Essay On The Tuskegee Experiment

In 1932, the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) conducted an experiment in Macon Country, Alabama, to study the progression of syphilis in black males known as the “Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment”. During this experiment, medical professionals intentionally withheld treatment for syphilis after deceitfully promising these volunteers beneficial treatment to help combat the disease. Until this day, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment is an infamous clinical study in America’s history that delineates the structural racism embedded in our society. Because of the dissemination of misconstrued scientific theories and inherent social stratification, the Tuskegee study has “revealed more about the pathology of [symbolic] racism that it did about
Blatant racism, such as the racial segregation in public facilities enacted by the Jim Crow laws, was progressively becoming outdated. However, a new form of racism was beginning to take root: symbolic racism. Symbolic racism is “the racial prejudice [that] injects contemporary political affairs in pervasive ways” (Wood 673). This form of racism is more harmful due to its subliminal and pervasive nature. By creeping through the cracks of our legal system, symbolic racism does not hold individuals fully accountable for their discrimination and remains prevalent until this
These preconceptions represent the dominant ideology of a white dominated society. These ideas are disseminated to defend the notion that the structural system put in place by the whites did not contribute to the neglect of the black population and ultimately causes sickness. The public health officials and medical professionals attempted to use pathological mechanisms to explain their reasoning, when it was rather an excuse fabrication to impose injustice and discrimination against marginalized populations without harsh criticism. Our socially embedded presumptions profoundly shape how we see others and how we read and interpret their behavior. This form of racism attempts to deceive the general public as well as those who are discriminated against. Symbolic racism aims to normalize discrimination and prejudice in the minds of the public, slowly transforming the practice of racism from being unjust to becoming acceptable. Because the idea that differently colored people should be treated differently has been normalized, the cultural hegemony of discrimination has become engrained in our minds as ‘common sense’ and is no longer something we think about twice. As long as cultural hegemony is prevalent, health inequalities such as these will continue to