How Modern Medicine Was Born of Slavery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-JTw5dqM6o

Lewis & Clark's 15th Annual Ray Warren Symposium “Bitter Pills: Race, Health, and Medicine,” was held November 7–9, 2018.

On November 7, Deirdre Cooper Owens, associate professor of history at Queens College, CUNY, gave this keynote presentation titled “How Modern Medicine Was Born of Slavery.”

Presentation description: Cooper Owens explains how the institution of American slavery was directly linked to the creation of reproductive medicine in the U.S. She provides context for how and why physicians denied black women their full humanity, yet valued them as “medical superbodies” highly suited for experimentation. In engaging with 19th-century ideas about so-called racial difference, she sheds light on the contemporary legacy of medical racism.

Welcoming remarks and introductions by Maya Hernández and Jasmine Torres, L&C ’19 and RWS co-chairs.

https://college.lclark.edu/programs/ethnic_studies/symposium/