Jay Harold asks the question that many African-Americans want to be answered. “Do Healthcare Workers care about Black People?” Jay Harold talks about the fears of African-Americans toward healthcare and how it has a negative effect on our health. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is a major reason why fears are justified.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was a clinical trial by the United States Public Health Service to study the progression of untreated syphilis. The subjects were rural African-American men from Alabama and lasted almost 40 years. The researchers knowingly failed to treat patients appropriately after the 1940s validation of penicillin as an effective cure for the disease they were studying. The lack of ethical standards was stunning.

Jay Harold has a post “Talking to Doctor Presents Challenges for African-Americans,” that examines this difficult relationship.