(Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay)
“A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity”.
(Dalai Lama)
The Walk into the Future blog was able to expand to tackle racial injustice in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has adjusted how we interact with others but 2020 provided additional opportunities for the world to view social justice from a new lens.
The younger generation calls this new view as being WOKE. Merriam Webster.com identifies woke is increasingly used as a byword for social awareness.
The multiple instances of injustice we witnessed in 2020 AND past events provided the Walk into the Future blog with a new level of being woke—this platform has become a place for me to express frustrations, outrage, and fear. It has also allowed me to learn about past injustices and how they impacted the lives of others who had to live through the experiences.
2020 provided an awakening to the continued injustices for folks like George Floyd, Breana Taylor, Ahmaud Abery and Jacob Blake. Some if these injustices were recorded and we got a chance to see what really happened not what authorities wanted to hide from the public as they normally do.
2020 also provided me with a level of curiosity to research past injustices to educate myself and readers about things most Americans had never heard about: Black 14, Black Wall Street, Rosewood, Florida, and Why Black Lives Matter. I was able to learn about each of these topics and generate a blog article to share what I discovered. A lot of my blog followers had never heard of these and want to learn more—this allows me to keep looking for topics to help ensure these injustices are never forgotten and I am hopeful they will not be repeated.
Ms. Evers boys
Why are some minorities fearful of getting vaccines?
Seems like a simple question but the answer will surprise a lot of people who have never heard about the Tuskegee Study which ran from 1932 – 1972 before the unethical treatment of black men in Macon County, Alabama was ended. The study (lab experiment) was conducted on 600 black men in the rural county, and they were told they had bad blood which was used to trick them into participating in the study.
The study was designed to observe what happens with untreated syphilis in the body of black men. Let’s repeat that, the study was designed to see the impact of syphilis on black men who were never told what they had or if they were receiving an actual treatment to cure the disease (they were not). The government used these men as lab subjects to see how the disease would ravage the human body. No truth, no treatment, no compassion, and no concern for these men by the U.S. government. Sounds just like what we witnessed in 2020, huh?
My first knowledge of this American experiment on black men was when the 1997 movie, Ms. Evers Boys was released. This movie depicts the experiences of the black nurse who was brought in to help convince the men to continue to come in for treatment. The term bad blood was suggested by Eunice Evers and was used to highlight the need for the men to come in to be treated. The process continued even when it was discovered in 1947 that penicillin was an effective treatment for syphilis. The government officials running the Tuskegee Study were not interested in curing the men but watching how the disease impacted the body of black men.
The Tuskegee Study experiment on black men was ended in 1972 when news articles were published detailing what the government was doing down in Alabama.
A $10 million dollar settlement was reached in 1974 for the survivors and families of deceased study participants. Imagine the physical and mental damage done to these people by the governmental study?
This is one study we know about.
How many others has the American government conducted?
Do you understand why some people are afraid of the American government vaccine programs?
“Distrust and caution are the parents of security”.
(Benjamin Franklin)
Learn more here:
Walk Into the Future 