Spectacle & Display
What term describes the public exhibition of Black bodies as entertainment and pseudoscientific “education”?
Spectacle
Why were Black bodies disproportionately used for dissection in medical schools?
Lack of legal protection, racial prejudice, and grave-robbing from Black cemeteries.
What is iatrophobia?
Fear or mistrust of medical institutions
This South African woman, displayed as the “Hottentot Venus,” was dissected and displayed in a museum after her death.
Saartjie Baartman
Which 19th-century physician is known for developing gynecologic techniques through surgeries on enslaved women?
J. Marion Sims
Name one modern ethical safeguard meant to prevent such exploitation in research.
Informed consent or Institutional Review Board (IRB)
What belief justified surgeons’ disregard for consent and pain in Black patients?
The myth that Black people felt less pain.
Why does Washington argue that acknowledging these histories is vital to health equity today?
Because historical exploitation shapes present-day mistrust, disparities, and ethical responsibility in medicine.