Rugged individualism (for some).
It’s becoming a penchant of Rep. Arthur Peterson, R-Clarendon, to challenge women of color who describe racial disparities in Vermont’s health care system.
Two weeks ago Peterson, a member of the House Committee on Health Care, took Xusana Davis, the state’s executive director of racial equity, to task for testifying about racial inequities in the state’s health care system.
Peterson disputed whether systemic racism existed and claimed that Davis’ examples were of “people being racist.”
At the time, he told VTDigger he believes systemic racism exists when policies explicitly discriminate by race. Peterson said he doesn’t believe that kind of prejudice is endemic in Vermont.
On Wednesday, Peterson expanded on his idea that rugged individualism is to both blame for racist systems and for lack of access to good health care.
“I’m a personal responsibility guy,” Peterson said, as he described how his grandparents came to the U.S. without speaking English but were able to succeed “through hard work.”
“I get frustrated, I have to tell you, and you’ve probably heard this before, with us giving things to people instead of making them work for it, quite frankly,” he continued Wednesday.
Peterson then put a question to Maria Mercedes Avila, an assistant professor of pediatrics and an adjunct assistant professor of nursing at the University of Vermont, who testified at length about racism in the state’s health care system.
“How can personal responsibility be worked into these communities to be able to better themselves to access the system?” he asked.
Avila, who sits on the governor’s task force on racial equity, explained how discrimination impacts access to medical services.
“We are not saying that white people haven’t struggled,” she said. “We are not saying that white people haven’t experienced struggles — burdens. What we are saying, in this type of work, is that the color of the skin was not a daily struggle that people had to overcome.”
Avila, who has lived in Vermont for “20 winters,” said she experienced prejudice on myriad occasions in Vermont, including being told she could not afford to buy a vehicle by a salesperson at a car dealership — based on nothing except her appearance and accent.
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