Final Blog Post

During this semester, we have read and analyzed a wide ray material including theoretical, historical, and first-hand accounts underlying the problems of racism in medicine. At the beginning of this semester, I was extremely interested in learning more about the ways in which the theoretical ideas of racialization played a part in everyday medical care. In addition, I wanted to know why the blatant racism was still occuring in 2018, fifty years after the end of the Civil Right Movement. I felt like I myself was too unaware of these occurrences and wanted to become more knowledgeable and active in these movements toward equal healthcare in a today’s racially charged society. The larger social, cultural, and political movements of present and past have encouraged this division of treatment of African-Americans in the medicine. One of my concerns was that I believed that as a white upper-middle class woman, I would be bringing too much privilege to the table to be able to fully recognize and debate upon the historical debates on the subject. Previous to this course, I had taken three other classes that focused strictly upon the lives of African-Americans. Although most of the material was literature that reflected their struggles, I felt that I had a strong base to begin our class. I also previously took HIS-270 last semester, which focused on events and memories of the past that are often not taught in schooling. That class as well as this one has shaped me into the analytical person I am today. As I finish up my junior year at W&J, I feel an urge to pursue social justice and public health when I continue my studies at law school.

Throughout this semester, my knowledge on what medical treatments are like for African-Americans as well as other minorities grew exponentially. Although everything we learned was important in shaping the discourse on race, medicine, and society, I found three aspects of this class extremely important and useful.

When reading works such as Natalia Molina, Fit to be Citizens? Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879-1919, Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Susan Reverby, Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy I was able to fully grasp the impact of lack of proper medical treatment these people had to face. The most influential book in my opinion was Henrietta Lacks. Previous to this course, I was unaware of the entire incident and this book contributed to the ways I changed my view on medical care. In addition, I learned an abundant amount of material during our coverage of biopower. As someone who is far from “science-y”, I feel that this part of the course intersected the ways that medicine, history, and race each contribute something similar. The material that we read which focused on the explicit and implicit bias from the government of California was also eye-opening. For someone who was new to the subject, I was shocked that this had occurred in California because when I think of racism in the U.S. during that time period, I think of the South as the hot-spot. However, these readings as well as the newspaper articles we read and discussed show that racism did not just occur in one spot, one region, or to just one minority group and instead reflected the consequence that discourses of race held for these groups.

As we finish this semester, I am left with two questions that I will explore more following this class: What movements are occurring in our present society to combat these issues?, and are there ways that individual people can try and make a change in their local health care practices?