"Cutting" Phobia among African-Americans?

Factual Questions
1

I’m struggling to find a way to ask this question that doesn’t get me accused of being a racist.

I have, in my life, come across a couple folks that had an apparent phobia of having any incision made upon their skin. It just happened that all these individuals were African-American.

One woman refused to see a doctor about a discolored, deformed mole that looked like the stereotype of skin cancer; she wasn’t going to “let no doctor cut me.” Yep, she eventually died of complications from skin cancer.

One guy, in conversation among a group of guys, rejected the notion of ever getting a vasectomy (as two of the others had) because he wouldn’t let some doctor “cut” him. (Now, granted, with vasectomy, there’s a “guy” thing going on as well.)

Alison Bechdel, in her alt comic Dykes to Watch Out For, years ago depicted the father of an (African-American) character refusing to go to a doctor to have suspected prostate enlargement/cancer checked out because “That damn doctor’s gonna CUT me. Ain’t letting no doctor cut me…” and the daughter trying to argue some sense into him. Now, I just wrote this off as the mutterings of a senile, old-geezer character until I heard almost the exact words and mentality expressed by a co-worker in the same sort of situation. Now, again, there’s a “guy” thing going on with a prostate, and yes, the potential for incontinence in an older man, etc. But, no. It was all “Ain’t letting no damn doctor CUT me…”

Note that in all these cases, the word is “cut.” It’s not surgery, or the medical establishment, or hospitals, or paying for it, or any of that in question. It’s the act of, or even the sheer word, “cutting.”

So I ask: Is there some cultural, religious, or other ingrained or “imprinted” fear of, or bias against, the act of incision among African-Americans, or certain sub-sets of the community? Is cutting viewed as some grave sin against God in some African-American-populated Christian or non-Christian denominations? Is there some history I’m unaware of in the community that has this “phobia” of “cutting” as a ramification? Or do I just know a bunch of flaky people? (Well, admittedly, I do, but let’s get more specific.)

2

I don’t think, generally, it’s related to any particular grouping (although there may be some - Jehovah’s witnesses, for example, have to ‘stay away from blood’). A fear of being cut, even by a surgeon, is not that uncommon.

3

Were these people by any chance a bit on the old side?

4

Granted, there are people of any and every race, color, creed, etc. that are afraid of knives, surgery, doctors, etc. But I have know substantially fewer African-Americans than I have Caucasians.

Number of Caucasians I have known/met that expressed a fear of surgery/blades/etc.: 0
Number of African-Americans I have known/met that did so: 3

And they all specifically used the word “cut.” Unprompted.

That’s why I’m asking. I don’t think it’s coincidence.

5

To answer GHO57: Not that I could discern. One was seemingly bright and had a reasonable job; one was probably a high-school graduate, and the third I couldn’t say, but had disability from what I guess was a blue-collar job. They weren’t living under bridges, and didn’t have a relative constantly hovering over them because they weren’t “all there,” unless you maybe counted that character in the aforementioned cartoon…

6

Oh. OLD. Not “odd.” My apologies.

Two (I’m guessing) in the late 50’s or early 60’s, one maybe 40-ish.

7

African Americans are more likely to get keloid scars from cuts. If you grow up constantly being warned about getting cut, I could see it manifesting itself as a fear of it even when it’s medically necessary.

8

I’ve seen/heard that phobia among African-Americans, but I’ve also seen it among a number of white folks, including the term “cut” as in “I don’t want the doctors cutting on me”. The exact words may be slightly different, but the sentiment seems to be there.

I usually see it in blue collar or lower socio-economic level people, and in older people - I think perhaps it is a fear born partly in ignorance of medicine. Not wanting to be be cut or feel pain isn’t irrational, it’s a normal protective mechanism that helps us avoid injury day to day. Some of us have been sufficiently educated that we understand that enduring a cut or two now can prevent worse in the future but it requires education in order to make that leap.

As African Americans were often poorly educated in the past and denied learning opportunities that might factor in to you encountering this attitude more commonly among them. There is also the tendency to keloid scar among dark skinned people (though it can also occur among pale skins, just less often) that, as mentioned, might also play into a reluctance to undergo even minor surgery. Keloids aren’t just uncosmetic - they can also be painful or restrict movement if they are near a joint.

9

The only phobia I know of blacks and cutting is black women and hair cuts. Try to cut a black woman’s hair. :smiley:

10

Blacks (and Hispanics) are somewhat more likely to develop keloid scarring, but it doesn’t sound like they were concerned specifically about that.

Regards,
Shodan

PS - Link should be SFW.

11

I think you’re reading too much into the word ‘cut.’ I don’t know these people, so I could be wrong, but I don’t believe that they’d be more upset than the average person about accidentally getting a minor self inflicted cut with a slip of a knife, or a shard of glass, and I think they’re just using the word to mean surgery. In my opinion, the telling part is ‘let no doctor.’ This is obviously not something that is found in everyone, but being black, I know plenty of older black people, and suspicion about medical establishment isn’t rare amongst the group I know. No one seems to be concerned about cuts that might happen in every day life, but there is a certain level of wariness about giving a doctor that much control.

12

It sure doesn’t seem to extend to tattoos.

13

My mother is 98, and I know her generation and culture (southern) believed that if you cut on a cancer, it would spread, and you might as well order your coffin.

14

When I was reading H.L. Mencken Autobiography “Happy Days”, he was talking about various Black people he knew growing up in Baltimore around 1890. He said that Black people had a deathly fear of doctors and hospitals and it was extremely difficult to take a Black person to a hospital unless they were unconscious.

Hospitals were regarded as recruiting grounds for dissection labs and any Black person who returned from the hospital were regarded as spooky and unnatural and were avoided by other Blacks.

I should point out that H.L. Mencken wasn’t inclined to let facts get in the way of a good story.

Of course, in the days before antibiotics and when antisepsis was a new fangled idea, a fear of hospitals wasn’t that irrational. Even today, way too many patients die because doctors don’t wash their hands before examining patients. Read “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right” by Atul Gawande.

15

Sometimes, unfortunately, black people have had good reason to be wary of modern medicine:

That said, I’ve never heard that blacks are especially phobic about surgery, as such.

16

This may not be as silly as it seems at first blush. Needle biopsies can “seed” the tracts with cancer cells. I found that out when I was googling about them when I had a neck mass. I don’t have any cites handy, but I remember once reading that primary tumors excreted something that inhibited the growth of other cancer cells throughout the body and that’s why chemo or radiation was used along with surgery. I don’t know if I could find it again, so maybe I shouldn’t even mention it.

17

Sounds more like confirmation bias to me.