We don't need to go as far back as slavery or segregation, we only need to look back as far as "The Godfather", the Space Shuttle Program and the first 'Watergate' break-in to see how recent and relevant the distrust an anger of bias treatment toward Black Americans is. For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service
(PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of
syphilis. These men, for the most part illiterate sharecroppers from
one of the poorest counties in Alabama, were never told what disease
they were suffering from or of its seriousness. Informed that they were
being treated for “bad blood,”1 their doctors
had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all. The data for the
experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the men, and they were
thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary
syphilis—which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness,
insanity, and death. “As I see it,” one of the doctors involved
explained, “we have no further interest in these patients until they
die.”
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When Rev. Jeremiah Wright (Barak Obama's Pastor) spoke of AIDS being put in the Black community in his much ballyhooed sermon this is why. There is precedence for this kind of action in America. Is this fear mongering? Or is this acknowledging (very real) possibilities? This (Tuskegee) experiment garnered an apology from the President twenty-five years later.
The United States government did something that was wrong—deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens. . . . clearly racist.
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When Rev. Jeremiah Wright (Barak Obama's Pastor) spoke of AIDS being put in the Black community in his much ballyhooed sermon this is why. There is precedence for this kind of action in America. Is this fear mongering? Or is this acknowledging (very real) possibilities? This (Tuskegee) experiment garnered an apology from the President twenty-five years later.
The United States government did something that was wrong—deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens. . . . clearly racist.
—President Clinton's apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to the eight remaining survivors, May 16, 1997
Apologies only begin the healing process. It does not cure the hurt. Germany has apologized (for the Holocaust) but the Jews still feel the pain and recognize the significance of never forgetting nor letting the world forget their struggle. Neither shall Black Americans forget; so when you hear the endless loop of Rev. Wright's petition to GOD damning America it stems from this experience along with, slavery, racism, discrimination and injustice that seeks to understand WHY? And how long do we have to suffer this kind of deception? And is their still this kind of government sanctioned racism going on now?
When (non-Black) Americans hear the horror of the Black experience they want to put it in the past, tag it as "what once was", say "it's not like that anymore" until the next event that tears the scab off a wound that will ultimately leave a scar at best. So here is a reminder of why you (America) will from time to time get the vitriolic rhetoric from our gatherings at churches, rallies and demonstrations. Please pardon the anger, hurt and distrust that Black Americans have for some of America's worst offenders, bad actors and racists. It is natural to cry in pain when your healing; to be in discomfort when you've been handicapped. We are in repair.
Your (test) subject,
Bycha Buxton
Apologies only begin the healing process. It does not cure the hurt. Germany has apologized (for the Holocaust) but the Jews still feel the pain and recognize the significance of never forgetting nor letting the world forget their struggle. Neither shall Black Americans forget; so when you hear the endless loop of Rev. Wright's petition to GOD damning America it stems from this experience along with, slavery, racism, discrimination and injustice that seeks to understand WHY? And how long do we have to suffer this kind of deception? And is their still this kind of government sanctioned racism going on now?
When (non-Black) Americans hear the horror of the Black experience they want to put it in the past, tag it as "what once was", say "it's not like that anymore" until the next event that tears the scab off a wound that will ultimately leave a scar at best. So here is a reminder of why you (America) will from time to time get the vitriolic rhetoric from our gatherings at churches, rallies and demonstrations. Please pardon the anger, hurt and distrust that Black Americans have for some of America's worst offenders, bad actors and racists. It is natural to cry in pain when your healing; to be in discomfort when you've been handicapped. We are in repair.
Your (test) subject,
Bycha Buxton