The case of the “The Organ Thieves” is not broadly known outside Richmond, Va. But it is one of countless incidents across the decades of abusive and exploitative practices directed at, or performed on, Black Americans in the name of science.
A nursing assistant takes a community health worker's blood pressure at the Virginia Commonwealth Health Hub, which also provides access to medical and social services in a lower-income part of town. | Cheriss May for POLITICO
The Black American experience is getting particular scrutiny right now, along with hopes for change. Some of the people interviewed for this story were more optimistic than others about progress. But none saw the health system as color-blind. That doctor was right that hypertension is common in Black men. The problem is that Thompson didn’t have it. The doctor treated a stereotype, not a person.
Freddie Lee Tyson, left, had congenital syphilis and was recruited into the "Tuskegee Experiment" after believing the study was for free health care. Henrietta Lacks, right, was an impoverished Black woman whose cancer cells were taken unbeknownst to her, and was the source of the HeLa cell line which is used in countless medical research programs, creating untold wealth for biotech but none for her descendants. | Courtesy Lillie J.
It wasn’t only Alabama. For generations, in cities with medical schools, including here in Richmond, Black children were afraid to venture out after dark for fear that the “night doctors” would snatch and dissect them in a med school class. There was no such thing as murderous “night doctors,” but there were graverobbers furtively working for med schools, obtaining cadavers of Black people without consent for anatomical study. VCU has found bones dumped in wells.
Students at the Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Medicine watch a presentation in class. Experts say diversifying the health care workforce is a key step to bridging the gap within the Black community, and it starts by building pipelines at early grades in school. | Cheriss May for POLITICOabout Black patients than white ones in electronic health records and are less likely to take Black patient narratives at face value.
professor at Georgetown and founding co-director of the Georgetown Racial Justice Institute. “Some of that can be passed down. But it’s also usually people’s own experiences.” Griffith definesis more of a “lingering skepticism, I can’t put my finger on why.” Both are an issue, with huge consequences.agreement on what the solutions look like, on how to actually break down the distrust and mistrust of the health care system within the Black community.
Now, she works both in traditional clinical settings through the med school and health system, and out in the community, including with kids in juvenile detention and those with behavioral health problems. “What makes the difference? How did I make it?” she wonders. It’s important, she notes, for kids not to have to rely on some TV fiction but “to see someone like me.” That in itself is a trust builder. “People start to trust when they have a shared experience, shared language, shared history.
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