The Potsdam Public Library, the Clarkson Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD), and the Clarkson University Health Sciences Library are hosting a book club discussion on journalist Harriet A. Washington’s award-winning Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.
From the era of slavery to the present day, starting with the earliest encounters between Black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, Medical Apartheid details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It highlights multiple examples of exploitation and mistreatment, including the well-known Tuskegee Syphilis Study. It will be of interest to anyone interested in medicine, sociology, history, race studies or bioethics.
Book club participants will receive a newly designed Potsdam Public Library T-shirt with the slogan “Knowledge is Anti-Racist” at the conclusion of the club.
This event is part of the Reckoning with Race & Racism in Healthcare and Medicine project funded by an Action Grant from the Northern New York Library Network (NNYLN):
• To support opportunities for intentional learning and contemplation of the challenges posed by the historical legacies of racism and racial bias on medicine, medical education, medical research, and healthcare practice.
• To spur dialogue about the disparities and systematic injustices that exist in American healthcare.
• To inspire proactive and deliberate change toward equitable and just healthcare practices and medical research.
You can learn more on the project website https://sites.clarkson.edu/library/health-sciences-library-2/reckoning-with-race-racism-in-healthcare-medicine/