I find it so shocking that people are still trying to find the good out of this experiment. The overwhelming amount of evidence suggests that the doctors and scientists conducting the experiment had no good intentions for the infected men. Part of me thinks that the experiment was a way of trying to make the African American race disappear. I got this vibe from a quote in the beginning of the chapter, in which a scientist stated that in another 50 years, the whole African American race would be infected anyway. In a way, it makes me numb to know that so many people were willing to lie to these men, convince them that they were being treated, but yet were actually hoping to exterminate this group of people. It is sickening. To me, it makes the faith I have that good people actually exist, dwindle each time we read an article on how people of power could be so cruel to others unlike themselves. And the irony of it all is that only a hundred and thirty years before this experiment began, America couldn't seem to "get enough" Africans here. And now (1930s) we try to erase them from our history?! I think a lot of supremists would overlook the fact that for at least a good two hundred years, America relied on the labor of these people's ancestors. Who can honestly say that America would still exist as it does today had it not been for the African Americans. But giving to credit to anyone other than a white person tends to be unheard of, and that in itself is very disheartening.
Erin Pattridge
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