Reparations Through Healthcare

 



Alivia Simmons 

ENGL 2017 

Reparations Through Healthcare 

The African American population in the United States of America has been oppressed and at a  disadvantage ever since the slave trade was introduced to the colonies. Although slavery ended in 1865,  segregation and racism are main factors that have continued to perpetuate the oppression of the  African American population. This has ultimately caused health disparities, unequitable healthcare, and  poorly funded schools in predominantly African American areas. Reparations is a topic that has not been  explored enough since the end of slavery. Improving healthcare for African Americans is a major way to  improve the quality of life, longevity of life, and an attempt to start reparations. African Americans have  been taken advantage of since their population was introduced to the United States. More current  instances include the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Henrietta Lacks and the story behind HeLa cells. The  Tuskegee Syphilis Study occurred during 1932-1972 in which African American males were given syphilis  for research on the untreated effects. These participants were not participating under voluntary  informed consent, which is an ethical requirement when performing biomedical research on humans. This resulted in an overall decrease in the life expectancy of black men. The discovery of HeLa cells from  Henrietta Lacks in 1951 was also an instance of lack of informed consent and a violation of medical  records privacy to an African American individual. Doctors on Lack’s case ultimately stole her cells and  distributed them around the world for research purposes without her knowledge or consent. These are  only two of undoubtedly many instances in which the Black population’s trust has been taken advantage  of. Along with these instances, African Americans have health disparities and oftentimes poor access to  healthcare in terms of transportation and availability of clinics. These two factors have contributed to the population having increased risk of developing heart diseases, cancer, asthma, diabetes, and many  other issues that can ultimately shorten one’s life span or quality of life according to the CDC. In effort to  combat these and attempt reparations, increasing the number of clinics, availability of public  transportation in the form of medical taxis, and an increase in the diversity of healthcare staff in  predominantly African American areas. Additionally, fixing poorly funded schools in predominantly Black  communities should be a large part of reparations. This would include ensuring that all schools have  money to purchase textbooks for each child and have computer labs for them to use. Education can be  one of the first steps at living a healthy life.

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