The contemporary debate over healthcare in the United States revolves around an unstated but somewhat widely understood notion of what people deserve. The question of “deservingness” is particularly important when we hone in on the demographics of the American populace and think critically about who is currently underserved by the current medical system in the U.S., and who stands …
Tag Archives: African-American
Working for the Race: Black Scholars, Invisible Labor, and the Baggage of Creating Space
This article is part of the series: Critical Histories, Activist Futures
“Critical Histories, Activist Futures: Science, Medicine and Racial Violence,” a conference hosted by Yale University in February 2017, was a welcome departure from the Anglo-centrism dominating the fields of the History of Science and Medicine (HS&M). Focusing on the history of knowledge production, dissemination, and professionalization using objects, practices, and ideas, these historical subfields too often ignore the politics of …
Book Review: Jonathan Metzl’s The Protest Psychosis
Jonathan Metzl’s The Protest Psychosis: How schizophrenia became a black disease (Beacon Press, 2010) is an ideal introductory text for introducing students to ethical issues surrounding politics, prejudice, and psychiatric diagnosis. The reader will experience the indignity and paranoia that African American men being treated for schizophrenia in the 1960s and 1970s had to face. They will come to