Is US healthcare still using racist medical practices?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When a new kidney could save your life, every minute counts. When Jazmin Evans discovered she could have received a kidney four years earlier, she was shocked. When she found out the delay was due to a racially biased testing process, she tried to warn others.
This is a story from the archives. This originally aired on December 19, 2024. None of the dates, titles or other references from that time have been changed.
In this episode:
- Jazmin Evans, Kidney Transplant Patient, PhD Student of Africology at Temple University
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Manahil Naveed and Amy Walters, with Veronique Eshaya, Shraddha Joshi, and our host Malika Bilal. It was edited by Alexandra Locke.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad Al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, we're returning to an episode that still echoes loudly, a reminder that technology isn't immune to the inequalities that exist in health care. |
| 0:28.6 | A study from last July exposes racial bias in artificial intelligence programs used to assess mental health. At the same time, surveys reveal deep mistrust in healthcare systems among black communities, |
| 0:34.6 | not just in the U.S., but as part of a broader global conversation |
| 0:38.2 | about racial bias and medical ethics. Meanwhile, major health care programs in the U.S., |
| 0:44.4 | like Medicare and Medicaid, are facing historic funding cuts. Just a quick note, this episode is |
| 0:50.8 | audio only. The context, dates, and titles reflect when this episode was first put |
| 0:56.6 | together. |
| 1:03.5 | Today, how one American search for a new kidney revealed a racial bias in the U.S. healthcare |
| 1:10.1 | system. A letter from her hospital came in the U.S. healthcare system. |
| 1:15.0 | A letter from her hospital came in the mail last year, explaining she should have been added to the transplant list four years earlier and that a racially biased test was to blame. |
| 1:21.3 | How many lives has this hidden bias already taken? |
| 1:25.1 | And how many are still at risk? |
| 1:29.1 | I'm Malika Bilal, and this is the take. |
| 1:40.2 | I was a senior in high school, and my school basically had this policy where every person that was a part of a sports team or trying out for a sports team needed to get a physical. |
| 1:51.5 | So I went to my primary and she did a number of tests including a urine analysis, which basically she saw that I had protein in my urine, which is a silent symptom for kidney disease. |
| 2:04.9 | That's Jasmine Evans. Now, she's a Ph.D. student of Africology at Temple University. And she knows |
| 2:12.7 | quite a bit about kidney disease, maybe more than she would like. I am also a kidney health and racial equity advocate within the health care system. |
| 2:23.0 | But back in 2012, when all she wanted was to play sports, she ended up with a hard lesson |
| 2:29.0 | in kidney health. Honestly, as a 17-year-old, I knew that something was wrong with my kidneys, but I didn't really |
| 2:37.8 | understand the magnitude of what that meant, basically saying that, you know, one day you're going to go |
| 2:43.7 | into kidney failure. |
... |
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