Black Patients Have Valid Reasons to Seek Out Black Doctors. A Lawsuit Threatens That Access.

The suit filed against Find A Black Doctor by a white dermatologist and an anti-DEI group is yet another effort to undermine a resource meant to protect a marginalized community.

(Photo by Envato)

As efforts to undermine initiatives for equity and representation intensify, backlash against healthcare diversity, equity and inclusion programs has predictably taken center stage.

The latest challenge—a lawsuit filed by a white dermatologist, Dr. Travis Morrell, and the anti-DEI organization Do No Harm—targets FindABlackDoctor.com’s mission to narrow health disparities by connecting Black patients with Black providers. This legal action follows a wave of anti-DEI legislation designed to dismantle the progressive reforms that have sought to bridge racial and ethnic inequalities.

At best, the lawsuit is perplexing; at worst, it fundamentally misunderstands the law and undermines quality healthcare for one of our nation’s most vulnerable populations.

The lawsuit cites “professional misconduct” based on the premise that doctors on the platform refuse services due to a patient’s race; however, this claim wrongly implies that the providers on this platform only aim to assist Black patients. Furthermore, by suggesting that seeking a doctor of the same race reflects or creates an inherent distrust of providers from different backgrounds, the suit ignores profound historical context—such as the legacy of unethical experimentation and Jim Crow-era policies—that drives many Black patients to seek out Black clinicians.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, as of 2023, Black women were more than three times as likely as white women to experience a pregnancy-related death. Infants born to Black women were more than twice as likely to die before the age of 1 compared to those born to white women. And Black men and women had higher rates of chronic diseases such as asthma, obesity, and diabetes—largely a product of living in more polluted areas with food deserts, predatory food marketing practices and limited access to economic upward mobility or opportunities to move due to historical and ongoing inequities such as redlining and residential segregation. Numerous public health studies have demonstrated that systemic racism, rather than genetics, drives these health disparities.

These alarming statistics, along with the difficulty of finding a Black doctor—Black people make up nearly 14% of the U.S. population while representing only 5.7% of the physician workforce—are precisely why platforms like Find A Black Doctor were created. Morrell and Do No Harm—who are undoubtedly aware of these systemic issues—are joining the anti-DEI pile-on by attacking Black spaces with legal action to dismantle this resource rather than working to build the bridges necessary to solve these problems, an atypical response given most doctors’ propensity to find solutions that help make healthcare better for everyone.

Ultimately, the lawsuit underscores a persistent ideological chasm that exists among healthcare professionals despite extensive research into health disparities: the dismissive notion that cultural and ethical considerations are minor factors that exert far less influence on health outcomes than Black communities think. This widening gap between Black patient autonomy and clinical autonomy hinders efforts to find common ground, complicating ongoing efforts to build trust within Black communities in the federal government, healthcare systems and healthcare providers.