The disturbing reason some African American patients may be undertreated for pain

[scioto99]

5. This reminds me of a novel.

The series concerns a protagonist named Martha Quest - a white South African growing up in, I dunno, the fifties?

The author I should remember, but don't. She's famous and dead.

The book - fourth in the series - is called Landlocked. Dragged it the fuck around Europe years ago until I lost it in a public bathroom in Prague. (Sometimes I wonder: where is it now?)

She is a privileged (unhappy) whitey flirting with communism, looking out on the black people who serve her, pregnant herself, but reflecting that "the natives" give birth without pain. There's an implication that she's been raised to think that the people around her who have darker skin are sort of like animals. Connected to nature; earthy, or something. (Gross; sorry).

Funnily enough: in my region, abuse of pain meds is a really big thing. And it's way more a whitey thing than a black thing. Few black people seem to do opioids. Whereas comparatively few white people seem to do cocaine. Weird. So maybe (i remark jokingly n sarcastically) that proves whiteys DO feel more pain?!