Funding the Tuskegee Expertiment...

How was it possible for the government to fund such a horrible expertiment without anyone knowing of it. Are they that good at hiding things? This expertiment should have not went on as long as it did. Matter of fact, it should have not went on at all. The individuals who were responsible for funding and operating this expertiment should have faced more harsh consequences for what they did. I can not help but to think that if our government could get away with hiding what was truly going on in this expertiment, what else are they hiding?

Tuskegee Expertiment...was it necessary?

The Tuskegee Expertiiment is a reminder to me of how corrupt our government is. I do not believe that certain people have to suffer in order for our knowledge and understanding of science and life can improve. I believe that this expertiment was a way to justify the statement that it is ok to sacrifice certain human beings for the "greater good." I do not agree with that. In fact, I am not sure that the lifes that were lost and ruined due to this expertiment truly contribute to the "greater good." It seems to me like the Tuskegee expertiment caused more harm then good. Black men was used in this expertiment base on the fact that the effects syphilis is more visible on black men versus black women. Also, to prove the belief of inferiority among black men to eliminate any threats that were feared. On top of that many families, lifes, etc were ruined by this expertiment. And for what? For the advancement of medicine? Couldn't we eventually find a better way to improve medicine and learn about the human body? Was this expertiment necessary? I think not. The money that was used to fund this expertiment could have went to better use.

A matter of funds and support

The matter of funding was the main reason why one lasted longer than the other. This makes me wonder how many other types of eugenics like experiments might have had an impact on society if they had been more well funded or could have budgeted themselves better and lasted longer till a “breakthrough of sorts”. Could we possibly be living in a completely different world today? Or was this just an idea only really held by a few elitist types of people; and if it had ever really taken form the majority would have squashed it before any worldwide effects could have been instigated. I mean although we were doing the same types of experiments at the relative time of the holocaust we still stepped in… kind of. Who knows what would happened it just shows that ideas need support and history is defined by it. 

John Plevel

The Negro Project Vs. The Tuskegee Experiment

We talked in class about the differences between the Negro Project and the Tuskegee Experiment and why one out lasted the other. One factor that we talked about was money, but I don't think that was really the reason why the Negro Project  didn't last. I agree with the conclusion in the article that the Tuskegee Experiment lasted so long was because it conformed to the ideas of the time. The Negro Project wasn't blaming the African Americans for syphilis, but more so on Whites. The Tuskegee Experiment was putting the blame solely on the African Americans. At the time African Americans were considered lower class and "dirty". The Tuskegee Experiment backed those ideas up, while the Negro Project did not. So because the Tuskegee Experiment conformed to the ideas and thoughts of the time it was continued. That makes me wonder that if the Tuskegee Experiment was considered okay to do at the time, what are we doing now that is considered okay? How can we say any experiment we do is ethical? We say they are ethical by using the ideas, thoughts, and standards of our time. But so were the doctors and scientists of the Tuskegee Experiment. 

Treatment to Syphallis

While discussing in class about the Tuskegee experiment, I was always wondering if there was a treatment that could help all of the people affected. I know that they book talked about Penicillin being the magic medicine that was discovered to cure Syphilis. Why would the doctors not use it on some people to see the results? Wasn't that they main idea of the experiment? Were patients elsewhere, who were probably white, being treated with Penicillin? This made me think about how much useful information was being withheld from the patients that was hurting their chances at recovery. I realize that the idea of the experiment was not to cure the infected, but it seems like in that time period they were be more concerned about advancing medicine than repressing people.

Experiment as a way to be rid of a race?

I thought that the idea that Angela brought up in class about the Tuskegee Experiment as a way to be rid of the African American race was an interesting one to consider. They never gave any of the men treatment, even when a successful treatment was available. If they had wanted to watch what syphilis did to the body, wouldn't they also want to know how a treatment affected the body as well? It seemed to me that they wanted to see how the disease affected the body as well as see how many African Americans would die in the process. With the racist thinking of the time, I'm sure many of the doctors and scientists involved weren't all that sad when one of the men in the experiment died. They just wanted to make sure that they would get the body of the deceased. 

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

While reading the chapter in Medical Apartheid and the article, I was very surprised by the Tuskegee experiment. I was more interested in the time period when it happened and how no one knew about this. Rural, poor, black men who were thought to be infected with Syphilis were taken in and told they were going to be cured of their disease. The PHS used these men to see what affects the disease has on their bodies. How were all of the doctors okay with treating their patients like this? Did any of the doctors speak out against the experiment because they thought it was wrong? Did they feel it was okay to perform these experiments because they were black? If it was a legit study they would not discriminate against race, leading me to believe that there was an underlying reason to the Tuskegee experiment.

In response to Eugenics

Eugenics was a huge problem throughout many parts of history in different form and governments have always used stretching the truth or yellow journalism to get the people behind it. Whether it be just flat out lies or only giving out partial info that supports their decisions its given many false impressions of many different people throughout time. Whether it be race, sex, or disability related its all the same. Even though eugenics hasn’t been initialized on a big scale in decades some of its thoughts have dropped down through the cracks and there are people who still feel eugenics is still a very valid concept. Don’t judge people based on single occurrences, each person has strengths and weaknesses and defining entire bodies of people based on those is what caused the problem of eugenics. In the end its all about the kind of society we want to build and that is one where we don’t want eugenics or any type of downward judgment of any deviant people.

John Plevel

Response to "She's Too Young"

Josh, I know exactly the movie you're talking about. I, too, found that male character to be ridiculous in his ignorance about syphilis, and was shocked that these kids had no idea that syphilis was still around. It just goes to show how uneducated so many people still are about STI's, especially young people.

I also found Angela's comment really interesting. I agree that the reason the Tuskegee experiment went on for so long was because those in charge were quietly trying to wipe out the African-American race. I also think that one of the reasons the Negro Project ended so soon was because it was trying to humanize black people and for once, not make them the scapegoat for something that wasn't their fault. The project was actually trying to help them, and at the time, most of the medical world and society were too racist to handle this. They would rather support something like the Tuskegee experiment which allowed them to continue believing that black people were subhuman.

Sarah Bradkey

Eugenics

I was relieved to find that for the most part, eugenics has died off, at least in the sense that we no longer try to rid the world of one race or f=group in particular. We still have a long way to go, and I hope that people will realize one day that to have a perfect race is not only unrealistic, but not ideal either. We all know that there is no such thing as perfect, so our efforts should be directed somewhere else in my opinion.

What caught my attention the most was the end of Washington's chapter about crack babies. Ever since I can remember, we have been taught the very opposite of her findings. It really makes you wonder what the education system is trying to do, if it as well is a racial institution. I know I have tried to have conversations with others about crimes and welfare, and almost every single person will believe these negative stereotypes that we have created about certain races. And people are very unwilling to face the truth, even when statisitcs back up that these stereotypes are false.

Erin Pattridge

Medical Intervention: Only When It's Convenient For The Doctors

Often medical intervention is seen as necessary, the proper way of handling deviancy and disease. However, the doctors involved in the Tuskegee experiment declined to offer treatment to the suffering individuals. If medical intervention is seen as necessary within many circumstances, such as in cases of conjoined twins, why was it that they chose not to intervene medically and provide treatment? Even when treatment options were made aware to the doctors, such as penicillin, doctors chose not to employ these treatment options. Wouldn’t offering treatment still have made for a reliable and informative experiment? Sure, they wouldn’t have been able to study the effects if left untreated completely, but they could have examined the effects if left untreated for a significant amount of time and how the treatment option was able to combat those effects.

One question which I can’t help but find myself exploring is whether or not they avoided medical intervention in an attempt to ultimately rid society of a “diseased and deviant” race. Therefore, by eliminating a great majority of the “diseased and deviant” race, the prevalence rate of syphilis may cease to exist. Or did they chose not to intervene and provide treatment simply to have a pool of disease to study from and be able to provide treatment to others (i.e. white individuals)? It is interesting, too, how doctors seem to exercise discretion about what medical cases require intervention and what ones do not. Does medical intervention seem to only be required and appropriate when it is making an individual less “deviant” and more closer to the ideal, the “normative?” Consider how intersex individuals are treated. Do they experience the pressure to medical intervene and undergo “corrective” surgery simply so that they can possibly achieve the ideal and fit within the binaries of sex/gender? I think the Tuskegee experiment offers interesting insight in the way in which science, medicine, and societal beliefs are intertwined and influence one another.

Angela B.

Dr. Harry J. Haiselden & Negative Eugenics

I read this and found it to be chilling (Medical Apartheid, Ch.8 pg. 192): "Practicing negative eugenics very publicly, Haiselden encouraged parents and other pediatricians to follow his example by or allowing the deaths of the "genetically inferior." Parents began openly to recruit doctors to kill their children who were born with birth defects, and doctors came forward with their own proud confessions of infanticide. Haiselden arranged "photo ops" with his dying patients and their mothers.

I find this horrible and disturbing. I don't think it is anything to be proud of. I'm so thankful I did not live in this time, how any doctors or parents could kill their children for this or any other reason is beyond me.

- Josh Steffen

"She's Too Young"

Our discussion about the Tuskegee experiment reminded me of a movie that aired on Lifetime back in 2004 "She's Too Young." It's about three 14 year old high school freshman girls who contract syphilis. Their high school ends up experiencing a syphilis epidemic, and there is one 16 year old boy identified as the main spreader of the disease. He does not appreciate the serious nature of syphilis, refuses to be tested and even mocks those who undergo testing. I thought it was pretty sad when one girl tells her friends she has syphilis and they say, "People still get that?" Yes, they do! As if the images of what can happen to you if syphilis goes untreated isn't enough, and they have no idea how lucky they are to have penicillin to cure them.

I thought Angela's theory about Tuskegee and the Negro Project was a really interesting observation: It lasted longer than the Negro Project because they were trying to see if syphilis would wipe out the African American race. This seems like a likely possibility - I would call it an attempt at an underhanded genocide.

- Josh Steffen

Thoughts on Tuesdays discussion

I think it is safe to say that the Tuskegee Experiment focused on African American males because whites wanted to find some way to separate themselves from this race. I guess my question is what about other races and ethnicities? How come these scientists solely focused on African American males? It is obvious that the hierarchy is not just limited to African Americans and whites, so why weren't these scientist trying to separate whites from other races and ethnicities as well? In my opinion I believe this is because there is the most hostility between these two racial groups. The whites had treated African Americans horribly for hundreds of years, and these negative thoughts about African Americans were passed on to other generations. I read somewhere that in todays society, individuals who are in poor communities are more likely to be infected with sexually transmitted diseases due to lack of education and safety. The majority of people who are in poor communities are individuals of different races and ethnicities, so the rumor that African Americans are "dirty" is only perpetuated because many other individuals do not take other factors into consideration when they are looking at STD statistics. And in my opinion, this only continues the hierarchy that many whites still want.

     Olympia is a 1938 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl. I think this video is the perfect example of, “A highly technological romanticism” that was discussed in Martin Pernick’s article (33). Not only are these humans depicted in the video attractive—considering the era—they are being active. The combination of beauty and fitness equaled healthy and replaced the older romantic concepts of beauty.

     This video seems to support the following quote from Irving Fisher, “Careful propaganda was needed to unconsciously favorably modify the individual taste . . . in mate-choosing. And Albert Wiggam agreed, “If their ideals of human beauty are properly trained, young people will, unconsciously reject the ugly and will fill their homes with beautiful wives and handsome husbands” (Pernick 32).

Domalski, Josh

Medical experimentation in the U.S.

After World War II ended and everyone began to realize all the awful things the Nazi doctors and medical authorities were doing to people, the idea of medical experimentation on humans became something that could no longer be ignored. Josef Mengele earned the nickname "Angel of Death" because of the procedures he participated in and ordered to be done on people in the concentration camps. To this day, whenever the Holocaust of WWII is brought up in conversation, someone always talks about the medical experiments and how awful they were. I think it's fascinating how many people are not aware of the medical experiments that have happened, and in some cases are still happening, in the United States. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is one of the more well-known cases, but there has been experimentation within the military, in mental health facilities and hospitals, and in prisons. These experiments have used various things such as infectious diseases, chemicals, radioactive materials, and psychological techniques. This is a Wikipedia page I came across:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_experimentation_in_the_United_States

Today, another form of what could be considered medical experimentation is happening all over the country. The Intersexed Rights Movement is fighting for the right of intersexed people to not have a doctor choose their sex for them when they're born. Intersexed people are people who are born with both male and female sex organs. Often, when they're born, their doctors choose to remove one set of sex organs, thereby choosing the child's single biological sex. Sometimes the parents agree with the doctor and want to choose their child's sex, but often the parent has no idea what the doctor is planning or that their child is even born intersexed until after the surgery is performed. Not only is this surgery dangerous on newborn babies, it often causes great psychological and emotional problems for the intersexed person later in life. It can also cause health issues. These doctors often don't have a valid medical reason for these surgeries; they simply do them because they're curious or they feel the need to make a major life decision for the child. They often claim that there is a much bigger risk for the child if the surgery isn't performed, persuading the parents to consent to it. This is yet another form of unnecessary medical experimentation that is happening too quietly, right here in our own country.

Sarah Bradley

The Syphilis Experiment

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

Tuskegee

The Tuskegee Study – “As men began to die, the PHS performed autopsies and regularly published the results in medical journals.  They even shared study results at a 1936 American Medical Association meeting..”(166).  If this statement is true why was there not an outcry from someone in the medical community against the study?  Were the doctors belonging to the American Medical Association all racists?

Joyce Abbott

Discussion for Tuesday 3/20/12

On Tuesday, our class discussion was very interesting talking about the Negro Project and the Tuskegee Experiment and the issues of race, gender and sexuality.  I was very interested in this because I thought it was just about race. 

When we started this discussion, I was going to say that it was race based, then Angela made the point that it just tested Black men and women were not included.  After that Joyce said that it was because on men, Syphilis is more easy to spot on men than it is on women.  This explains why gender is very important in this explanation.  I believe race was such a crucial factor because of the time period.  If it was later in time, I feel as though that black men would not have been exposed to such harsh treatment.  Sexuality also played a major role in this experiment.  Blacks (men and women) were seen as very sexual and always being sexually active.  This is a reason why they are related to monkeys and animal like.  They believe that black got Syphilis form being sexual. 

All of these factors play into the ethics behind this experiment and why it was so wrong.   

Leslie Walter

Readings for Tuesday 3/20/12

For Tuesday, I was very intrigued by the reading we had to do.  I have been interested in the Tuskegee experiment since I learned about it from my mom.  She was working on case notes and I asked if I could look at them, she said no because of consent forms and confidentiality issues with her clients.  She then mentioned the Tuskegee experiment and ho her patients did not give consent for others (besides their social workers) to view these forms. 

When reading the chapter in Medical Apartheid, the reading was very eye opening.  I was surprised at how the doctors conducting the experiment thought that blacks were more likely to get Syphilis due to biological reason.  When I was reading this I was wondering what these reasons were.  Thinking back to my African American History class, I remembered that during the time of this experiment, eugenics was still going on and people thought that blacks were primitive and biologically different.  Now I could see why the doctor's could get this perspective, but I do not agree with it.

Finally, in my EDU 349 class we were having a class discussion on cultural awareness.  In the final minutes of class my teacher told us that there are about 30,000 genes in the human body.  SHe then asked us how many differentiate between races.  People responded with 1, 100, 1,000 etc.  The answer is none.  This shocked me and the class was speechless. 

Leslie Walter

“Every 21 minutes, our next possible LEADER is aborted.”

“Every 21 minutes, our next possible LEADER is aborted,” states the billboard, which features an artistic rendering of Obama’s profile with a caption directing viewers to visit ThatsAbortion.com. The billboard features an image of President Obama, and is clearly aimed at the black population. The image of Obama is misleading in that it seems to have a political connotation, or even be a political poster meant to suggest that the message is supported and promoted by Obama and other black leaders.

I feel that this billboard relates to our discussions surrounding the concept of a “diseased and deviant race.” Similar to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, this billboard argues that the black community is to blame and certainly uses stereotypical and predominant notions of racial black sexuality. Black women and men are hypersexualized and treated/viewed as a sexual commodity. Therefore, abortions are seen as a result of their own behaviors and promiscuity.

However, even if higher rates of prevalence of abortions are among the black population doesn’t mean that it is the fault of the black community. There are many other factors which may contribute to this prevalence such as lack of access to health care, poor health care, racial inequality, and corresponding social and economic marginalization.

Furthermore, I feel that this billboard almost seems to suggest that the reason there exists a discrepancy between the number of black leaders and white leaders we see within higher positions in society is due to the acts of the black community, particularly black women. In other words, if they weren’t having abortions performed, they would see the same number of black leaders as there are white, ignoring the fact that there have and still are racial injustices.

I feel that it is essential that all individuals are allowed to make informed decisions about their health, regardless of their race/ethnicity.

Angela B.

Syphilis Experiment

Today for class we read two articles dealing with the Negro project and the Tuskegee Syphilis Project. It dealt with the issue of how in the past we thoought that this disease was based off of race and we desinged experiments where we studied syphilis in African Americans. One issue brought up in class that I thought was interesting was in the past if they were using this as a way to keep African American men away from white females because it was a time of interracial dating. I feel like this could be a reason why we continued to do this for so long. It was also said that they could have been doing this not only for science but to get rid of this popluation. I feel like in the past we feared that race so much that we would do anything to supress them and that this was another attempt to do this. Another thing that I agree with is that the reason we chose men was because they thought it would be cheaper that way because it is more visable. At the same time I also feel like this is a race issue because women are more likely to get a disease then a male. I do believe that they were doing this for science reasons but at the same time I think that they knew what they were doing was wrong because they hid it from any organization that might have an African American doctor. I also think that in the past they needed someone to blame all of these diseases on and we just always blame it on the minorities. I feel like this is still relevant today because we still try to blame things on a minority group. For example if someone is murdered people will automatically assume that it was done by someone of a minority race like African American's or Hispanics.

Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder - Plays black soldier

Blackface

My response to people who get angry about blackface: Really? 

Why!? What's the huge deal? Billy Crystal was AWESOME at the OSCARS and he was fantastic as Sammy Davis Jr.  He's always played Sammy Davis Jr.  When he was on Saturday Night Live, he played Sammy Davis Jr. When he left SNL? He played Sammy Davis Jr. during his stand-up routines. But he does it during the OSCARS and suddenly everyone gets upset?  Blackface is no longer what it once was.  It is not a caricature of black people meant to perpetuate a stereotype of an incompetent sambo.  Instead it's meant to make the actors and actresses look like the characters they're trying to play. Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder" poked fun at blackface.  Billy Crystal was doing a freaking impression.  He needed to look like Sammy Davis Jr.  He wasn't mocking the African American race, he wasn't being racist, he wasn't shooting down Sammy's accomplishments, he was impersonating him.  That. Is. It. 

What about "White Chicks" with the Wayans brothers? Same thing. Double standard. Not fair. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnzU1t04sxA 

Perceptions

Response to “Blackness”

After reading the response about the article in the New York Times it dawned on me about what I wanted to write about. Perceptions. How we see others, how others see us, how we see ourselves. We are all perceived in a different way because of our race, gender, creed and anything that we think defines us. The part reading in the Washington book  that really stuck with me was the part about the  African American nurse that was paid to make the men stay. She was paid for her perception of herself. She was an educated woman whom was African American. The men trusted her not only because she was educated but because she was African American. It is natural to trust and favor someone that looks, talks and acts like yourself. As for the person who wrote about how they see African American men as rappers or with baggie jeans it’s just your perception of the person. Our minds naturally develop schemas to make sense of the world around us. We have put things and people into categories. If I say highly educated, republican who would be the person that you see in your head? As we grow we develop new schemas to replace the old ones maybe we should broaden our horizons and start developing new schemas for rappers or even African Americans in general.  

--Sarah Fiorella  

Blackness

While reading “Diseased Race and Racialized Disease” by Alankaar Sharma, the section on black masculinity intrigued me. I wondered what defines black masculinity today from an African American point of view. What helped me understand black masculinity and “blackness” in general was an article in Time magazine that I read over the weekend.  The article was about the need to deconstruct conventions and be irreverent about blackness. To be more specific about the irreverent aspect, “Black irony is about people using blackness as a text to comment on and perhaps critique or reconfigure it. It’s about challenging and rejecting the notion of a hegemonic blackness” (77). We see examples of this in the Chappelle Show, in Tropic Thunder when Robert Downey Jr. plays an African American Platoon Sergeant, Nicki Minaj, and Token from South Park. One example that Time used was NBA star, Kevin Durant who promotes “nerd” as a style. Doing so deconstructs the black male imperative to always be masculine, tough and cool (77). For me whenever I think of a black male my age, I picture a guy wearing Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones over his backwards baseball cap, listening to rap music and wearing the latest Nike’s. I thought about this when I purchased Rapper Kid Cudi’s new album. Kid Cudi declares his new album a rock album. When I watched a video of Cudi performing one of his songs on Conan O’Brien it was weird watching a black drummer and keyboardist provide music for Cudi’s lyrics. Kid Cudi helps to deconstruct the stereotype that all black musicians are rappers. It is interesting to learn that modern blackness is breaking barriers and becoming complex. It is about being independently black and moving away from coherent black thought/power. It is about learning to move on from the dark past that many African Americans ancestors endured—at the same time still respecting and acknowledging that past. I will never know what it is like to be black, but if I want to become a better person it is necessary for me to change my views of black masculinity as it is necessary for African Americans to change their views of black masculinity. Such radical thinking would weaken the racial divide which is still visible today.

Toure. “Black Irony.” Time Magazine 12^th March 2012: 76-77. Print.

Domalski, Josh

David Duke

“David Duke, the Louisiana legislator and former KKK Grand Wizard, introduced legislation whereby women on welfare who agreed to Norplant implantation would be paid one hundred dollars annually” (209).  Please note that the author chooses to read into this that the only ones impacted by this legislation are black women.  When I read this statement I do not see any mention of race, only condition for eligibility that I see is welfare receipt.  Surely there are women in Louisiana on welfare who are not black women.

Joyce Abbott