Clear Seeing of Racialized Healthcare Inequities

Dipa Ma's cornerstone teaching was clear seeing—seeing reality exactly as it is without the distortions of craving, aversion, and delusion. Healthcare racism persists largely through distorted seeing: abstracting disparities as 'cultural differences' rather than racism, attributing inequities to individual patient behavior rather than systemic failure, naming unconscious bias rather than examining conscious institutional racism. Clear seeing means developing the capacity to perceive and articulate what is actually happening. That Black maternal mortality rates are nearly four times higher than white rates is not mysterious or unfortunate—it reflects discriminatory treatment, dismissal of pain, and systemic devaluation of Black women's lives. Clear seeing names this directly. It requires providers to question their training, to listen to patient testimonies, to examine research evidence honestly, and to sit with the discomfort of recognizing one's participation in harm. Dipa Ma's fearless clarity supports practitioners in moving beyond defensive abstraction to honest assessment. Clear seeing enables both individual integrity and systemic accountability necessary for real healthcare transformation.