Let me predicate this by first explaining how much of
an expert I am not. I know nothing of the origins of AIDS/HIV, and I know little about the current status of its research. I also don't have much time to watch the news . . . lemme rephrase that. I don't watch the news. I therefore have no idea about context clues in the statements of the famous
Jeremiah Wright; apparently it was very important to be aware of them.
Having said that
I agree with the esteemed reverend. I think his general statement was something akin to: the US Government does experiments on black folks. Well in the past this was true. From what I understand the Tuskegee Experiments were directly subsidized by the state. Hence the overwhelming disgust of the events that transpired. These days its a bit different.
The current FDA forces pharmaceutical companies to go through a long approval process before allowing the distribution of some drug or another. The ugly truth that most people don't want to recognize is that chemists aren't so brilliant as to be able to synthesize the exact compound with computer models; that exact compound that is exactly right for curing cancer while still maintaining a heart beat. In fact it's necessary to experiment and see what exactly this grand new idea does to living beings.
Many household products and cosmetics companies pump their products into animals' stomachs, rub them onto their skin, squirt them into their eyes, or force animals to inhale them as aerosol sprays. Charities such as the March of Dimes use donations from private citizens to fund experiments on animals. The FDA requires all drugs to be tested on animals. The Animal Welfare Act requires laboratories to report the number of animals used in experiments, but it does not cover mice, rats, and birds (used in some 80 to 95 percent of all experiments). Because these animals are not covered by the act, they remain uncounted, and we can only guess at how many
animals have suffered and been tortured from these experiments.Back in school I remember one biology student that would tell me about some of her research. Apparently she was involved in this study that necessitated the use of monkey brains; from monkeys that were still alive. The skulls of monkeys were opened, and probes were stuck into different areas in the brain matter. Now since anesthetics may have a variable effect on the results, the monkeys were restrained, and the bone saw was used quickly to keep from damaging the brain matter while the animals jerked and squealed.
There is another stage. After all, dogs drink from the toilet, we don't presume to believe drugs might react to drugs in exactly the same way people would. There is a human stage.
I was a part of this human stage once.
It paid well and allowed me to be jobless for a while. That's a key sentence. If one considers the fact that pharmaceutical companies could give a shit whether you're homeless or an ex-con, then one might also consider the likely medical study participant. As long as you have the right blood type, drug companies could give a shit about your illicit or downtrodden past existence. This affords an opportunity where opportunities have been lost in many of the ethnic communities in our country.
The stigma of a medical study in "the new organic society" combined with the inability of so many of our nations cultural diaspora being left out of the greater economy introduces a striking reality when I arrive at a clinical study. The competition is stiff. For a few positions, eight or nine study participants needed, 30 to 40 will be trying to make the cut. A few will make an alternate position just in case someone backs about. I would argue that people trying to get into medical studies are among our societies healthiest individuals. Is it, in fact, their job to be physically superior over the next candidate.
I would also argue that people trying to get into medical studies are, for the most part,
black.
