ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the relationship of place to micro-aggressions in creative works about health and health care experiences. It provides an overview of place as a conceptual and theoretical tool and discusses its importance within the field of health geography. The chapter addresses how place offers insights into the nuances of everyday micro-aggressions. It shows how place is presented in creative health narratives and also considers the representation and function of place in Eileen Pollack’s short story ‘Milk.’ The chapter focuses on ways in which Pollack describes activities in the place of a hospital room to communicate differences in care provided to two new mothers. Pollack emphasises how micro-aggressions in particular motivate the provision of incompetent care given to an African American mother, resulting in negative health outcomes. Pollack emphasises that routine micro-insults and micro-invalidations in the hospital and other places of care are the primary reasons Coreen and her son are forced to receive emergency medical care.
