Why learning and being aggressive about history is Important

Greetings Readers,

I am reading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison for a class, taught by Dr. Koritha Mitchell here at OSU in the English Department. I am a nonfiction reader so this class is challenging in a great way. Literature provides a critical lens to examine the social world.

During a portion of the book, where the Narrator is used for electric shock treatment because he lost his memory, his plight as an African American Male reminds me of the Tuskegee Experiment. For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis. These men, for the most part were illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in Alabama, and were never told what disease they were suffering from or of its seriousness.

Informed that they were being treated for “bad blood,” their doctors had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the spirochetal bacterium. If left untreated, syphilis can damage the heart, aorta, brain, eyes, and bones. In some cases these effects can be fatal. It is usually treated with penicillin. The men of this experiment, though the drug was available, were not given access to this treatment. Even when some of them would go to war, they were exempt from getting the Military's medical aid.

By the end of the experiment, 28 of the men had died directly of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis. It is very important to remember this because 1972 is not that long ago. Many of our parents were glued to the TVs and newspapers learning about this tragedy.

Some of us may think it is weird our Uncle may not go to the hospital for his weird pinky toe, but this distrust in medicine and law and journalism has historical roots. IT is our social responsibility to not just see our skeptical family members and laugh off their issues with certain systems, it is our obligation to think bigger and more complex than what is right in front of us.

Injustice in America has deep roots. This kind of social/political/medical tragedy
is thematic in US history. (Read this book for more examples: Washington, Harriet A. (2007). Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present.) The struggle for equal treatment under the law is not OVER. You have the opportunity to change history. So the future can be paved with young black children excited to go see the doctor because that doctor not only looks like them, but also cares about them. Right now black males only make up around 5 percent of the active physicians.

I hope as young black men read this post, that you are encouraged by the strength of our people. That you become scientists of all kinds, physicians of all kinds, social theorists of all kinds and more. That you recognize your current existence is costly because of the murky past. The blood of your people is in the foundation of this country and runs warmly in who you are now. Recognize that you can achieve anything you want because black men have been overcoming odds for more than 400 years.

Everything you need to access to participate and be a full citizen, the access denied less than a generation ago, is present. Do not hesitate. "Claim your education." And as you claim, unpack the past so that you are part of the solution and not the person who perpetuates the problem.

-Patty Jr.