Unpacking Our History Lecture: What Modern Medicine Gained from Slavery

Medical science in antebellum America was a paradox: it presumed African Americans to be less than human yet still human enough to be useful as experimental subjects, as cadavers, and for use in the training of medical students. So American medicine has always been "racial" medicine. How doctors treated white versus the Enslaved was based in racism, classism, and sexism. But race more than anything defined the type and quality of care a person received. Black bodies were seen as fundamentally different. And these supposed racial differences defined how medical schools taught students to become doctors. These ideas linger with us today in how people of color are treated by hospitals, caregivers and doctors. Professor Willoughby will discuss how false beliefs defined American medicine and how the impact is still being felt today.

Christopher D.E. Willoughby is an Assistant Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the author of "Masters of Health: Racial Science and Slavery in U.S. Medical Schools."

Thursday June 29, 2023 at 7 PM
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