Interesting Video & Article

Hello all,

        I just recently watched this video from Vox outlining how, as the title states, “The US medical system is still haunted by slavery.” The video explores how James Marion Sims, a doctor and “father of gynecology,” conducted agonizing surgeries on enslaved women. It is reported that Sims, between the years 1845 and 1849, preformed 30 surgeries on a 17-year-old slave named Anarcha. During these surgeries Sims refused to use anesthesia even though it had been in use at the time.

        The video also explores the health disparities between minority/non-minority groups, attempts to justify slavery and inferior care, racist stereotypes being taught, the pushing of birth control and sterilization on African-Americans, and how even today black mothers are dying from childbirth more than their white counterparts. The video also touches on some of the things we have covered in class and through readings, like Hogarth’s Medicalizing Blackness, recounting the use of black bodies for experiment.

        There is also an interesting, and disturbing, article that further explores how, as the title explains, “Nothing Protects Black Women From Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth.” Some of the findings are bewildering including how “black mothers in the U.S. die at three to four times the rate of white mothers” (Martin).  

Here are the links to the video and article:

"The US medical system is still haunted by slavery:" https://youtu.be/IfYRzxeMdGs

“Nothing Protects Black Women From Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth:” https://www.propublica.org/article/nothing-protects-black-women-from-dying-in-pregnancy-and-childbirth