Some of you thought that Black History Month ended on Feb. 28. Well in the words of P.Diddy "I thought I told you, that we won't stop, I thought I told you, we won't stop."
Why do black people think there is someone out to get them? Well maybe cause someone is out to get them.
There are a lot of conspiracy theories within the black community. Some of them are true and some aren't. This entry is part of a series of entries on conspiracy theories.
The Tuskegee Experiment
The most egregious of all the conspiracies commited against the black community is 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 illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in Alabama, 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. The data for the experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the men, and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary syphilis—which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity, and death. “As I see it,” one of the doctors involved explained, “we have no further interest in these patients until they die.”
President Bill Clinton apologized in 1997. What amazes me is that most white people didn't even believe this actually happened. What's good about his apology (be it late) is that he acknowledged the crime and took responsibility.
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2 comments:
We had a Black History Jeopardy the other day and the sad thing is, out of about 15 (Black) people that were playing, I was the only one who knew of this. Sad, sad, sad. We have to treat our history with the importance it deserves before we expect others to.
What amazes me is that most white people didn't even believe this actually happened. Really? I thought everyone knew about this. Shameful. We have to keep talking about these things and keep them alive and not ancient history.
Hey, maybe I'll do a series on conspiracy theories, too. We can compare notes. :) Although Indians don't think the Gov't is out to get them, they know.
looking forward to the next in the series.
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