Book: Medical Apartheid, Harriet A. Washington
CH6: Diagnosis: Freedom- The Civil War, Emancipation, and Fin de Siecle Medical Research
CH7: "A Notoriously Syphilis-Soaked Race"- What Really Happened at Tuskegee?
How are we feeling so far?
Progressive! So progressive! I admit Black patients when no one else would! I also call them insane due to their freedom! 🙃 Really goes to show what the bar was, that that was "progressive".
The fact that there was so much lying required in the 1840 census to "prove" that Black people "needed" to be enslaved, because freedom made them insane... It was literally harder to do all of that then just PAY YOUR WORKERS. And, you know, treat them like human beings. This is how much they were willing to do to maintain white supremacy.
The fact that they really thought "well, since they won't be slaves, surely they'll die out in the next 150 years". "If they won't be slaves, just let them die!" THAT'S what southern Black people had to deal with, post emancipation.
Or that people were just, suffering and dying because they didn't want to be socially connected with a "Black disease" like pellagra or sickle cell anemia. Was the racism worth that much?
"Well if you don't trust white hospitals so much, why don't you go make your own?" We did. And as always, y'all destroyed them.
The average American, particularly Black Americans, can cite the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment when you ask them about medical malpractice and human experimentation on Black bodies.
But what I really like about this chapter is that it really shows the scope of the experiment, and the negligent, malicious intent behind it. These were people that the scientists knew were gonna suffer and may even potentially die. And they were excited for that opportunity, too. They KNEW what they were doing, KNEW that they were lying. KNEW that there was treatment and purposely went out of their way to get the victims to avoid it.
It's interesting to note that the reason the strength of the report of the Advisory Board was lessened in its language on racism and lack of resources was (allegedly) caused by the Black man in charge of it. There's always one that wants to follow the status quo and ruin it for everyone, huh.
And on the flip side of that argument! Eunice Rivers, the Black nurse who worked in the study, being held more accountable for what happened than the white researchers who planned the entire thing- truly, that double standard we were talking about, before!
The quote about how people attribute Black people's fear of medicine to the Tuskegee Study, as an "overreaction" to one event really reminds me of how that lack of belief in our pain, emotions and worry really reflects everything, even outside of medicine. Of how when we as a community respond to an event, it's often treated as "well this is just ONE mistake!" When 1) it's not usually a mistake and 2) WE have seen these patterns replicated, either in that person or in that community. We know we're seeing a replication of behaviors, but because nonblack (usually white) people have never had to bother to see those, it just looks like a dogpiling for something "not that big".
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