The C.O.W.S. MEDICAL APARTHEID Part III

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the third study session on Harriet A. Washington’s extraordinary text, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History Of Medical Experimentation On Black Americans From Colonial Times To Present. Washington’s historic work excavates centuries of deliberate pillaging of black bodies under the guise of “science.” Washington’s research should affect how black people interrogate the scientific breakthroughs of whitefolks – like the “crispr” gene editing technology and DNA tracing websites that stockpile genetic material. Last week’s session provided additional evidence of the institutional rape of enslaved black females and males; being unable to reproduce or engage in sexual activity devalued a slave. Washington also does a remarkable job detailing the extensive medical knowledge and healing traditions that black people brought from the continent. Whites actively suppressed this information and/or plagiarized the medical wisdom as Racist often do. We also got more examples of Whites – like President Thomas Jefferson – employing vague language to deceive others about their torturous experimentation on black people. Medical Apartheid should be mandatory reading for attempted counter-racists and all black people.