Racialisation, Illness and My Father
Three Vignettes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4951188 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sharma (0000-0002-6729-5363, corresponding author), Sonya Sharma |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 137 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 71-75 |
| Publication date | 2024-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Feminist Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-7789 • E-ISSN: 1466-4380 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/01417789241245925 |
| OpenAlex | W4401510206 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
racialised people(s) continue to experience racism and inequity in and outside of healthcare settings, affecting their well-being (Hassen et al., 2021, p. 2; Gebhard, McLean and St. Denis, 2022;Geronimus, 2023).In this short piece, I present three vignettes that focus on my father and me in different spaces.In these vignettes, he is dying of cancer, and I am observing, listening to and conversing with him.My father was one of eight children who grew up in a small village near the city of Hoshiapur, part of the Indian state of Punjab.After his schooling, he was accepted into Marine College in Mumbai.His work as a marine engineer led him to migrate to Canada in the late 1960s.There he married my mother, and they had three children while working in their respective professions until retirement.My father loved cars and sport and was captain of his local cricket team, a group of diasporic friends from the Caribbean and India.The vignettes took place five years ago, when I travelled to Canada to be with him in his last days.In them, I connect feminist and race theory with lived experience to capture three interconnected moments of racialisation and illness that take place in a hospital, in a garden centre and on a bus (Ramazanoglu and Holland, 2002).Through these moments, I highlight the banality of racialisation that can demean and intensify the embodiment of life-changing illness in the everyday. the hospitalI waited with my father in a hospital room that had a bed and a big window through which the midafternoon daylight shone.We sat near the door on two chairs side by side.It was quiet.The specialist responsible for a new trial of cancer treatment entered with a clipboard and sat down across from him on a short stool with wheels.She was a white woman dressed in a white lab coat, loose navy trousers and sneakers.She asked my father some questions.He responded, but he chose to say more about his recent excruciating experiences of receiving radiation and if it was all worth it.She replied to his comments, saying, 'you have a chance to be at the forefront of medicine and to help make a difference'.He sank back slightly in his chair, shamed and glum in response to her tone, infantilising, glib and routine.Her
Feminism · Human sexuality · Sociology · Anthropology · Cultural Studies · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |