Read on Twitter
I saw this tweet and have thoughts. I don't want to drag the person who tweeted it. I understand the point she was making which was valid. However, it was also incomplete. And therefore, it's an example of how America's history continues to be told incompletely. 1/
If you don't know ( consider yourself lucky or cis male) it is a speculum. Girls and women will be introduced to this at their first gynecological visit. It's usually ice cold, and is inserted into the vagina. Now, most doctors warn you. Didn't always. So yes, most men 2/
will not really "know" this tool even if they recognize it. The original tweet was, I believe, intended to make that point. So what's my point? Do those who know what it is, including white women, know its history? Because this is relevant to why there has been 3/
hesitancy among Black people about the #COVID vaccine. This was invented by a "doctor" named James Marion Sims. Like many male doctors, he didn't especially like women. But he did view white women as human, unlike the Black women on which he experimented. 4/
Sims treated Black, enslaved, women as the animals he thought we were. He was an antebellum Josef Mengele. "But he's the father of modern gynecology" some will say. At whose expense? https://www.history.com/news/the-father-of-modern-gynecology-performed-shocking-experiments-on-slaves
This is the same mentality that led to the Tuskegee Experiment, the stealing and use of Henrietta Lacks cells, and other medical experimentation. Because when you're not seen as human, therefore equal, this is what happens.
These are some of the women we know about who Sims used as human experiments. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/466942135
8/ Anarcha Westcott was one of Sims "success stories". Fame for him. Inhumane treatment and addiction for her. But she was just a slave. Replaceable.
9/ Until 2018, Sims had a statue in Central Park ( that's in NY, not the South for those who continue to insist racism recognizes the Mason Dixon line) celebrating and honoring him. Thankfully it's been removed. But it stood until 2018.
https://time.com/5243443/nyc-statue-marion-sims/
https://time.com/5243443/nyc-statue-marion-sims/
My point in all of this is that when "point scoring" make sure you understand ALL of the point you're trying to make. So much of our history has been erased and deemed irrelevant. And people wonder why non-white, especially Black people can be skeptical? 10/10
