Humans

A little background first....several years ago (and this has NOTHING to do with "Obamacare") the government instituted a mandate that medical offices and hospitals should at some point all be able to share information electronically. Ergo, the age of electronic health records began. Medicare then decided that if you chose not to participate, they would penalize you monetarily. Now, in order to NOT be penalized, you have to collect data on and report to the federal government certain things. One of which is "race". Any patient can choose not to answer this on our forms but if they do answer, we then enter it. 

The other day a patient wrote (and this was a first) "human" in the blank next to Race.  I am now embarrassed and sad to admit that we all chuckled about this. Because, as I thought about it later, I realized just how intelligent an answer that was. When and why is "race" the pigmentation of our skin? Aren't we all part of the Human Race? 

This actually makes me question so many things. I participate in some online consumer surveys and am sometimes asked about my marital status. Domestic Partnership is never an option given. I'm not in one but have noticed its absence from the choices.  And for the information the government is looking for in my reporting, they want to know ethnicity but only ask "Hispanic" or "not Hispanic". Why are those my only options? 

When will our "melting pot" of diversity be accepted by everyone? When we stop teaching our children to hate based on nothing other than appearance.