When I first enrolled in a class called Literature, Medicine, and Racism, I fully expected to be shocked by the material and situations we would encounter. I quickly found that I was not wrong in this assumption, and upon reading the introduction of Medical Apartheid, I was already taken aback at the nature of the novel. When reading about scenes of experimental, non consensual surgeries being performed it is very easy to get caught up in graphic imagery of the situation and fail to notice the forces that caused it in the first place. Therefore, it should be noted that the epigraph for this class is: “My job is to notice…and to notice that you can notice.” – Dionne Brand. I began to remind myself of this statement prior to reading passages in order to challenge myself to examine them more closely. Upon doing this, I have been able to note many subtleties in the readings that could easily be overlooked. I hope to use this newfound insight in the rest of the readings and discussions that we will encounter this semester.
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