Survival of the fittest essays

Survival of the fittest essays Justification of African Americans continued use of unorthodox medicine The science of medicine and the practice of medicine after slavery have been an evolving and dynamic series of events. After slavery ended, the majority of African Americans held fast to their methods of healing such as therapeutic herbal remedies, conjuring and other unorthodox procedures, for several reasons, despite improvements and advances in medical technology. Doctoring as practiced by slaves on slaves was much more acceptable to them than modern white medicine. It was quite clear that this clinging to the familiar, was in part due to the innate and profound distrust of the medical care rendered by whites, their faith in the African healers and conjurers, affordability and conditions of the very few black hospitals, racism as well as the all important fact that in some states, medical treatment was denied to blacks by white hospitals and doctors. While therapies appeared to become significantly important to maintaining good health and crossing social divides, African American s often struggled against racial, gendered, and class based constructions of who was fit to claim the privileges of medical authority. The majority of supporting evidence is narratives from books such as Remembering Jim Crow by Chafe and Working Cures by Sharla Fett and African American Midwifery in the South by Gertrude Fraser which clearly indicate the reasons why black people resorted to their herbal remedies and treatments after slavery as opposed to white medicine. Documents from the United States Public Health Service and doctors reports from medical journals will further support the mistreatment of black people during and after slavery. The U.S. Public Health Services study from 1932 to 1972 of untreated syphilis in African American Alabama men remains the most concrete symbol of scientific ...