slave women, yet there is no representation of black women in medical texts.”
Shortly before going viral, Ibe tweeted, “My goal is to accurately represent skin conditions and all medical illustrations in Black skin and in all shades.” At the time, he had no idea that he would start a critical international conversation about the inequities in the healthcare system. Not only did Ibe’s illustration become the leader of a now-viral conversation, but he is leading the charge for substantial and lasting change.
Ibe’s GoFundMe campaign to support his medical education surpassed its initial goal, so he stated he will earmark subsequent donations to “giving back.”
In a more recent Instagram post, Ibe announced:
“I will be launching an initiative aimed at advocating for equal representation, diversity and inclusion in healthcare, training and mentorship for the underprivileged, supporting programs that are focused on children’s health and generally increasing awareness in the area of health inequities in our communities.”
Chidiebere Ibe told Care.com that he hopes his illustrations, if better integrated in the medical curriculum, will also drive more interest for study in the field. “When medical students can see themselves in their literature,” Ibe says, “it resonates with their curiosity in learning and of course [creates a] better outcome.”
In Canada, there are already talks of change as parents and educators are calling for a change in medical resources as response to the viral tweet.
Thanks to Ibe, a few years from now, we can predict that medical textbooks and resources will be as diverse as the doctors who read them.