I think every serious student of American democracy should understand the basic history of slavery because it’s fundamental to understanding America today. Harriet Washington’s Medical Apartheid begins before American slavery, documenting how the bodies of African Americans have been misused by the medical establishment. It’s a detailed, academic account of the foundations of American prejudice, from the time the first slave ships arrived.
It shows how J. Marion Sims performed vaginal surgeries on enslaved women without anesthesia to perfect his technique, and only used pain management when operating on white women. This was standard practice at the time. Black Americans were treated as ideal experimental subjects because they were seen as sub-human by many physicians and scientists.
The concept of Medical Apartheid refers to the two-tiered system of medical care that emerged in the United States – one for white Americans and a lesser standard for Black Americans. This system was formalized during slavery and continued through the Jim Crow era and beyond.
Harriet Washington’s meticulous research documents how medical professionals exploited Black bodies while simultaneously denying appropriate medical care. These historical abuses have contributed to ongoing health disparities and distrust of the medical establishment among many African Americans today.
