(Im)Possibilities

Written by: Kaileigh Baudier, Rachel Fedison, James Mcnaughton, Cristiana Nuzzi, Liv Rayburn, Caitlyn Sullivan, and Logan Theofield

During a question and answer session in 2013 after her reading at the Northeast Modern Language Association in Toronto, Dionne Brand remarked “My job is to notice… and to notice that you can notice.” This quote became the epigraph for our course entitled “American Lit: Literature, Medicine and Racism” and all of the works that we have read in this class can be connected back to it. The concept of noticing that is brought up by Brand suggests that people’s thinking can be driven and assessed in a way that allows professors, authors, and peers alike to learn to see things from different perspectives and learn to see the deeper meaning in areas of literature and life. The idea of noticing, but not acting is a recurring theme throughout our course materials.

Over the course of the semester, the novels that we have encountered have prompted us to notice the underlying meaning contained within them. For instance, Colson Whitehead’s Zone One provides a unique interpretation of the zombie genre and presents readers with a moral dilemma regarding whether or not infected individuals have an internal life, and if so, if it is thus wrong to murder them indiscriminately. Just as the protagonist, Mark Spitz, notices and is disturbed by the mistreatment of infected people by his comrades, we as readers are forced to confront our own biases and acknowledge how we might treat people differently based on their appearances. 

In addition, Octavia Butler’s Clay’s Ark centers around an alien organism that is brought to earth and confers superhuman abilities along with insatiable physical desires to those who come in contact with it. The organism compels its human carriers to spread the disease to others which creates a difficulty for those with the disease as they are forced to contend with issues surrounding consent and bodily autonomy. The original carrier of the organism, Eli, decides that he must contain the spread of the disease by selecting a few individuals from the streets every so often and bringing them to his enclave where they must remain forever or risk spreading the disease globally. When Eli chooses Blake Maslin and his family as the next people to be brought into the community, he notices that Blake is particularly resistant and disbelieving but underestimates Blake’s determination to protect his daughters. Eli also feels conflicted about these repeated kidnappings and subsequent infections, and we as readers are led to notice his dilemma regarding the victims’ lack of informed consent. This moral issue can be extended to real-world scenarios in which it is imperative to understand the terms of agreement associated with a particular situation before fully committing to it, whether it be a college course, a medical procedure, or any other circumstance in which consent is of paramount importance.

Also, in Toni Morrison’s Home, the protagonist, Frank Money, spends much of the novel struggling to come to terms with his PTSD from his time in the Korean War while also journeying to save his sister, Cee, from the hands of a doctor who has been performing dangerous experiments on her. Throughout the book, Frank attempts to shield himself from the reality of his experiences in the war but is ultimately forced to confront them when he discovers that Dr. Beau’s experiments have left Cee unable to have children.

As seen through Cee’s desire for community in Home and Blake’s determination to escape in Clay’s Ark, noticing is only the beginning. For example, Blake does notice that Eli and his people on the ranch are different, but he doesn’t truly understand why or even make an effort until he begins to experience the symptoms associated with the organism towards the end of the novel. If Blake had done anything effective earlier in Clay’s Ark, the novel likely would have had an entirely different resolution. There is also the fact that the community on the ranch failed to notice the extent of Blake Maslin and his daughters’ extreme, albeit reasonable, agitation. If they had noticed, they would’ve had the opportunity to react and stop Blake from ultimately spreading the Clay’s Ark organism to the rest of the world and turning the epidemic into a pandemic.

Toni Morrison’s Home brings a lot to unpack as a reader with Morrison’s clever moral dilemmas and her characters’ differing perspectives. We as her audience are almost forced into noticing to actually understand the novel itself as well as the complexities that come along with it. And we, much like the characters in Home, must notice and act on things in our day-to-day lives that are often difficult to address such as trauma and injustices. From Frank’s mishandled PTSD to Cee’s subjection to racist ideologies in the medical workplace, readers witness the effects of noticing and a lack thereof. The traumas of the Korean War experienced by Frank are one of the most topical instances of ‘noticing’, seeing as the novel starts in his past and goes on to depict him in a mental institution. Frank spends much of the novel downplaying the severity of his trauma, and although he has noticed that there is something wrong with him, he refuses to unpack these horrible experiences. It is likely that if he had addressed the demons from his past at the outset of the novel, his character would have been less defined by his PTSD. And as a critical part of the novel centers around Frank’s trauma, the story would have been markedly different as well. 

Throughout the novel, Morrison gradually alters the manner in which Frank’s PTSD is portrayed which is mirrored by Frank’s interpretation of his PTSD. The reader and Frank’s journeys of realization and noticing are essentially adjacent, as we learn more about him as he simultaneously learns more about himself. But even as his PTSD becomes more apparent, and he reveals more about the circumstances leading up to his PTSD, because of the time period that he lives in, there isn’t much that he can do. PTSD only became recognized as a medical diagnosis in 1980, meaning there was little that Frank could’ve done regarding properly handling his trauma. Along with this, as a working-class black man in the 1950s, real therapeutic treatment would have been very hard to come by. Although Frank did come to terms with some of his trauma at the end of the novel, ultimately his PTSD remained unresolved due to his circumstances. But maybe if others who noticed how evidently troubled Frank was had acted on his behalf, he would’ve been able to form a decent support system, or at the very least the foundations of one. This could have made a significant difference in Frank’s progress towards accepting his actions in the war and thus learning to process his grief and guilt in a healthy manner.

Home affirms the idea that people are capable of noticing when it comes to things including the flows between literature, medicine, and racism. For example, Home confirms that folks can notice the connections between medicine and racism as the Black women of Lotus, Cee’s hometown, are appalled to discover that Cee decided to work for a doctor. They admonish Cee for this choice and believe that she should have known better. In fact, one of the women tells Cee “‘You ain’t a mule to be pulling some evil doctor’s wagon’”. This immediate response indicates that the Black community in Lotus has been well aware of the abhorrent treatment of Black people at the hands of doctors for quite some time. These women likely witnessed similar events prior to Cee’s circumstances that informed them that doctors were not to be trusted. Their reaction also reinforces the idea that iatrophobia, or the fear of doctors, was oftentimes a sensible phobia for African Americans to possess as they continued to notice the differences between their medical care versus that of white individuals. 

In addition, the novel emphasizes the inherent link between medicine and racism through Frank’s institutionalization at the beginning of the novel. It is implied that Frank has been placed there for a PTSD-related episode, and we as readers are left to wonder if perhaps this wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t a poor Black man. In fact, when Frank escapes the mental institution and seeks asylum at a church, the reverend who welcomes him remarks that “‘They sell a lot of bodies out of there…doctors need to work on the dead poor so they can help the live rich’”. This chilling revelation indeed appears to confirm the reader’s suspicions that Frank was institutionalized for nefarious purposes. It also relates to the previous example in that many members of the Black community within Home are indeed aware of the racism that is prevalent within the medical field.

Moreover, Home highlights the connection between literature and racism during the scene in which Cee observes several of the books contained within Dr. Beau’s study. Readers are able to glean from their titles that the books emphasize racist ideas regarding the superiority of white people and the inferiority of Black people. In researching these books further, one learns that they advocate for the removal of “undesirable” traits from the gene pool by means of preventing particular groups from having children, such as African Americans. These books very likely contributed to the doctor’s desire to perform dangerous experiments on Black women as a means of limiting their ability to reproduce. We as the audience notice and are immediately taken aback by these revelations but it is only because we understand the general contents of the books that we know that Cee should leave the premises immediately. 

On the other hand, Home examines the limitations associated with noticing as well as the ramifications of failing to notice. For example, Cee notices the doctor’s books but is not alarmed because she is unaware of their contents. As Cee stands in Dr. Beau’s office, she observes her surroundings and looks at “the medical books closely, running her finger over some of the titles: Out of the Night.  Must be a mystery, she thought. Then The Passing of the Great Race, and next to it, Heredity, Race, and Society. How small, how useless was her schooling, she thought, and promised herself she would find time to read about and understand ‘eugenics’”. She is ignorant of the fact that they contain racist ideologies and were written by eugenicists which implies that the doctor himself holds such views. Cee’s naivety is dangerous in this particular situation because she is unknowingly at the mercy of a doctor who will likely not have any regard for her consent. This example highlights the importance of both noticing one’s surroundings and understanding the deeper meaning contained within them. Had Cee truly noticed, she would have escaped and would not have been subjected to experiments that left her on the brink of death.

In addition, Home discusses the consequences of noticing someone in peril but deliberately choosing not to intervene. This is exemplified through the actions of Sarah, (a Black woman who has been working at Dr. Beau’s house for years), as she is aware that the doctor is conducting experiments on unsuspecting Black women but she decides not to report him to the authorities. In particular, when Cee begins working for Dr. Beau, Sarah has the option to inform Cee of the dangers associated with the job but she remains silent on the matter. It is only when it becomes clear that Cee might die at the hands of Dr. Beau that Sarah elects to reach out to Frank in an attempt to save her life. Sarah’s inaction makes her arguably as culpable as Dr. Beau, as she regularly witnesses these atrocities and continues to do nothing about it. She even states, “She blamed herself almost as much as she blamed Dr. Beau. She knew he gave shots, had his patients drink medicines he made up himself, and occasionally performed abortions on society ladies. None of that bothered or alarmed her”. While Sarah demonstrates a sense of self-blame and guilt for the practices that she has witnessed, due to the societal norms of the time, she may not have been believed if she were to report Dr. Beau to the police or if she was believed, she might have been indicted along with the doctor. Sarah’s fear prevented her from acting in good faith until she suspected that Cee might die. In fact, Sarah is relieved to admit that “If the girl dies, she thought, it wouldn’t be under her care in the doctor’s house. It would be in her brother’s arms”. Although Sarah did care for Cee’s life, she was caring with the wrong intentions. Sending for Frank instead of calling the authorities demonstrates Sarah’s apprehension about being caught and potentially losing the only home that she’s had since she was a teenager. While Sarah’s actions ultimately saved Cee’s life, her initial intentions were questionable and they reinforce the idea that one can both notice injustices and choose to do nothing as well as notice injustices and choose to do something about it. 

Furthermore, Frank and Cee witness a Black man being buried in a field at the outset of the novel when they are children, but they are not able to understand the reality of the situation until several years later when they are adults. Toward the end of the novel, Frank discovers that Black men were forced to participate in fights to the death in the same place where he and Cee saw the body being buried at the beginning of the book. In fact, he learns that a father and son were pitted against each other and that the father insisted that the son kill him. After receiving this information, Frank is compelled to perform a sort of reparation by unearthing the man’s bones and giving him a proper burial. These events suggest that one can notice but remain powerless to prevent terrible situations from happening as well as the idea that the true meaning of an event can elude someone until they are prepared to learn the truth. 

The concept of noticing, as well as acknowledging what we haven’t noticed is important in both the confines of this class, as well as our greater Geneseo education. A major course concept students encounter in this class is the both/and. Professor McCoy has emphasized all semester that a topic can, and often should be viewed in more than one light. This is relevant to the concept of noticing as it is easy for many to only consider their initial interpretation of an event or idea while neglecting other interpretations. In order to be able to view something through several different lenses, students must work to notice as much as they can whilst also acknowledging what they don’t know. This coincides with the importance of acting in good faith, which sometimes can require outside perspectives to notice if one’s actions are performed in good faith. For example, if one is engaging in conversation with others and isn’t very knowledgeable about a sensitive topic, it would be a good faith practice to say “I don’t know” instead of trying to offer input that might be perceived as a bad faith contribution. On that note, it is important to keep an eye out for bad-faith actions and intentions in all aspects of one’s everyday life. 

Another course concept that relates to the idea of noticing is the “art of scaring” as one must recognize the impact that their words and actions can have on others when delivering difficult information. If one fails to take into account the manner in which they are conveying a message that may be hard to hear, they run the risk of alienating their audience. These course concepts are pertinent to our class discussions but are also valuable tools to have moving forward through life. The GLOBE (Geneseo Learning Outcomes for a Baccalaureate Education) mission statement speaks to finding “strength in diversity” which is an essential outlook to have for the future. Since students will go on to encounter all different kinds of individuals throughout their careers and in everyday life, this concept of noticing and not standing idly by is crucial. Regardless of their major or career interests, students need to practice noticing to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard, and they need to be prepared to intervene in the event that one person is dominating conversations. This is an imperative skill to carry forward into the workforce as collaboration is often a large component of one’s job, and it is essential to ascertain each team member’s opinions during meetings and while working on projects in order to ensure the success of the company.

I, Liv Rayburn, feel that the collaborative conclusion we have reached conveys my thoughts and sentiments on the topic of noticing. I think that we, as students, have practiced a great deal of reflective thinking throughout this course and in all of our collaborative exercises, and I commend us for that. It isn’t always easy to apply course concepts to real life situations, but I genuinely think Dr. Beth and my peers have broadened my perspective and made me a more considerate person. Going forwards into the field of adolescence education, I will use the tools this course has given me to make sure all of my future students feel safe and heard in my classroom. I hope to make positive impressions on them, just as Dr. Beth and other educators have done unto me.

I, Caitlyn Sullivan, agree with the collaborative conclusion that is created. I believe that the art of noticing goes further than just throughout college. This concept of noticing has strongly resonated with me as an individual who wants to act in good faith toward all. Reflecting on this class throughout the semester, I have found that working on collaborative exercises with a group helps us as a class to practice the art of good faith that Professor McCoy has shown us throughout the semester. Working directly with my classmates has helped me to become more comfortable and understanding with conducting group work. Physically practicing the concepts that Dr. McCoy presents in class creates a safe and welcoming environment in which all students can thrive from. As I carry on throughout my next couple of years as a student, I look forward to bringing the art of noticing into my career as well. I hope that I can carry onto others the good faith and noticing practices that Dr. McCoy has left with me. 

I, Logan Theofield, concur that the concept of noticing is crucial to carry with oneself when moving forward from this course. I will be furthering my education with the hopes of becoming a physical therapist and will need to carry out all of my future actions with a good faith mindset. I will encounter all kinds of people in the future and hope to aid in the healing process. This course and its emphasis on noticing is important to any field but especially medicine, the iatrophobia that has been created because of certain parts of history is something that all medical personnel from brain surgeons to the receptionists at a pediatrician’s office need to be aware of and need to ensure will never be repeated. Therefore, I will ensure this practice of noticing will be carried out in any facility where I work in the future.

I, Kaileigh Baudier, am in agreement with the group’s conclusion.  The concept/art of noticing is about engaging in the world and connecting with others, but it is also about being in touch with yourself and what really matters to you.  Being able to work in a group instead of on my own had opened up my mind to more different thoughts and ideas I hadn’t thought of before.    Once you start noticing you are able to help others notice.  For example, Medical Apartheid, taught me so many things and made me notice the mistreatment of humans that I wouldn’t have noticed on my own.  Taking this concept out of this course and into the world allows me to be able to act in good faith towards the people I will encounter throughout my life, and further into the future, my career as an educator.  

I, Cristiana Nuzzi, am in agreement with the group’s conclusion. The idea of noticing, I feel, is an understated act of caring. Oftentimes, it takes so little to notice, yet we are so absorbed with ourselves that we don’t. Meanwhile, others feign noticing to seem as though they do care. However, I can only account for myself and my own actions. As I continue my academic career at SUNY Geneseo and eventually begin my work as an English teacher, I will do everything in my power to go through life with good faith. I hope to showcase these skills that Professor McCoy has awarded me to my peers as well. Ultimately, noticing in all its dichotomy is a salient part of life. 

I, Rachel Fedison, concur with our collaborative conclusion but I would like to expand upon a few of the points that were made within it. For instance, I would contend that people who act in good faith often take the time to really notice others and respect opinions that differ from their own whereas people who act in bad faith might simply dismiss others’ viewpoints instead of attempting to understand the reasoning behind them. This notion is perhaps best represented within the political arena as individuals who are engaged in good faith debating practices are willing to listen to their opponents before offering responses while those who are operating in bad faith prefer to assume that their opinions are correct without contemplating the merits of their opposition’s arguments. In addition, it is apparent in our daily lives that the concept of noticing is closely intertwined with the “art of scaring” as we are inundated with news on a regular basis regarding sensitive topics such as war and natural disasters. As human beings, we have a responsibility to notice the impact of the delivery of such information not only on ourselves but also on the members of our communities. Furthermore, I believe that my experiences in the workforce demonstrate the importance of noticing regardless of one’s discipline. I have spent time in the accounting field as well as in a speech-language pathology graduate program, both of which required a significant amount of collaboration with folks from disparate backgrounds. While these disciplines are completely unrelated to one another, both taught me invaluable lessons regarding how to interact with various personalities, and to not only notice but value the input of people who are different from me in terms of age, race, and gender. Finally, I hope to incorporate the aforementioned course concepts into my remaining semesters at Geneseo as well as throughout my future career in the field of mathematics.

I, James McNaughton, agree with the conclusion presented by our group. As more of my time in this class has passed, I became more aware of the recurring theme of noticing. This concept has manifested itself in a variety of ways throughout the class, notably through Professor McCoy’s concepts of the “both/and”, as well as “the art of scaring”. Both of these concepts emphasize the importance of noticing, and being aware of both what we do and don’t know, as well as how we present such knowledge. I realized eventually that noticing was, in my opinion, the theme with the most importance for the class, as well as the thing with the most application for my future studies. It is with focusing on noticing, and being aware of our limitations of what we know and what we have noticed, that we can further understand those around us, and alternatively understand why people have their differences. Along with this, as students,  an emphasis on noticing can bring greater meaning and truth to the literature we read, and bring more value in other academic disciplines.

Our course epigraph is “My job is to notice…and to notice that you can notice” by Dionne Brand.  When I read this quote, it reminded me of the first day of class when we were shown a video of Homer Simpson backing up into a bush.  This video symbolized the general theme of the class and how we, as a group of students, will be communicating with each other as well as learning from one another (With the guidance of our professor).  Communicating with classmates in our randomly assigned groups allows us to view ideas and information through a completely different lens than before.  It also helps us to notice details that we may not have beforehand without the input of others, which sparks the thought of perspective.  Particularly how many different perspectives there are in the books that we’re reading in class, and how these perspectives ended up harming not only the people during the timeline of the books, but also those for generations after.  The perspectives I’m talking about are those of racism and the perspective that doctors had on African Americans and enslaved people in the books.

Before I was first introduced to Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington, I had no idea that medicine and the medical field were so closely related and intertwined with racism, and how medicine was used against members of the African American community.  In-class conversations as well as the books we are reading really brought these issues to light for me.  Because doctors and those in the medical field did not see African Americans as equals and rather saw them as test subjects and people that they could do cruel experiments on without consent, countless innocent people have died from some of the most heinous experiments I’ve ever heard of.    

Something that would exemplify these experiments and the perception that enslaved people were seen as test subjects is described in Medical Apartheid.  Sam is a slave that had a problem with his jaw causing him to stay awake at night, and further hardening his work.  His owner was aware of this and used a home remedy of boiling water to “fix” it.  When the issue progressed, Sam’s owner got in contact with a doctor because he needed Sam to continue working for him.  This presents the idea that Sam is seen as solely a worker.  Washington states on page 101 that, “Dr. Marion J. Sims, [told] Sam’s owner that only an operation carried hope of a cure. But Sam vehemently and repeatedly refused, protesting that it would ‘hurt too bad’”.  Sam is obviously very much against the idea of this experiment but because Sam was enslaved, it was not his choice but rather the decision of his owner.  When Sam was in the surgery room he was strapped to the chair and he had a chunk of his lower jaw removed.  We are not told if the surgery was actually a true success or not but Dr. Sims had said that “Sam’s mouth is always open in a wide grin” (Washington 103), which I find quite disturbing.  Because Sam was an enslaved person, he had no option to refuse this medical experiment and the doctors were able to legally get away with doing this to a human being.    

Another example of an inhumane experience caused by doctors’ perspectives on African Americans is the tragic case of Saartjie Baartman.  Baartman was a female servant, possibly enslaved, that was given to British naval surgeon Dr. William Dunlop.  She sailed with him to London in 1810 where she would unknowingly “become an object of unbridled medical curiosity and physical lust” (Washington 83).  Baartman is from South Africa and is a member of the Khoisan hunter-gatherers.  Khoi women had very “endowed figures” and “Most scientists agreed that the hot, damp tropical climate created a licentiousness and sexual profligacy in African women that was unknown among European women” (Washington 83).  Meaning that the men took a very sexual and demeaning interest in Baartman and other Khoi women.  Even though the men were aroused by her, “scientists believed that African women in general and Khoi women in particular had oversized inner labia that hung down when they stood” (Washington 83).  This, in turn, resulted in many men of science to have a peaked interest in her.  They would travel from all around Europe to come analyze her buttocks and her extended inner labia.  The “experiments” that were done on her would hardly be experiments at all.  They would violate her and rape her and dress her up in animal skins with spears and bones as accessories.  Washington states that, “Over the next five years, Baartman met with much rougher usage. She was made to stand naked at parties of the wealthy and to impersonate a chained animal in garish Piccadilly, where the mob paid a shilling a head to gape and shout vulgarities. They began by staring at her in disgust, progressed to laughing at her, and ended by being aroused by her” (Washington 84-85).  Even though these men originally were disgusted by her and verbally assaulted her, they ended with a view of appeal.  

These passages have sparked curiosity in my mind about the different perspectives that African Americans and enslaved people received.  In the experiment with Sam, he was treated horribly and he was forced to partake in a dangerous and painful experiment without any consent.  This shows that one way enslaved people were perceived was as an object of experimentation, and that anything was able to be done to them.  And in the experiment or experience involving Baartman, while she did have unspeakable and unfair things happen to her, she was still seen as an appeal to men.  Something I would like to figure out or learn from this course is why simple differences in skin color and physical appearance can change the entire way someone is perceived.  

So far, I really enjoy this course.  With most books I read and classes I take, I find that a lot of information is pretty much useless.  This class however, is constantly giving me information that I think everyone should be given an opportunity to take in.  During class discussions, I truly love hearing other people’s ideas and viewpoints because it offers fresh perspectives that can be useful to our work. The theme of this course is determined by the course epigraph, “My job is to notice… and to notice that you can notice.” It’s all about expressing your own thoughts while respectfully and actively listening to those of your peers. I’m eager to finish this course and continue to learn through the readings, conversations, and writing assignments.    

Sources:

Washington, Harriet A.. Medical Apartheid. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The topic of racism is something that has sadly been around for most civilizations’ existence. In this class so far I have been shown a different perspective of the definition of racism as a whole. Geraldine Heng’s definition of racism deals with it in a way to show the horrible purpose of why racism became an idea in forms of society, for control, to isolate groups, and to render them powerless. Our class time has made me curious about why this was necessary in order to control people. With the course’s epigraph in mind, “My job is to notice…and to notice that you can notice.”–Dionne Brand, creates a thought process that makes me think of the goal of the class. The structure of the class itself is to start out with guided discussions and then eventually become more independent within our own abilities and take control of the class time towards the end of class. With a structure like this, the ideas learned in this class will allow thought processes to truly become our own and will hopefully encourage more good faith practices in all areas of one’s life.

The ideas of new definitions for racism that have been introduced to me make me think more about ideas of racism in medicine. I am in a physical therapy program so it has opened my eyes to look out for racism in medicine in my own life. I will constantly be thinking with that mindset whenever I carry out future practices. I will make sure to keep an open attitude to any and all people that future interactions will bring to me. In reference to the course epigraph I will try to make sure my future colleagues can keep the same mindset in their practices. But prior to this, I was not aware of the reality involved in situations that make people afraid of medical places and professionals. I previously was under the false sense that being afraid of the doctor was the cartoon-like idea of a small child being afraid to get their yearly booster shot at the pediatrician. I was completely ignorant of the idea that years of mistreatment and wrongful experimentation occurred to make groups such as African Americans have iatraphobia. The idea that people were used in barbaric ways to gain some medical knowledge is not acceptable no matter the time. So after reading about Sam a slave from chapter four of Medical Apartheid who was strapped to a chair and forcefully used for an experimental test of a medical procedure on his jaw which he in no way consented to (Washington 102 – 103). It amazes me that there were no thoughts about the Hippocratic oath when these individuals in the South practiced medicine. And with the historical contexts of time, people could argue the idea of rights but it’s just peculiar that human decency did not prevail in situations such as Sam’s situation. Similarly, my thoughts about things such as the Hippocratic oath are sparked by readings like this done in Medical Apartheid. The Hippocratic oath has been around since the very early studies into medical practices and is a major point that is stressed to modern medical students. And states that medical professionals who follow this oath will prioritize doing no harm to their patients.

Likewise, I am a biology major who is wrapped up in all of the studies of chemistry and parts of biology that will allow me to go on to be successful in Physical Therapy school and have a good career. But now with a class like this which is a complete switch from all of the chemical bonds and biological processes I can develop new perspectives. In the case of Fortune, it makes me wonder. What if he was given the opportunity to learn and have different perspectives? What if the doctors and people of the time took time to think about the value of a life? And think about how remains should be taken care of to serve a memory. Since I do have an appreciation and interest in medicine I realize that studies need to take place but in a manner where the person themself donates their body or loved ones donate the body for study. In Fortune’s case, there was no love or passion in science for this decision it was purely the lack of usefulness since he could no longer serve in the harsh servitude he was bound to. And knowing that I will have to take an anatomy course that involves a dissection of a human cadaver I would like to learn from the past and be able to do so in a proper and professional manner. Having the ability to properly pay respects to the individual who was kind enough to allow students across the nation, including myself,  to better understand the human body all because of their noble donation. Having the epigraph in mind, I will be looking for ways to get others who are alongside me in the study with the cadaver to see the importance of the sad history that came from old medical practices. In chapter five of Medical Apartheid Washington tells of a man whose body was used for the learning process but was obtained in the most sinister way. The body of Casper Yeagin was donated to science after being mistreated at a hospital and by police all while his family was looking for him. The family was only truly informed of what happened to their uncle after a lawsuit (115 – 116). This furthers my questioning of how individuals could practice such bad faith and not see the error of their ways. Since this was not an isolated group or facility, there were multiple people from different groups who wronged this man and his family and treated him as less all because of the color of his skin. 

Overall I wish to have this course continue to spark new ways of thinking so that people, including myself, can better the field of medicine and all aspects of society. The critical point is to continue to ask questions and be curious about the material to further discussions and improve my own understanding of new perspectives.

AJ Forte

Dr. McCoy

ENGL 111-01: DPP Am Lit: Lit, Med & Racism

September 25, 2023

Throughout these classes, I’ve experienced quite a few things that have brought light to how I perceive certain instances I am currently experiencing. It’s giving me a new perspective on topics and enlightenment on my thought process whenever the topic is relevant for discussion. The epigraph of the class is “My job is to notice…and to notice that you can notice.”–Dionne Brand. First off, the main thing that has me thinking is what this quote truly means. From previous lessons in this class, I’ve learned that phrases and questions have a vast quantity of meanings. I feel that it means that Dr. McCoy’s main job is to analyze us and see if we are understanding and able to expand and bring context to conversations. 

Now, throughout all of the classes that we’ve had one thing I noticed is that I’ve rarely seen Dr. McCoy say that something is wrong. I wouldn’t be inclined to say that there are NO WRONG ANSWERS, but certain notes are heavily influenced by Beth’s deciphering or reemphasizing what a student has said. One of our first discussions in class was how Dr. McCoy will eventually be “irrelevant” or in a way, fade out of class discussions throughout the semester. Having us split up and reason why she would say such a thing, lead us to believe many things. What I mainly believed was that most of the class would be heavily group-based where we generally discuss the topic at hand and brainstorm most of the ideas ourselves to the point where Dr. McCoy is no longer needed to start discussions. We will eventually form a rhythm that allows us to know where to jump back into discussion to continue yesterday. But of course when I say this I truly don’t mean that Beth will become irrelevant. To further expand on my full meaning, she will always have a very important and involving role throughout the whole semester; I just feel that later on her role won’t be as impactful as it was within the first few weeks. To generalize, we came up with “independence, self-discipline, and freedom exploration”. In a way more simplistic way than the way I stated its meaning and in which many other students had similar answers. In the same class, we then moved on to what I felt was a more important point, and that is how areas of literature and medicine relate. This question had me stumped for a little and had me thinking. Thankfully for the members in my group unfortunately I’m really bad at remembering names but I believe it was Liv who brought up many great points, one on how both literature and medicine can be used to help and harm others in physical or mental ways. From there, the groups came together and added how literature is also a key component used in medicine. Such as describing what the medicine does for you or whether you think that literature is used to heal someone the same as medicine can. 

The next class was a little lesson about ethics that should be heavily practiced in class. These were put under two categories Good Faith and Bad Faith. First Beth started class with a story about “a student some semesters ago talked about a literary character in terms of CSA, which the student understood as standing for “Child Sexual Abuse” but I also understood as “Community Supported Agriculture”. Further, it gives the example of how people of different cultures can define certain things in many ways whether they’re hurtful or misinforming. Instances such as this have to be taken and accounted for and Beth said she should’ve been more descriptive to avoid offending the student and better get her point across. Then, we split into groups to first touch on examples and traits of good faith such as honesty, respecting others, using first names, admitting to falseness, etc. Moving on the bad faith, things such as interrupting, harmful intentions, ignoring, denial, etc. To little surprise, we managed to come up with more bad faith exercises than good. As said in the notes from September 8th, “Harm can be caused by right intentions.” I do agree with this statement because it is a difficult task to please people, and words stated can be viewed in many different ways. A very common saying that I think of a lot is that the “truth hurts”. Going back to Good Faith practices an example that was given was honesty, said in other was “honesty is the best policy”, which is a great thing to practice because liars are worse. But sometimes people are left in denial and even though it is the truth, it can be very hurtful to the person on many levels, so even though the intentions may be good, it can still hurt a person. 

Transitioning, we first touched on a book called The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages reading a small section called Inventions/Reinventions and how Heng, the author, refers to the word race, in her eyes described as “a name we retain for the strategic, epistemological, and political commitments it recognizes — attached to a repeating tendency, of the gravest import, to demarcate human beings through differences among humans that are selectively essentialized as absolute and fundamental, to distribute positions and powers differentially to human groups” (Heng). In other words, race has a heavy influence on stereotypes and how some people are careless to even define a person by what they look like and not who they truly are as a person. With this topic in mind, this leads to a video shown later in the week with TED talk speaker Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s presenting “The Danger of a Single Story”. Better explained by Nirmeen Shumpert from the University of Maryland “Adichie argues that single stories often originate from simple misunderstandings or one’s lack of knowledge of others, but that these stories can also have a malicious intent to suppress other groups of people due to prejudice” (Shumpert). The targeted stories touched upon by Adichie were children’s books and how it’s wrong to have such an intention to be placed in such books. With minds so young and undeveloped, want to learn grow and suck up as much information as they can, leaving them “impressionable and vulnerable” (Adichie 01:43). Then connecting with a book reading in class, Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington, on how medical researchers take advantage of African Americans in ways with medicine either not give them the same medicine as a white person or “Such research has played a pivotal role in forging fear of medicine that helps perpetuate our nation’s racial health gulf” (Washington 21). Relating to what Adichie has been talking about has proven how people take advantage of those who are unfortunately and unfairly considered weak. Children and at unjust times in history, African Americans, are treated differently by the way they look or their maturity levels.

One last book we went over is named Fortunes Bones by Marilyn Nelson which uses poetic honoring of the life of an 18th century slave. The story even relates to the last on how African Americans during those unfortunate times, were unfairly treated almost not even being considered a person in some lines. Coming back to the beginning, throughout most of these topics we have taken notes and in almost every class we break into groups to discuss the various topics I have mentioned throughout this essay. Relating to the class epigraph, it makes a lot more sense in the case that Beth is trying to see how much we can retain from this class from discussions we have to further prove to her that we can understand and notice improvement and overall understanding of the material we go over.

Cristiana Nuzzi

Professor McCoy

Literature, Medicine & Racism

26 September 2023

Shining a Light on Forgotten Histories

“My job is to notice…and to notice that you can notice” (Brand 2013). In this class as well as my class on African Literary Criticism, we have read several pieces of black and African literature detailing the unheard stories of these communities. This also includes the falsities that Western society accepts as truth. Since the beginning of time, stereotypes have been placed upon groups of people. Oftentimes we welcome these stereotypes, never caring to learn the truth. Whether this is out of malice or pure ignorance, these harmful narratives cause great disdain, not only toward the unenlightened, but within the community. The works of these artists allow us readers to defend those who are unable to defend themselves, for if we do not notice, who will? 

When many of us think of Africa, we mesh our preconceived notions together, treating it as a single cohort, rather than a diverse continent. We may picture hazy deserts. Bare chested women holding baskets above their heads. Violence, whether it be between humans alike or jungle animals. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie touches on this in her 2009 TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story.” Adichie begins the speech by talking about her Nigerian roots. She knew nothing else outside of her home besides the British and American books she had read. Subsequently she wrote only of white, blue eyed people who ate apples and played in the snow. Several characteristics that she could not identify with herself. Adichie goes on to explain how “impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story.” Like Adichie’s view of America, our version of Africa is so distant from the truth. Though when we are exposed to so little, it is difficult to break away from what you know. Adichie expands on her childhood, saying that the year she turned eight her family got a new houseboy, Fide. She knew nothing about him except that he was poor. One day she visited Fide’s village where his mother showed Adichie a beautiful basket the boy’s brother had made. Adichie says “It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them was how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor” (Adichie 2009). There is a comfort in knowing someone or something as a singular entity, lacking depth, and never straying away from this image. By putting Fide in a box Adichie is not only harming him, but herself. When we limit ourselves to the “single story” we are creating the same damage.

Meanwhile, in America we learn stories of slavery, the south, and the many atrocities faced by African American people, though it was not until reading Harriet A. Washington’s Medical Apartheid that I realized the extent of it. Washington talks about the full history of African Americans mistreatment being used as unwilling experimental medical subjects. Early on in the book Washington talks about Baron George Cuvier, a prominent naturalist and zoologist of the time. He described black people as having “their hair crimped, their heads squashed and their noses flat. Their protruding mouths and thick lips are strikingly similar to those of the apes. The peoples which compose this race have always been savages.” Cuvier’s comparison of black people to animals suggests that black people are less than. Though this is one man, Cuvier represents the majority on the topic. Still his words seem meaningless after reading the story of Ota Benga. Advertised as “The African Pygmy…Height 4 feet 11 inches. Weight 103 pounds…” Benga was seized and sold after returning home from a hunting trip to find his village in ruins and his entire tribe slaughtered. Benga was locked in the monkey house at the Bronx Zoo. For weeks the man was subjected to countless visitors chasing him, jeering, poking, and tripping. The progression of dehumanization and a loss of identity is seen through each piece of work.

Similarly, Marilyn Nelson touches on the idea of dehumanization and a lack of self in her 2004 collection Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem. The book acts as a commemoration of an 18th-century enslaved man named Fortune who was owned by a doctor. Postmortem, Fortune’s body was dissected. His skeleton was used to create an anatomy school for doctors to study the bones, though this was done without Fortune’s consent. Over the years Fortune’s skeleton was lost and found.  Nelson begins Fortune’s story with a poem through the lens of his wife, Dinah. Here she says “Since she seen Fortune head in that big pot Miss Lydia say that room makes her feel ill…I wonder how she think it make me feel? To dust the hands what use to stroke my breast…” By stripping Fortune of his autonomy, Dr. Porter caused more harm to those around him. For maybe taking away one’s sense of self when they are unable to defend themselves is the most vile act of all. Now Fortune’s body lays vulnerable for anyone to see. Nelson supports this idea with her poem “On Abrigador Hill,” which is through the eyes of Dr. Porter. It reads “Herewith begins my dissection of the former body of my former slave, which served him who served me throughout his life, and now serves the advance of science.” The language Nelson uses furthers the dehumanization of Fortune, referring to him as simply a slave, an object meant to serve. The conflicting views of Dr. Porter and Dinah makes you wonder if Dr. Porter truly believes in what he is saying about Fortune, that there was balance in the relationship between the two men. Maybe the true accounts have gotten lost in time, much like Fortune’s Bones. 

The dichotomy between Adichie’s story and the tale of Fortune’s Bones perfectly exemplify the harm that’s been created toward black people throughout the years. The escalation from false narratives to grotesque and violent acts is difficult to grasp. Though I think all three stories greatly relate to the way society treats specific communities. In my class on African Literary Criticism we talked about oral literature, stories passed on completely word of mouth, though maybe we are not hearing these stories straight from the source. If we do not open ourselves up to opposing narratives, who will?

References

“The Danger of a Single Story.” Youtube, uploaded by TED, 6 Oct. 2009,           www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.

Washington, Harriet A. Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. Doubleday, 2006. p. 512.Nelson, Marilyn. Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem. 1st ed., ‎Wordsong, 2004. p. 40.

SUNY Geneseo’s English 111 course; Lit, Med & Racism, features a central Epigraph from Professor McCoy. It is a quote, from poet Dionne Brand stating “My job is to notice…and to notice that you can notice.”. For a short time, I fixated on noticing. Before then I was too unaware to notice, and after, I had given up, believing it to be a fruitless task. In this context, I define the word “notice” as being aware of the plight of those in different situations from oneself. This word applies more broadly within this course, but I mean to use this word in a specific context. This course is centered around how black people have been systematically abused and mistreated by our nation’s medical industry. I realized if I had any hope of having success in this course, it would come from me noticing once more. I pose noticing as a bad thing, which it isn’t, but I failed, and since then I’d been hesitant to make a clear attempt once more. My struggle with noticing comes from two perspectives. Racism as a topic in American society and American culture is not only complicated and multifaceted, but simply depressing. It is not a fun topic for many to engage in. The other perspective comes from where I was raised. In a very white town, I, a white person, did not see what advancement would come with my activism, and truthfully I didn’t even have much of a medium in order to be an activist, or at least I didn’t notice whatever medium I had. And so I withdrew my consciousness from activism, and I noticed no longer.
But now I must notice. Not recreationally, but scholarly. And so I study the mistreatment of black people, specifically African-Americans, and the breadth of my understanding of racism, while not even close to complete, hangs over my head, and I am forced to reckon with the question: What do I do with this information?
The collection of poetry Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem, by Marilyn Nelson begins with a preface. The preface, on page 13, begins as such; “Fortune was born; he died. Between those truths stretched years of drudgery, years of pit-deep sleep in which he hauled and lifted, dug and plowed, glimpsing the steep impossibility of freedom.” Fortune was an enslaved African-American who died of unknown causes, whose body was used in anatomical study, boarded up in a house, and then put in for display in a museum. There were millions of people like Fortune, who suffered immeasurably between those two truths. There were too many who had a similar fate to Fortune, becoming experiments, in life or death. There is an unending stream of misery sourced from racism. Almost everyone is aware of this truth, but how many of us think about it? Who’s to say really, but that’s besides the point. How much of a reminder do we need in our lives? How much do we let this pain and misery of the past affect us? How do you even quantify such a thing? For every Fortune, who gained posthumous fame for his mistreatment in death, there were hundreds of thousands who are forgotten to time. Their suffering brings us no enlightenment. I will spend much of this semester diving deep into our nation’s history of abuse of African Americans, just through the lens of medical mistreatment, and still I will see a tremendous amount of pain. A large portion of my semester will be directed solely towards this, and then I will maybe take another similar course or two or however many more, and in four years I will never have any academic commitment towards such thing’s again. So do I keep up to date, and continue to be haunted by the ghosts of our nation’s past, and the monsters who will remain in our nation’s present and future, when once again I am in my small white town, with no medium for my activism?
I am reading the novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. I am around a quarter of the way in. The novel is a Socratic dialogue between a relic of the counterculture movement of the 1960’s. By the 1990’s he is jaded and hopeless. He remains jaded in seeing an advertisement for a pupil who is interested in saving the world. The man, indignant after the counterculture movement provided no such world saving changes, goes to meet the teacher in order to ensure the teacher is a charlatan, as the man believes. The man is shocked when the teacher is a gorilla. Not any gorilla but a very wise one. After explaining how he had gotten to this point, the gorilla, Ishmael, say’s “The map. I have it. You don’t have to memorize the route. In other words, don’t if, at the end of the day, you suddenly realize you can’t remember a word I’ve said. That doesn’t matter. It’s the journey itself that’s going to change you.” I am not sure of the route, but I hope the journey will change me for the better.
Racism is at the course of this class and it’s given me reason to try and understand the racist actions I’ve been presented with. What is behind people’s racism? Is it inherent in people to want to find someone, or something to exclude? We see this with bullies and rejects. Is it just something of a misunderstanding that has just kept rolling down through the generations? Several generations of Americans could all own slaves, and all the baggage of those generations weighs more and more. How could you possibly think differently when your father, and his father and his father, and his father before that all found slavery, or discrimination, or racism to be fine? Especially when there is some incorrect scientific theory that you couldn’t possibly fact check backing your beliefs? Or is it really about exploitation? Is capitalism behind all of our struggles like some believe? Many defended slavery for years off of the basis that America’s economy would suffer without it. I am not sure, but I do believe these are some of the primary causes, and are all leading contributors to racism. In chapter 3 of Harriet A. Washington’s Medical Apartheid, we get an interesting combination of these three things with the case of Sartjee Bartman. Bartman, born in what is now South Africa, was taken advantage of, and shipped to Europe. In Europe, people used her in their theories that the Khoi people, the tribe that she was born in, were the missing branch between humanity and other primates. Bartman was considered very inferior, despite her obvious intelligence, as she could speak 4 languages. Bartman’s physique was analyzed endlessly, as it was unique in comparison to European women, and was excessively sexualized. At the end of her life, still in her 20’s, she was forced to act like a wild animal, while in a cage. Bartman spent her life mistreated, but was it more so because she was viewed as half human half animal? Or was it because her unique physiology caused her to be viewed as a walking experiment? Or was it because of the profits derived from her sexual exploitation? Well, clearly all three motives of racism were legitimate, but was was the driving force behind all of this? Or was there any in the first place, each motive just piling upon another? I don’t know. But at least now I notice.


Citations

Nelson, M., & Espeland, P. (2004). Fortune’s bones: The manumission requiem. Front Street.
Quinn, D. (1995). Ishmael. Bantam Books.
Medical apartheid the dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present. (2010). . Paw Prints.

When we first started talking about the quotation used in this first line of Fortune’s Bones Preface, I was curious as to why we were spending so much of our class time on such minute detail. There was so much more to the preface, why spend so much time on punctuation? That was until we dove deeper into the meaning behind the punctuation, and what the author was conveying. The semicolon, in this context, was the author’s way of summarizing someone’s life in a sentence. The author summarizes Fortune’s life by saying the beginning and end of his life, the semicolon symbolizing everything in between. His life being summarized into a punctuation was the author’s way of showing that Fortune’s life, or the life of a slave, wasn’t important enough to elaborate on, and wasn’t worth talking about. That he was simply someone that lived and died. This exemplifies how all slaves were seen at that time, people who simply lived, died, and didn’t have any true essence. They were seen as objects, not people. Later in the preface, the author asks questions about what Fortune must have been like. For example, Marilyn Nelson says “Was Fortune bitter? Was he good or bad? Did he sometimes throw his head back and laugh?”(Nelson, 11) But all that was left of him was his bones, and no one remembered his life or his name. “His bones say only that he served and died, that he was useful, even into death, stripped of his name, his story, and his flesh.” This topic of discussion has made me think about how valuable life is, as well as made me appreciate my life on a greater scale. My understanding of the value of life increased because of how easily someone reduced someone else’s life into nothing. This also increased my appreciation of my own life because my life is valued to its fullness. Furthermore, it’s a reminder to make sure that you don’t reduce others to something less than who they are. Another discussion in class that has had me thinking throughout my day to day life is the idea of bad faith versus good faith. I am constantly thinking of whether my actions are within good or bad faith. In relation to this, I make sure that the motives of my good faith actions aren’t corrupt. I think about why I do something, and if it is for the betterment or detriment of the other person. I have yet to experience a moment since that discussion where I acted in bad faith. However, I am positive that if I do find myself acting in bad faith, I will think back to that discussion and make myself aware of the fact that I acted in the wrong. Something else that I have been thinkING about from class is how reading aloud can help us understand a passage more clearly. I have been using this in my other classes, in addition to this one, and it is more helpful than I had anticipated it would be. When I read a passage over and I don’t understand what I’m reading, I think back to that discussion in earlier classes, and I apply that to difficult readings. For example, in my poetry reading and text class, our readings are by authors using old English, and though I have a general understanding of what they say, reading out loud has helped me tremendously when it comes to fully understanding the text. I think reading out loud during class is important for me to begin doing during class as well. This is because it will help me not only understand the text more clearly, but also increase my confidence in public speaking. Developing the confidence to raise my hand during class to read is something I am working on currently. I usually don’t have a problem with raising my hand to answer a question, however, it’s when I have to read out loud where my confidence falters. I realize that this is because I have a fear of embarrassment and failure in class, so I have trouble volunteering to read during class in case I pronounce something incorrectly. Lastly, my senior year of high school I had a project on the Tuskegee Syphilis study. A lot of what we are learning in this class is about racism and medical studies, which is what my project was on. Therefore, I am curious as to if I will be able to make connections to what I learned while making the project. I also watched the movie on Henrietta Lacks in senior year. I know that we are reading the book that the movie is about, and I am curious what else I have left to learn about it. I’ve been curious about what the book is actually like as well, since the movie is about the interviews from Henrietta’s daughter. I am curious to see how I have developed as a reader, writer, and person by the end of this course. 

Nelson, Marilyn. 2004. Fortune’s Bones. Front Street, Asheville, North Carolina.

The course epigraph “my job is to notice… and to notice that you can notice” by Dionne Brand was given to us to get us thinking about the heavy topics that this course deals with. In this course we are reading books like Medical Apartheid by Harriet A Washington, and Fortunes bones by Marilyn Nelson. They talk in heavy detail about what enslaved people and people of color had to endure in the past. Medical Apartheid explains the painful procedures that were tested on black women. The epigraph makes me think, why did nobody recognize that this was wrong? And why did nobody ever try to speak out against these things? And I believe for many people it was normalized. Many believed what others had told them and copied what they did. If everyone else does it, it doesn’t matter right? This still happens everyday today. An example could be skipping class. If everyone else in your class starts to skip, you then think its okay for you to do as well, even though you might know its not a good decision.

In my previous years of school, I had learned about slavery, and the gist of what happened during it, and how it ended, but in just a few classes I have gained a whole new perspective on what life was like for an enslaved person. I knew that enslaved people were treated very badly but what we are reading is extremely inhumane and disturbing to think about how people willingly did these horrible things to other human beings. Most likely without having any remorse or regret for their actions. As scary as these things are to think about, I am glad I am learning about them, and gaining a new perspective. So that I am no longer ignorant as to how enslaved people were treated and how they lived.

One example of how enslaved people were treated is told in medical apartheid by Harriet A Washington, is in the epilogue on pages 1 and 2. A surgeon by the name of James Marion Sims would operate on enslaved black women and use them for research purposes. He wanted to find cures for Women’s disorders and opened the first Women’s hospital in New York City. He was heavily praised, some hospitals still use his name, and some still use the instruments he invented. Even with all of these accomplishments, the way he achieved these was wrong and immoral. He would restrain these women and perform procedures with no anesthesia. Some of the doctors would even have to leave because of how horrifying the scene was. (Washington, pg 1-2). Another example in this text is on page 103. Where a plantation worker by the name of Sam was in a lot of pain in his jaw. After years of pain, he could no longer work, and his owner brought a doctor to help him. The doctor discovered he had cancer and would need surgery to remove part of his jaw. Sam had said he didn’t want the surgery, but it wasn’t up to him it was up to his owner. It also mentioned that there were ten medical students and fifteen others that were interested in watching the surgery. The book quotes “when he finished, the surgeon noted with satisfaction that his surgical innovation had ‘proved its practicality… whether the patient is willing or not.” This shows that they truly only cared about their own accomplishments and benefits and had not care for the patient, who was the enslaved person. Almost like they didn’t even consider them human beings. These people were tortured for these doctors and medical students to learn, and for research to be conducted.

In class we have also read Fortunes Bones by Marilyn Nelson. In the preface the first line is “Fortune was born; he died” we discussed what the semicolon in the sentence means and how important it is. To me the semicolon holds his entire life. Being a slave Fortune’s life was taken away from him, and he was forced to do work and be owned by somebody else. So just like in the sentence the semicolon took away all the information about his life and about who he was as a person. After fortune died, scientists had studied his bones. They did not lay him to rest, and he served a purpose even in his death against his will.

Curiosity is something that I believe is so important for our lives. Curiosity fuels our desires, and passions. It also has paved the way for discoveries in medicine and in science. All discoveries that have been made in the past have all happened because someone was curious and asked a question. However, as I have discussed in this essay curiosity caused people to do some very inhumane things. Like Doctor sims, and how he would operate on enslaved black women against their will for his own curiosity and research purposes. And how Sam the plantation worker had part of his jaw cut off even though he didn’t want to, so that he could continue to do his work. And finally how Fortune’s bones were studied after he died. None of these people had a say in what happened to them, or how they were treated. They were forced to be the subjects so that others could develop and fuel their curiosities.

Works cited

Washington, Harriet A. Medical Apartheid the Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. Paw Prints, 2010.

Nelson, Marilyn, and Pamela Espeland. Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem. Front Street, 2004.

Throughout all of my years of schooling thus far, and despite every science and pre-med course I’ve taken in college, not once have I ever heard of the concept called “medical racism.” That’s why I’m taking this course, because simply the name, “Literature, Medicine, and Racism,” made me curious about what topics we would learn about. Since reading a few chapters of Harriet Washington’s Medical Apartheid, the content she wrote about not only shocked me but also worried me. I couldn’t help but think, how is it that I’m just now coming across this knowledge? How many Americans know this version of the history of medicine from Washington’s perspective; or maybe the more important question is how many Americans don’t know this history? Throughout the last several classes I’ve been curious about how many more “isolated incidents” of medical racism have been surreptitiously silenced, hidden, or ignored during the history of medicine and healthcare in the United States. Furthermore, I’ve been wondering if the current institutions that produce healthcare workers and researchers have made students aware of the people who had suffered and never got recognition for their, usually uninformed and nonconsensual, dedication to science and research. I would argue that simply the acknowledgment of medical atrocities towards African Americans and other minority groups by the medical population in America could greatly change the relationship between doctors and their patients as well as the way medicine is practiced. 

One aspect of early American medicine that surprised me was how progress in this field of science was often due to the slave trade and the physician-and-planter relationship. Due to the mass importation of enslaved people to one general region of the U.S., Southern American medicine boomed for nearly two and a half centuries. Immense progress in medicine was due to, as Washington puts it, “clinical material” (Washington, 2006). Enslaved people were viewed as clinical material by planters in the South. Enslaved people served as training material for many physicians and researchers, which caused physicians to foster a strong relationship with planters. This relationship seemed to be mutually beneficial; physicians could practice and experiment with medicine without moral conduct, and the planters could keep their enslaved people alive in order to continue working for them. The usage of Black people during this time period objectified them and denied them of having any bodily autonomy. Out of everything I’d ever learned about slavery, the involvement of enslaved people in medicine was never mentioned. It’s disappointing to learn how little care physicians and researchers had for enslaved people but instead saw them as objects and projects. Perspectives like Washington’s help to provide crucial context to the bigger picture. The fact that doctors across the country saw Black people as “clinical material” clearly shows that these were not even close to isolated incidents.

Looking deeper into the physician-and-planter relationship, Washington describes instances where owners of enslaved persons restricted medical care due to accusing sick Blacks of malingering. On the other hand, owners of enslaved persons would bring in medical professionals to examine their slaves to figure out if they malingering. According to the definition from Oxford Languages, to malinger or malingering means to pretend to be ill, or feign illness in order to escape duty or work. Physicians and planters doubted the legitimacy of the claims their enslaved people made and were more concerned with putting them back to work. Planters often didn’t believe them and didn’t put forth any effort to take care of their mental well-being, but only cared about their physical, and mechanical well-being. In many cases, enslaved people did not receive medical care until it was too late, the medicine given made their conditions worse, and they often noticed physicians would provide the same “cures” for multiple different ailments. These patterns caused a lot of distrust in Western medicine. Soon, slaves began to conceal their illnesses out of their distrust of Western medicine. As Washington describes this trend, “In short, enslaved Blacks often eschewed Western medicine because they suspected their owners of a greater interest in them as capital than in their welfare” (Washington, 2006). These examples of neglectful medical practices resonate with the iatrophobia African Americans have experienced for centuries and into the present day. Again, for millions of Black Americans, across many regions of the country, these were not isolated incidents. As time moved forward, communities of enslaved people saw how they were objectified by White physicians; for many African Americans today, African Americans are less likely to seek treatment and overall have more restrictions to access healthcare (Armstrong, 2007). So statistically, in America, we see some diseases that are killing African Americans at higher rates than White Americans. For example, Black Americans have a 25 percent higher cancer death rate than their white counterparts. Black American women have a 20 percent higher cancer death rate than White women (National Cancer Institute, 2022). The reason why is not really biologically related, but rather is due to social constructs. The distrust between African Americans and doctors in the present day, while it is completely justified, is negatively affecting the health of this group of Americans overall. 

I was curious about how much distrust still exists among African Americans and doctors today, and I found many recent publications online about how American doctors are failing Black mothers. During pregnancy, Black American mothers-to-be often don’t receive enough communication from their doctors about all the risks they’re susceptible to while pregnant or simply aren’t listened to when describing health concerns. Several African-American women have spoken out about the injustices Black mothers have been subjected to by medical professionals. The lack of communication is similar to telling the truth but not the whole truth. This creates inequities in treatment between expecting mothers of different ethnicities. For example, American sprinter Allyson Felix spoke to Time Magazine in June of 2023 about her own experience and other women’s experiences of being neglected by their doctors while pregnant. She stated that many Black women like herself were not aware of health risks while being pregnant. To name a few, Serena Williams experienced a pulmonary embolism shortly after giving birth to her daughter via cesarean section, but her doctors initially dismissed her concerns for her health when she expressed them. Beyonce developed and was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a high blood pressure disorder that can occur during pregnancy and could later cause seizures. Felix herself developed preeclampsia too just days before giving birth. Sadly, in April of 2023, a former teammate of Felix’s, American sprinter Tori Bowie passed away while 8 months pregnant due to respiratory distress and eclampsia (Felix, 2023). A common trend across the experiences of the 4 women mentioned by Felix is the neglect in care by medical professionals, and their dismissive nature when health concerns are brought into the conversation. Whether those doctors realize it or not, the medical system in America has not trained healthcare workers to value the lives of Black women equally to White women, and furthermore, there are still racial disparities in maternal and infant health. 

Personally, I believe education on the history of these racial inequities should be mandatory for medical students. To be fair to themselves and to their patients, it’s important to understand the reality of America’s dark medical history. The way Americans practice medicine may even improve due to these acknowledgments. I wonder if every student was aware of the events Washington describes in Medical Apartheid, would their approach to patient care be different? Would it be enough to restore some trust in the American healthcare system? 

References

Armstrong, K., Ravenell, K. L., McMurphy, S., & Putt, M. (2007). Racial/Ethnic Differences in Physician Distrust in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 97(7), 1283–1289. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1913079/  

Felix, A. (2023). Allyson Felix: Tori Bowie Can’t Die in Vain. Time. https://time.com/6287392/tori-bowie-allyson-felix-black-maternal-health/ 

National Cancer Insitiute (2022). Cancer Disparities. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/disparities#top 

Washington, H. A. (2006). Medical Apartheid The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. Anchor Books.