Kimberly Steele

My sister, back in the day, had a HS math teacher, a no-nonsense black lady. One day, after a chickenpox outbreak at the school, they got her discussing childhood diseases. She'd had ALL of them-- measles, mumps, chickenpox, the works. They were incredulous: weren't you vaccinated for those? No, her family didn't believe in that. Typical teenage shock. How can you not believe in immunizations?? She then patiently explained to them about the uncle her family lost to the Tuskeegee experiment, what Tuskeegee was all about, what had been done to the experimental subjects without their knowledge or permission, and the devastating effects on her family and the broader community. They concluded slackjawed, and probably remembered that history lesson from their math teacher better than anything in their history textbooks. My sister can, after all, still recount it three decades later. Is it any wonder folks in the black community don't totally trust experimental vaccines? If the rest of the country had any sense, they'd all be looking askance at people wanting to experiment on them, too.