History of Atrocities and Injustices Committed Towards Black People and Peoples of Colour

Many Black People and Peoples of Colour have a deep fear and mistrust of our modern day healthcare systems based on the historical and ongoing treatment of their community – regardless of the orientation of their individual healthcare provider.

To paint a clearer picture of some of the origins of this distrust, let’s explore some of the horrific atrocities that have been committed towards Black People throughout history and in modern day in North America.

Did You Know?

Slaveowner Dr. Thomas Hamilton from the 19th century perpetuated the false idea that Black People’s skin is thicker, made up of fewer nerve endings, and therefore not sensitive to pain in the same way as white skin. This false idea has since informed the treatment of pain (and also medical experiments) on Black People (Akinlade, 2020).

Even today, this false idea that Black People experience less pain than White People pervades the health care system. A study from 2016 found that almost half of first- and second-year medical students believed that Black People feel less pain (Hoffman et al., 2016).

The following are some studies which document examples of how Black patients are less likely to receive pain medication compared to their white counterparts:

Video: The US Medical System is Still Haunted by Slavery

8:49

James Marion Sims was an Alabama surgeon who is considered the “father of modern gynecology”. He carried out experimental surgeries on several enslaved Black Women without their consent or the use of anesthesia. We will learn more about this in this video.

Video: Black Cancer Patients Were Used In US Government Experiments

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Between 1960 and 1972, the University of Cincinnati led experiments to test extreme levels of radiation of terminal cancer patients without their informed consent. The majority of patients were Black People who were under educated. These were led by Dr. Eugene Saenger.

Black Bodies Used to Study Medicine

In addition to all of these horrific atrocities and injustices committed against Black People, there are also instances of Black Peoples bodies being exhumed without the consent of families for medical research and studies, particularly during the school year. This practice has been documented from the 17th to the early 20th century (Davidson, 2007).

Learn More

Harriet A. Washington, a bioethicist, was mentioned in the video above. Consider looking at some of her other works to learn more.

References

Akinlade, O. (2020, September 3). Taking Black Pain Seriously. New England Journal of Medicine, 383, e68.

Cintron, A., & Morrison, R. S. (2006). Pain and ethnicity in the United States: A systematic review. Journal of palliative medicine, 9(6), 1454–1473.

Davidson, J. M. (2007). “Resurrection Men” in Dallas: The Illegal Use of Black Bodies as Medical Cadavers (1900—1907). International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 11(3), 193–220.

Goyal, M. K., Kuppermann, N., Cleary, S. D., Teach, S. J., & Chamberlain, J. M. (2015). Racial Disparities in Pain Management of Children With Appendicitis in Emergency Departments. JAMA pediatrics, 169(11), 996–1002.

Hoffman, K. M., Trawalter, S., Axt, J. R., & Oliver, M. N. (2016). Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(16), 4296–4301.

Shavers, V. L., Bakos, A., & Sheppard, V. B. (2010). Race, ethnicity, and pain among the U.S. adult population. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved, 21(1), 177–220.

Stafford, K., Morrison, A., & Ma, A. (2023, May 23). AP News Medical Racism in History.

Stephens, M. (2002). The Treatment: The Story of Those Who Died in the Cincinnati Radiation Tests. Duke University Press.

Todd, K. H., Deaton, C., D'Adamo, A. P., & Goe, L. (2000). Ethnicity and analgesic practice. Annals of emergency medicine, 35(1), 11–16.