Book: Medical Apartheid, Harriet A. Washington
CH8- The Black Stork: The Eugenic Control of African American Reproduction
CH9- Nuclear Winter: Radiation Experiments on African Americans
How are we feeling so far?
"But many Black women who desired and used birth control did so despite a strong distrust of the whites who distributed contraception in their communities. In 1972, Black social worker Urelia Brown voiced this ambiguity: "Negroes don't want children they can't take care of, but we are afraid to trust you when your offered help has so often turned out to be exploitation.""
This quote most of all, I believe, summarizes the relationship between medicine in America and Black people, the whole point of this book. Do we want the help? Yes. Do we need the help? Yes. Can I trust it coming from the hands of someone who has more often then not, not had my safety and best interests at heart? No! You cannot ask me to believe that you want me to be okay, but you have not SHOWN me that that is the case!
I had to go past my six quote limit for this chapter. There's just so much history in here, so much that goes ignored despite reproductive justice sitting at the intersection of so many identities. The conversation is often directed from the experience of white, cis women. But that is simply not the case for everyone involved and we NEED to discuss that!
This chapter also brings into conversation the criminalization of drug use, versus treatment, and how convenient it was to overlap the two via antiblackness. The (already racist) drug war benefitted from the sensationalized use of "crack babies" to put even more people of color in prison.
Had to pass my six quotes here too. Tbh I think these next chapters are so large that I'll have to 😭
Can you imagine having your bones and teeth pulled out of you, while you were alive, and you went to the doctor to have your broken bones fixed? Literal hyenas, preying upon your injured body while you're STILL ALIVE. body snatching you, piece by piece.
the way Whiteness was promised to those who "looked" it, leading to Black and non Anglo Saxon women to burn themselves with radiation in order to look the part. Anything to be closer to whiteness!
Reading this chapter was just blow after blow of "y'all didn't even need to do this!!" Like, all of them are bad, but when it comes to nuclear radiation it's like these scientists were just playing in it using Black bodies. Like why are you feeding me irradiated mercury. What good is that gonna do. You know it will kill me.
Having the plaque LIE and then be placed behind a Dumpster... The ultimate disrespect. Shows exactly how they feel about the people that Saenger (whom UC HIRED) victimized.
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