Support NeoGAF

[Dai101]

(Or because fuck you)

As part of this great month we have learned of a great deal of history that otherwise would be forgotten or as we have seen just erased from official history. Events like The destruction of Black Wall Street, Mob Violence, Riots and Pogroms against Black Communities, The destruction of Seneca Village, 1985 - Philadelphia drops bomb on black neighborhood, 11 dead.
Historical figures and influential people like The white guy in the iconic 1968 photo of two black USA Olympians w/ raised fists, The forgotten Black Heroes of Latin America, Marlin Briscoe, Edmond Albius, a black person to thank for the widespread use of Vanilla today, Shirley Chisholm The First Black Woman To Run For President, Jimmie Lee Jackson, Notable Black Women Throughout History, which achievements aren't recognized or are outright forgotten or diminished.

Now, we have a look of how much of a human black folks were considered to be and how are were (and still today are) valued.

White Torture of Black Bodies: 6 Medical Experiments on African-Americans You Never Knew About

by Yvette Carnell

By now most people know about the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, but what many don’t know is that this was just one in a long line of experiments conducted on African-Americans. The experiments actually began during slavery, when African-Americans were treated no better than field animals, and continued from there. Below is a list of the most heinous experiments conducted on African-Americans.

1. Experiments on slaves by slave owners were conducted en masse, long before the Tuskegee experiments. In his memoir, former slave John Brown described how his master, Dr. Thomas Hamilton of Georgia, tørtured him with homemade medical experiments. Brown described how he was made to sit naked in a stool atop a burning pit as part of Dr. Hamilton’s experiment. “I could not have helped myself. There was nothing for it but passive resignation, and I gave myself up in ignorance and in much fear,” wrote Brown. After temperatures reached 100 degrees, Brown passed while Dr. Hamilton stood by with a thermometer. In another experiment, the good Dr. attempted to determine how deep black skin goes by blistering Brown’s hand and feet. Slaves provided antebellum doctors with their own personal guinea pigs.

2. It wasn’t just slave owners who were conducting experiments on slaves, but hospitals posted announcements for slaves to be used in experiments. In the 1850’s, Dr. T. Stillman placed an add for “sick Negroes” and slave masters were happy to hand over ill or elderly slaves who could no longer work. It was a win-win for slave owners who got back their slaves if they were healed, and if they weren’t healed, then hospitals paid for the burial. The slaves who were taken in by Stillman and his experiment had no legal rights.

3. Until the 1970’s, prisons conducted experiments on prisoners, most of whom were black. At Philadelphia’s Holmesburg prison, Dow Chemical paid to test potential carcinogens on the mostly black prison population. Many prisoners developed cancers, skin conditions, and mental illness as a result of their experimentation.

4. “I went to the Dr. who did that to me and asked him ‘why’…. I would love to have had children,” said Fannie Lou Hamer. While on the plantation, Hamer had developed a knot on her stomach. When she went to see the physician, he removed her uterus as well as the knot, preventing her from ever having children.

In the ‘big house’, the plantation owner’s wife joked about how Hamer had lost more than a tumor when she was in the hospital, and the news eventually got back to Hamer. Hamer went on to become a voting and civil rights activist. Hamer was only one of many African-American women who were sterilized, a practice which became a favorite of white doctors. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, trafficked in stereotypes and used the Negro Project to decrease black fertility.

5. In 1945, a black trucker named Ebb Cade was in an accident where nearly all of his bones were broken. While he was in the hospital, doctors gave him a toxic dose of plutonium. Before the plutonium could totally devastate his body, Cade must’ve gotten wind of what was going on because he escaped from the hospital. Unbeknownst to him, he’d became part of a study for which he never gave his consent. Cade died eight days after leaving the hospital. He was the first, but not last, African-American to be injected with uranium or plutonium as part of a radiation experiment. Former Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary declassified information on government experiments on unsuspecting African-Americans.

6. Charisse Johnson and her husband received a knock on the door from researchers at Columbia University who wanted to interview her 16 year old son Isaac, who was being held in a detention center. Isaac’s parents signed off on the interviews and tests, which they were told would be used to determine whether Isaac might have medical problems. Little did she know that Columbia University, in cooperation with the New York State Psychiatric Institute, was conducting an experiment on her son in an effort to establish a genetic connection between black boys to violence. The boys were given fenfluramine, which causes serotonin levels to rise.

Pretty henious shit, isn't it? But we have only started, also you can go deep inside in this book; Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

Now for a break, a video, no less hideous mind you.

Scholar Joy Degruy Exposes Incredibly Disturbing Medical Experiments Performed on Black People

The So-Called “Father of Modern Gynecology” Actually Tortured Slaves, Killed Babies, Says Professor

By: Dr. Jomo Mutegi

The Tale. This is the tale of two physicians whose lives in some respects are eerily similar. Both were born in Lancaster County, South Carolina in the early 1800s. Both attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA. Both practiced gynecology, and both are remembered for their work with enslaved African women. This is largely where the similarities end. The remainder of the tale shows two physicians in stark contrast.

The Contrast. The first physician is renowned as a surgical genius and is regarded as the father of modern gynecology. He served as president of the American Medical Association, the International Medical Congress and the American Gynecological Society. He is honored by having his name placed on hospitals, dormitories, and endowed chairs. A monument is erected in his honor on the State House grounds in Columbia, SC. The monument reads, “He founded the science of gynecology was honored in all lands and died with the benediction of mankind. The first surgeon of the ages in ministry to women, treating alike empress and slave.”

By contrast, the second physician is considered by many to be more of a butcher than a surgeon. He never completed his studies at Jefferson Medical College. In his incompetence, he killed his first patient. According to his own journal, “When I arrived I found a child about eighteen months old, very much emaciated, who had what we would call the summer complaint, or chronic diarrhea. I examined the child minutely from head to foot. I looked at its gums, and as I always carried a lancet with me and had surgical propensities, as soon as I saw some swelling of the gums I at once took out my lancet and cut the gums down to the teeth. This was good so far as it went. But, when it came time to making up a prescription, I had no more ideas of what ailed the child, or what to do for it, than if I had never studied medicine.” He killed his second patient (another infant) in a similar manner. After the death of his second patient he fled South Carolina, and moved to Alabama where he began to abuse African women and babies in the name of “medical practice.” He was known to use a shoemaker’s awl to pry the bones of African infant skulls into “proper alignment.” He was known to conduct surgery on the genitalia of African women without using anesthesia.

The Shocking Truth. If you are not familiar with this story, then it may come as a shock that these physicians are in fact the same person: J. Marion Sims. By any objective account J. Marion Sims was a butcher. He performed the most horrific, acts of barbarism on African people. He built a makeshift 16-bed “hospital” to house the slaves that he used as experimental subjects. He operated on one enslaved African woman, named Anarcha, over 30 times. Although Sims never used anesthesia prior to cutting on these women, he often gave them opium following the procedures. After being drugged on opium, they moved very little, which aided their recovery. Sims often made a public spectacle of cutting on these women and did so as demonstrations for other physicians. The other physicians would frequently be called upon to hold the women down as they writhed in pain. On one occasion the physicians observing left the procedure as the cries from the woman being cut upon were so dreadful.

The Makeover. So, if Sims treatment of Anarcha and other enslaved Africans is so barbaric, why is he so highly honored? Enter Robert Thom an illustrator born in 1915 in Grand Rapids, MI. Mr. Thom was commissioned by Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals to create a series of paintings depicting “Great Moments in Medicine” and “Great Moments in Pharmaceuticals.” He created these works between 1948 and 1964. One of those paintings was J. Marion Sims: Gynecologic Surgeon. It depicted a very stately Sims, a very demure African patient, and a set of willing assistants. Absent were the torture instruments that Sims admits to creating. Absent was any indication that the facilities were makeshift. The painting gives no indication that the waiting victim was apprehensive, that the other physicians were reluctant or that Sims was incompetent. Thom through his painting provides a patently false misrepresentation of history. But Thom’s misrepresentation is not confined to this one portrait. Thom prepared 85 portraits for Parke-Davis. Among his other misrepresentations is Hippocrates as the father of medicine (with no reference to the African Imhotep that preceded him). In another he presents Joseph Lister as the founder of antisepsis (with no mention of the African medical texts that describe the use of antisepsis over 2,000 years before Lister). Whether we look at Thom’s depiction of Galen, Lavoisier, Jenner, or The Temples and Cult of Asclepius, we will see artistic misrepresentations of history that are rife with inaccuracy.

I am compelled to share here one final cautionary note. Thom did not act alone in making J. Marion the Butcher into a highly respected figure. Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals conceptualized and funded his artwork. The members of the American Medical Association, the International Medical Congress and the American Gynecological Society elected him president to their respective organizations. The legislature of the State of South Carolina (and ultimately its citizens) support the monument erected in his honor. Every member of every organization who in any way honors Sims is complicit in the makeover.

The Fix. There is a Kenyan proverb which states that, “Until lions start writing down their own stories, the hunters will always be heroes.” Friends, you are lions! Write our story. Draw our story. Paint our story. Sculpt our story. Do so without reservation, without qualification, and without hesitation. Give our people the tools that we need to tell our story!


Jomo W. Mutegi, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Science Education at the Indiana University School of Education in Indianapolis. He is also director of Sankoré Institute, a company that produces science and mathematics related activities and curricula for African American families. To learn more about Sankoré Institute visit: www.SankoreInstitute.org

SOURCE: http://naturallymoi.com/2013/09/the...tortured-slaves-killed-babies-says-professor/

Like in most fuckery in this world, usually the most vulnerable groups, being minorities, women, LGBTQ folks are used and disregarded as lesser. Such examples:

29. Prison Inmates as Test Subjects

In 1951, Dr. Albert M. Kligman, a dermatologist at the University of Pennsylvania and future inventor of Retin-A, began experimenting on inmates at Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison. As Kligman later told a newspaper reporter, “All I saw before me were acres of skin. It was like a farmer seeing a field for the first time.” Over the next 20 years, inmates willingly allowed Kligman to use their bodies in experiments involving toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, skin creams, detergents, liquid diets, eye drops, foot powders, and hair dyes. Though the tests required constant biopsies and painful procedures, none of the inmates experienced long-term harm.

But since they're inmates they don't care. I mean, they're in prison for being bad people and should be punished, right?

Talking about immates.

14-Medical-Experiments-on-Prison-Inmates

Perhaps one benefit of being an inmate at California’s San Quentin prison is the easy access to acclaimed Bay Area doctors. But if that’s the case, then a downside is that these doctors also have easy access to inmates. From 1913 to 1951, Dr. Leo Stanley, chief surgeon at San Quentin, used prisoners as test subjects in a variety of bizarre medical experiments. Stanley’s experiments included sterilization and potential treatments for the Spanish Flu. In one particularly disturbing experiment, Stanley performed testicle transplants on living prisoners using testicles from executed prisoners and, in some cases, from goats and boars.

15. The Aversion Project

In 1969, during South Africa’s detestable Apartheid era, thousands of homosexuals were handed over to the care of Dr. Aubrey Levin, an army colonel and psychologist convinced he could “cure” homosexuals. At the Voortrekkerhoogte military hospital near Pretoria, Levin used electroconvulsive aversion therapy to “reorientate” his patients. Electrodes were strapped to a patient’s upper arm with wires running to a dial calibrated from 1 to 10. Homosexual men were shown pictures of a naked man and encouraged to fantasize, at which point the patient was subjected to severe shocks. When Levin was warned that he would be named an abuser of human rights, he emigrated to Canada where he currently works at a teaching hospital.

Being black AND a woman? Bad, bad combination

28. Henrietta Lacks

In 1955, Henrietta Lacks, a poor, uneducated African-American woman from Baltimore, was the unwitting source of cells which where then cultured for the purpose of medical research. Though researchers had tried to grow cells before, Henrietta’s were the first successfully kept alive and cloned. Henrietta’s cells, known as HeLa cells, have been instrumental in the development of the polio vaccine, cancer research, AIDS research, gene mapping, and countless other scientific endeavors. Henrietta died penniless and was buried without a tombstone in a family cemetery. For decades, her husband and five children were left in the dark about their wife and mother’s amazing contribution to modern medicine.

Not african-american related but not less hideous

10. Syphilis Experiments in Guatemala

From 1946 to 1948, the United States government, Guatemalan president Juan José Arévalo, and some Guatemalan health ministries, cooperated in a disturbing human experiment on unwitting Guatemalan citizens. Doctors deliberately infected soldiers, prostitutes, prisoners, and mental patients with syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases in an attempt to track their untreated natural progression. Treated only with antibiotics, the experiment resulted in at least 30 documented deaths. In 2010, the United States made a formal apology to Guatemala for their involvement in these experiments.

And the most known of all this fuckery agaist black people

9. Tuskegee Syphilis Study

In 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service began working with the Tuskegee Institute to track the natural progression of untreated syphilis. Six hundred poor, illiterate, male sharecroppers were found and hired in Macon County, Alabama. Of the 600 men, only 399 had previously contracted syphilis, and none were told they had a life threatening disease. Instead, they were told they were receiving free healthcare, meals, and burial insurance in exchange for participating. Even after Penicillin was proven an effective cure for syphilis in 1947, the study continued until 1972. In addition to the original subjects, victims of the study included wives who contracted the disease, and children born with congenital syphilis. In 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized to those affected by what is often called the “most infamous biomedical experiment in U.S. history.”

Much more at this link: http://www.bestpsychologydegrees.com/30-most-disturbing-human-experiments-in-history/


Just to close this thread, let's talk about Vertus Hardiman:

Vertus Wellborn Hardiman (March 9, 1922 – June 1, 2007), who was a victim of a US government human radiation experiment at the age of 5 that left him with a painful skull deformity that forced him to cover his head for 80 years.

Hardiman was born in Lyles Station, Indiana. Lyles Station began in 1927, is known as one of the earliest Black settlements in the United States, and the Hardiman family was among the first to migrate to the area. In 1928, Vertus attended the local elementary school, Lyles Consolidated School. The parents of 10 children at school were approached by county hospital officials. The parents were told that there was a new treatment for dermatophytosis, a fungal infection commonly known as “ringworm.” What the parents didn’t know was that the children were actually part of a human experiment on extreme radiation, probably chosen because they lived in such an isolated location, and probably because they were all Black. The children were exposed to high levels and many were left with disfiguring scalp scars and head trauma. The effects of the experiments were mostly hidden from the townspeople of Lyles Station. Many of the children wore wigs and hats to cover up the results of the experiments.

Vertus Hardiman, one of the children, who was five years old at the time, finally broke his silence more than 70 years later, to a friend, Wilbert Smith, who partnered with Brett Leonard to produce the documentary, “Hole in the Head: A Life Revealed.” The 2011 film is the amazing story of Hardiman and the nine other children who were affected by the horrible experiment in Lyles Station.

Hardiman was physically affected the worst by the radiation. As a result he experienced a slow dissolving of the bone matter of his skull for the rest of his life. Grossly disfigured, Hardimann bore this injustice with remarkable dignity. In 1945 Vertus traveled to California in search of broader opportunity. In 1946 he worked for the County of Los Angeles General Hospital, where he served with distinction. Vertus lived his last years in Altadena, California. Hardiman died at age 85.

The ensuing deformed head and gaping hole at its top were disguised by a succession of hats, toupees, and wigs. Every day of his life he spent an hour changing bandages and dressing the wound.

Later in life, Hardiman lived in Altadena, Calif. and attended First AME Church of Pasadena. He befriended Wilbert Smith, a church member who was also a writer and producer. Hardiman broke down one day in tears and told Smith of the tragedy he faced early in his life. His story was turned into the documentary Hole in the Head: A Life Revealed released in 2009.

Upon his death, Vertus bequeathed eight million dollars to his church and favorite educational scholarship fund. Vertus harbored no anger and was known to say frequently, “If I am angry, my prayers will not be answered because my heart’s not right.”

I think i need a fucking drink .......... too early for that tho'. Man ........

 

[Prototype Viktor]

Nikka don't even got the Human Zoo on his list, disgust

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Holy shit at that picture.

Thanks for this, will read properly when I get a chance.

 

[Jackpot]

People should also check out just how many US states had a Board of Eugenics, that targeted black people and other vulnerable groups. Eugenics was practiced in some states until the 1980s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#United_States

While he was in the hospital, doctors gave him a toxic dose of plutonium. Before the plutonium could totally devastate his body, Cade must’ve gotten wind of what was going on because he escaped from the hospital.

Fucking X-files level shit.

 

[ApharmdX]

Wow. Just, wow. I knew about J. Marion Sims but I didn't know about some of the rest. The plutonium and radioactivity, what the fuck? I guess I should have expected that. This country was built on the bones of African slaves, why should America's greatest weapons be any different?

 

[Johndoey]

Yeah our history of forced experimentation is really brushed over and the fact that our eugenics program was the inspiration for some of the plans Nazi Germany developed.

 

[besada]

I wanted to add one you missed, because I think it's the perfect example of the U.S. testing radiation on the most defenseless people in the country. In this case, the victims were not all black, although some of them were.

From 1946 to 1953, at the Walter E. Fernald State School in Massachusetts, in an experiment sponsored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the Quaker Oats corporation, 73 mentally disabled children were fed oatmeal containing radioactive calcium and other radioisotopes, in order to track "how nutrients were digested". The children were not told that they were being fed radioactive chemicals; they were told by hospital staff and researchers that they were joining a "science club".

For seven years they fed mentally disabled orphans radiation while telling them they were part of a science club. Of course, some of them weren't actually mentally disabled, just poor or black, as Fernald was also one of the centers of the American Eugenics program, whereby we began warehousing children who weren't "right" for whatever reason.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americas-deep-dark-secret/

Most of the school is closed now, including Boyce's old dorms, which will be torn down soon. Approximately 36 children slept in each room, with the beds jammed together. And the children received little education and less affection.

Regimentation? There was no shortage of that. And how long would they stay at Fernald? The kids were told they could be here for life, that there was no exit.

"I kinda thought for a while, maybe there was something wrong with me, or why would I be here," says Joe Almeida, who was swept up into the system even though there was nothing wrong with him.

Almeida, an abused child, was only 8 when his father took him for a drive to the Fernald School, and told him to wait in the hallway.

"I said, 'Wait a minute, dad. Where are you going,'" recalls Almeida. "He goes, 'Oh, you wait right there. I gotta go get the car." And he went. And that was the last I seen of him."

Almeida had no idea where he was, and no idea that he now wore an invisible label, which read "moron." He ended up in the same dorm as Boyce, and they spent their mornings in the "schoolroom." At least, that's what the room was called.

"It was a school in name only. A child would experience the first year of school 5 or 6 times in a row," says D'Antonio. "He would read the same 'Dick and Jane' reader, and never make any progress because the school wasn't equipped to actually educate children. It was there as a sort of holding pen."

The radiation experiments we did on people were crimes against humanity, and the people involved were never punished in any way. And some of those people are still alive and enjoying themselves.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

Every time I think I've seen the bottom of the well...

 

[Johndoey]

Of course the justification for the secrecy was always "they wouldn't understand, the negro mind is incapable if handling such complexities, it's for their own good".

But more than any other group in the U.S the attitude in regards to black women ranges between total indifference and sheer hatred.

 

[ShutEye]

The Henrietta lacks book and story is amazing and heartbreaking and frustrating.

Highly recommended.

 

[Always-honest]

Okay... I'll have a drink now.
Fuuuuck.. (((((((((((

 

[Shard]

Yes see the brutality that ingrained in the history and let it never be forgotten no matter how hard suppression is attempted.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Fuck this makes me so sad.

 

[Paskil]

I cried several times while reading this. I was aware of a few of these. The things we have done in our history is absolutely monstrous.

 

[ViciousDS]

Dear God

Its like reading an Albert Fish article except instead of stopping at death it just fucking keeps going. I remember doing a paper on Albert Fish for youth and law and that shit stuck so bad to my brain.....but dear God I didn't even want to look into even more messed history.

It really brings fucking reality though.....unbelievable.....words do not describe how messed up this is.



I would like to read some novels from the library on this.....anyone know of some good literature to start on?



Holy shit at experimentations in general. That radiation science club story is disgusting and sick.

 

[Alligatorjandro]

Ugh

 

[Gordon Shumway]

(Or because fuck you)

As part of this great month we have learned of a great deal of history that otherwise would be forgotten or as we have seen just erased from official history. Events like The destruction of Black Wall Street, Mob Violence, Riots and Pogroms against Black Communities, The destruction of Seneca Village, 1985 - Philadelphia drops bomb on black neighborhood, 11 dead.
Historical figures and influential people like The white guy in the iconic 1968 photo of two black USA Olympians w/ raised fists, The forgotten Black Heroes of Latin America, Marlin Briscoe, Edmond Albius, a black person to thank for the widespread use of Vanilla today, Shirley Chisholm The First Black Woman To Run For President, Jimmie Lee Jackson, Notable Black Women Throughout History, which achievements aren't recognized or are outright forgotten or diminished.

Now, we have a look of how much of a human black folks were considered to be and how are were (and still today are) valued.

White Torture of Black Bodies: 6 Medical Experiments on African-Americans You Never Knew About



Pretty henious shit, isn't it? But we have only started, also you can go deep inside in this book; Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

Now for a break, a video, no less hideous mind you.

Scholar Joy Degruy Exposes Incredibly Disturbing Medical Experiments Performed on Black People

The So-Called “Father of Modern Gynecology” Actually Tortured Slaves, Killed Babies, Says Professor


SOURCE: http://naturallymoi.com/2013/09/the...tortured-slaves-killed-babies-says-professor/

Like in most fuckery in this world, usually the most vulnerable groups, being minorities, women, LGBTQ folks are used and disregarded as lesser. Such examples:



But since they're inmates they don't care. I mean, they're in prison for being bad people and should be punished, right?

Talking about immates.




Being black AND a woman? Bad, bad combination



Not african-american related but not less hideous


And the most known of all this fuckery agaist black people



Much more at this link: http://www.bestpsychologydegrees.com/30-most-disturbing-human-experiments-in-history/


Just to close this thread, let's talk about Vertus Hardiman:

Vertus Wellborn Hardiman (March 9, 1922 – June 1, 2007), who was a victim of a US government human radiation experiment at the age of 5 that left him with a painful skull deformity that forced him to cover his head for 80 years.

Hardiman was born in Lyles Station, Indiana. Lyles Station began in 1927, is known as one of the earliest Black settlements in the United States, and the Hardiman family was among the first to migrate to the area. In 1928, Vertus attended the local elementary school, Lyles Consolidated School. The parents of 10 children at school were approached by county hospital officials. The parents were told that there was a new treatment for dermatophytosis, a fungal infection commonly known as “ringworm.” What the parents didn’t know was that the children were actually part of a human experiment on extreme radiation, probably chosen because they lived in such an isolated location, and probably because they were all Black. The children were exposed to high levels and many were left with disfiguring scalp scars and head trauma. The effects of the experiments were mostly hidden from the townspeople of Lyles Station. Many of the children wore wigs and hats to cover up the results of the experiments.

Vertus Hardiman, one of the children, who was five years old at the time, finally broke his silence more than 70 years later, to a friend, Wilbert Smith, who partnered with Brett Leonard to produce the documentary, “Hole in the Head: A Life Revealed.” The 2011 film is the amazing story of Hardiman and the nine other children who were affected by the horrible experiment in Lyles Station.

Hardiman was physically affected the worst by the radiation. As a result he experienced a slow dissolving of the bone matter of his skull for the rest of his life. Grossly disfigured, Hardimann bore this injustice with remarkable dignity. In 1945 Vertus traveled to California in search of broader opportunity. In 1946 he worked for the County of Los Angeles General Hospital, where he served with distinction. Vertus lived his last years in Altadena, California. Hardiman died at age 85.

The ensuing deformed head and gaping hole at its top were disguised by a succession of hats, toupees, and wigs. Every day of his life he spent an hour changing bandages and dressing the wound.

Later in life, Hardiman lived in Altadena, Calif. and attended First AME Church of Pasadena. He befriended Wilbert Smith, a church member who was also a writer and producer. Hardiman broke down one day in tears and told Smith of the tragedy he faced early in his life. His story was turned into the documentary Hole in the Head: A Life Revealed released in 2009.

Upon his death, Vertus bequeathed eight million dollars to his church and favorite educational scholarship fund. Vertus harbored no anger and was known to say frequently, “If I am angry, my prayers will not be answered because my heart’s not right.”

I think i need a fucking drink .......... too early for that tho'. Man ........

People should also check out just how many US states had a Board of Eugenics, that targeted black people and other vulnerable groups. Eugenics was practiced in some states until the 1980s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#United_States



Fucking X-files level shit.

I wanted to add one you missed, because I think it's the perfect example of the U.S. testing radiation on the most defenseless people in the country. In this case, the victims were not all black, although some of them were.



For seven years they fed mentally disabled orphans radiation while telling them they were part of a science club. Of course, some of them weren't actually mentally disabled, just poor or black, as Fernald was also one of the centers of the American Eugenics program, whereby we began warehousing children who weren't "right" for whatever reason.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americas-deep-dark-secret/


The radiation experiments we did on people were crimes against humanity, and the people involved were never punished in any way. And some of those people are still alive and enjoying themselves.

Thanks for the links, all. And a big thanks to you, Dai101, for making the thread..I know it was rough.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Dai101 you're an amazing GAF member man.

 

[kmfdmpig]

Unethical research led to better regulations and a better understanding of ethics in research. The Belmont Report is one example of that.
http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.html

Unfortunately even in the 1990s we can find examples of research that is highly unethical.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477943/

How such a major research project like that, with such an obvious potential to cause harm, was approved in the 1990s is infuriating. Of course compared with the disaster in Flint, Michigan it looks less significant now.

 

[Daingurse]

Monstrous. We just weren't seen as people . . . Very upsetting stuff, but thanks for posting.

 

[twobear]

sadly, science has a long and sordid history with racism; there's a lot that can be said about this particular chapter.

 

[Banana Aeon]

I know this wasn't the easiest thread to make Dai101, but I greatly appreciate you for making it.

To see how little people viewed my people is disturbing. We were less than animals to these monsters.

 

[Morat]

Good post OP. Some of these are not well known, and should be required reading for anyone who trumpets western cultural superiority.

 

[Enzom21]

Thanks for wading through horror for this thread Dai.

 

[Mael]

I can't even wrap my head around the level of barbaric behavior on display.
Atrocity is too mild a name for such things.
Atrohorrorspicablewtfiswrongwithyou is the closest I can say and even that is miles apart from the horror on display.

 

[cpp_is_king]

Wow, these are all horrible. Never knew about any of these. Pretty big wake up call.

The one about Henrietta Lacks though, I'm not quite following. It sounds like they took some cells from her without permission during routine radiation treatment for an existing cancer, and then used those cells to cure polio? The "without permission" thing is a little alarming, but Wikipedia says that at the time nobody ever asked for permission for that kind of thing anyway (with anyone), and that it wasn't even required.

Is there more to this story that Wikipedia is leaving out?

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I knew about the Tuskagee experiments of course but I don't know much about the other ones. Gonna dig into those links in the OP.

I wanted to add one you missed, because I think it's the perfect example of the U.S. testing radiation on the most defenseless people in the country. In this case, the victims were not all black, although some of them were.

For seven years they fed mentally disabled orphans radiation while telling them they were part of a science club. Of course, some of them weren't actually mentally disabled, just poor or black, as Fernald was also one of the centers of the American Eugenics program, whereby we began warehousing children who weren't "right" for whatever reason.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americas-deep-dark-secret/
The radiation experiments we did on people were crimes against humanity, and the people involved were never punished in any way. And some of those people are still alive and enjoying themselves.

Holy shit. This is beyond the pale.

And the worst part? If you read the full article on CBSnews, the bit with the radioactive oatmeal (which I understand is more on-topic than the rest) is probably the least outrageous (so to speak) part of it all. That school sounds straight out of a dystopian horror novel. Kids, some of them mentally challenged (but not all), being imprisoned, physically and sexually abused, forced into labour, receiving no real education, never being exposed to anything normal (like normal parent-children or romantic relationships, making them unable to deal with adulthood normally), and being completely powerless, unable to leave. What a nightmare.

And even the survivors, now elderly, have received little to no compensation from the state. Truly abhorrent.

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

Wow, these are all horrible. Never knew about any of these. Pretty big wake up call.

The one about Henrietta Lacks though, I'm not quite following. It sounds like they took some cells from her without permission during routine radiation treatment for an existing cancer, and then used those cells to cure polio? The "without permission" thing is a little alarming, but Wikipedia says that at the time nobody ever asked for permission for that kind of thing anyway (with anyone), and that it wasn't even required.

Is there more to this story that Wikipedia is leaving out?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/henrietta-lacks-immortal-cells-6421299/

I got the book after covering HeLa cells and the issues of her story in bio class.

 

[besada]

I knew about the Tuskagee experiments of course but I don't know much about the other ones. Gonna dig into those links in the OP.


Holy shit. This is beyond the pale.

And the worst part? If you read the full article on CBSnews, the bit with the radioactive oatmeal (which I understand is more on-topic than the rest) is probably the least outrageous (so to speak) part of it all. That school sounds straight out of a dystopian horror novel. Kids, some of them mentally challenged (but not all), being imprisoned, physically and sexually abused, forced into labour, receiving no real education, never being exposed to anything normal (like normal parent-children or romantic relationships, making them unable to deal with adulthood normally), and being completely powerless, unable to leave. What a nightmare.

And even the survivors, now elderly, have received little to no compensation from the state. Truly abhorrent.

Boys schools for the poor and the black were like that all over the country, unfortunately. If you ever want to spend a week hating humanity, dig into orphanages and boy's schools pre 1970, and you will recoil in horror. Fields full of dead children whose deaths were never reported because no one cared, rampant sexual and physical abuse, torture, etc.

Mental institutions weren't much better in the same time period. For awhile, America flirted with the idea of solving its social issues by simply making them vanish into snakepits. Now we try to solve our social issues by putting everyone in prison.

Some day, maybe, we'll learn that dealing with the social issues is both cheaper, and vastly more humane, than warehousing people, which has always been expensive and generally led to terrible abuse.

 

[Fishlake]

I only read a little of what was there including some of what besada posted and it made my temperature rise in anger. I really despise those that take advantage of those who are weaker or seen as less then them. As much as I would like those who did it to be punished I doubt it will ever happen because it requires acknowledging what they did. That picture is so unreal it looks like it could be a clay model. How horrific. I'm off to do something nice.

 

[jackissocool]

Thanks for this thread (and all the other threads people had posted for BHM).

This shit just makes me so fucking angry. People need to rise up.

 

[sphagnum]

Jesus

 

[Gattsu25]

Dai101, this may be the most challenging BHM thread so far...I find it hard to read the entire thing in one go...the lack of humanity is actually quite shocking.

I only ever knew about the Tuskegee Syphilis study...all of the rest of this is brand new to me and none of it is comforting. The segment on J. Marion Sims is a perfect example of this. The lack of anesthesia just seems like being truly and fully evil just for the sake of it.

To see that so many of these have either fallen into the forgotten annals of history, or like that Sims scumbag, have actually been lionized... it's sobering.

Thanks for posting this.

Boys schools for the poor and the black were like that all over the country, unfortunately. If you ever want to spend a week hating humanity, dig into orphanages and boy's schools pre 1970, and you will recoil in horror. Fields full of dead children whose deaths were never reported because no one cared, rampant sexual and physical abuse, torture, etc.

Mental institutions weren't much better in the same time period. For awhile, America flirted with the idea of solving its social issues by simply making them vanish into snakepits. Now we try to solve our social issues by putting everyone in prison.

Some day, maybe, we'll learn that dealing with the social issues is both cheaper, and vastly more humane, than warehousing people, which has always been expensive and generally led to terrible abuse.

Well said.

 

[Dali]

Henrietta Lacks' story was an episode of Law and Order. In the episode pharmaceutical companies got rich off of research based on her cells while the descendants lived broke in a squalor.

 

[hypernima]

i dont drink but i need one.

 

[Mizerman]

...

I think I need to go lie down. I just kept blinking at...this.

 

[Jackpot]

I knew about the Tuskagee experiments of course but I don't know much about the other ones. Gonna dig into those links in the OP.


Holy shit. This is beyond the pale.

And the worst part? If you read the full article on CBSnews, the bit with the radioactive oatmeal (which I understand is more on-topic than the rest) is probably the least outrageous (so to speak) part of it all. That school sounds straight out of a dystopian horror novel. Kids, some of them mentally challenged (but not all), being imprisoned, physically and sexually abused, forced into labour, receiving no real education, never being exposed to anything normal (like normal parent-children or romantic relationships, making them unable to deal with adulthood normally), and being completely powerless, unable to leave. What a nightmare.

And even the survivors, now elderly, have received little to no compensation from the state. Truly abhorrent.

One school in Florida recently had a mass grave of around 50 children discovered.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Just a nitpick about this story:

In 1969, during South Africa’s detestable Apartheid era, thousands of homosexuals were handed over to the care of Dr. Aubrey Levin, an army colonel and psychologist convinced he could “cure” homosexuals. At the Voortrekkerhoogte military hospital near Pretoria, Levin used electroconvulsive aversion therapy to “reorientate” his patients. Electrodes were strapped to a patient’s upper arm with wires running to a dial calibrated from 1 to 10. Homosexual men were shown pictures of a naked man and encouraged to fantasize, at which point the patient was subjected to severe shocks. When Levin was warned that he would be named an abuser of human rights, he emigrated to Canada where he currently works at a teaching hospital.

According to Wikipedia, he is no longer practicing medicine and was in fact convicted:

Despite a 5-year prison sentence Levin was released on $15,000 bail on February 13, 2013. The judge said that, since his license to practice medicine has been suspended, he is “not a danger to the public.”. Levin awaits an appeal (Sept.2013).[13]

On 23 April 2014 the Alberta Court of Appeal, in a unanimous decision, upheld the 2013 conviction. Dr. Levin was ordered to report, within 48 hours, to begin a five-year sentence at an unnamed institution.[3]

So, at least there was some mild form of justice for this piece of shit, though not nearly as severe as what he deserves. And of course, one can't help but notice that he tortured homosexuals with aversion therapy and then later was convicted of sexually assaulting male patients. Of course.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Ugh. Shit like that is why I hate a strong distrust of government and medical establishments.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

Things like this will NEVER be taught in schools.

They will continue to skirt around the edges of people like MLK, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks and the like, highlighting "how far we have all come" and going incredibly safe, all while continuing to ignore the societal conditions that necessitated those historic figures to begin with.

When things like the topic of this thread come up, we are told that was the past and yeah, it was fucked up, but we should all just move on from it or whatever...I mean, we do have a Black President, right?

:|

 

[Dai101]

When things like the topic of this thread come up, we are told that was the past and yeah, it was fucked up, but we should all just move on from it or whatever...I mean, we do have a Black President, right?

:|

That you should leave that in the past and is your fault racial tensions are at a high times. That racism ended when MLK give his speech and all that bullshit.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

That you should leave that in the past and is your fault racial tensions are at a high times. That racism ended when MLK give his speech and all that bullshit.

I have had people tell me that "I was never a slave. My parents weren't slaves. Why does that continue to be a point brought up?"

Well, Paris Hilton never invested the capital needed to start the Hilton hotel dynasty that her great grandparents started, yet today, in 2016, she reaps the benefits of that investment. Anyone with a basic understanding can see this. So...

Isn't the same true (in reverse) of those that descended from a lack of wealth due to their ancestors being in bondage and not being allowed to generate and pass down wealth?

Why must that shit always be a point of contention or a knee-jerk reaction of "we all have it hard, stop whining" even when you are just EXPLAINING?

 

[Steel]

*sigh* Humanity.

 

[Kinitari]

Monstrously vile. I can't even comprehend this.

 

[ryan13ts]

It's completely insane that anyone could do these things to another person just because of something as simple as their skin color being different. Hopefully the appropriate people are roasting in a hell somewhere.

 

[CrocMother]

It's completely insane that anyone could do these things to another person just because of something as simple as their skin color being different. Hopefully the appropriate people are roasting in a hell somewhere.

Easier to comprehend when you realize they didn't even view them as people.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

Monstrously vile. I can't even comprehend this.

Unfortunately, it's easy to do all kinds of vile things to people you don't view...as people.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

I recommend that everyone read through at least parts of Medical Apartheid. The experimentation done on women in particular was shocking. Cutting on slave women with no anesthesia of any kind. Cutting off reproductive organs for science.

OP, don't forget about the FORCED STERILIZATION, whose hearings only recently concluded..

And people wonder why black folk seem to have permanent PTSD.

edit: you can get the book at your local library.

 

[Johndoey]

Unfortunately, it's easy to do all kinds of vile things to people you don't view...as people.

Yeah people don't seem to understand they were considered sub-human, and no one is going to lose sleep over damaging the equivalent of livestock.

Edit: Kinda surprised at some of the reactions all of this is fairly well known, even if schools won't cover it.

 

[Jedi2016]

Easier to comprehend when you realize they didn't even view them as people.

Not really, because I can't wrap my head around the idea of not accepting a person as a person.

Boggles me how recently some of this shit was happening, too.