Why was the Tuskegee Experiment racist?

Racism in the Tuskegee Experiment

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The Tuskegee experiment , begun in 1932 by the United States Public Health Service in Macon County , Alabama , used 400 black men who suffered from advanced stages of syphilis . This study was not a means of finding a cure the patients offered no preventative measures to prolong or better life . Although the history and nature of syphilis was well understood , certain scientists believed that more research could certainly be done

In terms of whom to study , the doctors developing the format

discovered a ready-made situation (Jones 94 . Macon County Alabama was impoverished , like much of the country in 1932 . The selection process began during the depression , a time of separation and intolerance . In the rural South , where we find Tuskegee , the men chosen were not seen at the time , as equal in any sense of the word

Jones refers to prominent doctors of the region who , in the late 1800s scientifically defined diseases that were peculiar to the race . One such disease , Cachexia Africana , caused the subject to eat dirt . The public did not question such obviously ridiculous claims at the time In fact , the public heralded these doctors and requested a manual for treating blacks in to save slave-owners and the like money in paying for doctors (17 . Given the distaste for the ethnicity of the subjects , could their ethnicity have been a factor in the selection process

At the time , the medical profession had already made some false assumptions about the African American race in general . Jones reiterated the white-held theory that black men had larger penises and little constraints when it came to sexual intercourse (23 . It was also believed that they were harder to treat for syphilis because African Americans were stupid

In examining this mindset , it becomes clear why the government erringly felt it should go to the poorer black communities in rural Alabama conduct a syphilis study . Believed to be an immoral sex-centered culture placed at the level of animals , the government would put them in league with mice and rats . As disgusting as the premise is , the doctors needed lab animals and set out to find them

If this were true - how could the government get away with it ? Blatant disregard for humanity and life could not go unnoticed . However , the geographical area in question had just been the last state of the union to discontinue chain gang use in its penitentiaries in 1928 . The South had not yet begun to consider African-Americans as people - not in the slightest meaning of the word . Jones reiterates the sentiment of the doctors at the time and place with , short of a `quick-fix ' by science requiring no behavior changes by blacks , there was no hope for the race (26

The Health service claimed they informed the subjects of their disease although an internship at the time the experiments began , Dr . J .W Williams , stated the men received no such information . He also claims the internships registered the...