Syphilis... a miserable disease to contract...I dont have it, that is the good news. The bad news is that I had heard about the Tuskegee Experiment in my late 30s but as I was a Canadian and really not thinking that it had anything to do with me I ignored it. Yes, I ignored it, didnt care, didnt read about it, didnt ask questions about it...I just didnt really care. I may have felt a twinge of disgust but I had no clue and made no effort to find out. I have to say that I am sorry, embarrassed and ashamed that I could be so indifferent, that was 1932 to 1972...I was in the United States in 1972, New York specifically...5 years old. I just cannot believe that the US Government would do that to people...but they did. 600 men were in the study, 399 of them had Syphilis before the study but were denied that information. Women contracted it from their partners unknowingly and their children were born with it. The men died without ever knowing they had the disease and they were denied treatment. Penicillin the major treatment for it today was available after 1940...it was never administered...I would be angry. The sad thing is they sought to hide this, the US government. they sought to keep it hidden until a whistleblower...thats right, it took a whistleblower to blow the lid wide open on the whole disgusting affair. I have ignored a lifetime of events that have negatively affected African Americans. In Canada, many of us who are black and especially those of us from Africa and the Caribbean have a tendency to believe that we are better than you. There are a number of factors that lead to this poor thinking, but that will be left for another writing. Today, I just ask for your forgiveness, my past indifference to your history is unconscionable. The last couple of years, since Trayvon Martin really have woken me up and I am deeply ashamed. I have lived most of my life looking at your reality from my place of privilege and have never understood the things you deal with and have dealt with. I have been part of the problem. Last year I learned a lot about racism in my circumstance with my job, the thing is that it took recent events for me to accept that the way that I was dealt with was race based. My now ex-wife told me last year, as we discussed my work situation, that I never look at racism. I prided myself on never seeing racism, I prided myself on only seeing people...the problem with my way of thinking was that I never saw people treating me poorly because I was black and I never acknowledged it in the lives of those around me. The thing is, if you do not see a problem then you cannot easily have compassion for those who are fully immersed in the problem and you cannot do anything to fix the problem because for you it is not a problem. I can say so much more, but I close with this last request. For those of you reading this who know nothing about the Tuskegee Experiment, please look into it...Google is your friend. For those of you who are African American, again, please forgive my gross indifference and accept my changed heart. I will be a better human being...I am working on being a more conscious human being. Sincerely JeanPaul Maximillian John
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 12:53:22 +0000
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