Health, Medicine, and Racism Syllabus

As a public health graduate student, I have long been fascinated with what we consider science and how we define health. This syllabus is about the origins of how we define health, who we define as healthy, and how these histories impact contemporary trauma, health disparities, and treatment in the healthcare system. It is about the development of science and medicine, and how marginalized people - particularly women of color, poor women, disabled women - were used and abused for the advancement of “scientific knowledge.” Contemporary ideas of scientific and medical facts exist within a cultural context - that cultural being patriarchal white supremacy. 

In times of public health pandemic, we must recognize this context. We will not all be equally impacted by the coronavirus and COVID-19. Communities of color - who are at increased risk for a variety of chronic and infectious diseases, and often lack access to public health and medical infrastructure - will be more impacted. People incarcerated in jails, prisons, and immigrant detention facilities - places that are crowded, dirty, and often have poor quality healthcare, if any at all - will be more impacted. It is essential to understand how the histories of racism in the medical field impact contemporary issues like trauma, health disparities, and mistreatment in the medical field.

If you want a quick overview of ‘how racism impact science’ before we start, check out this article: Abaki Beck’s Unnatural Selection: How Racism Warps Scientific Truth in Bitch Magazine. Another great resource that summarizes the issue, particularly in the contemporary context, is Mia Mingus’ Medical Industrial Complex Visual. 

This syllabus is focused on the United States (where we are based). It could be much more expansive if it had a global focus, and we recognize this as a weakness. The syllabus covers a wide range of issues: from disease spread as a tool of colonialism, to eugenics and forced sterilization, to contemporary issues like COVID-19.

Where we can, we provide links to PDFs or other online sources. We also provide book suggestions that are available at your local library or local bookstore. This syllabus focuses on non-academic texts, as much as possible, to ensure that it is accessible. However, please note that some of the readings and books suggested may be written for an academic audience in mind, and not just general audience. We have provided a mixture. 

As a reminder, this syllabus is for a general audience, not your grad school seminar. If you’re already an expert in this area, it probably won’t be useful to you personally (please don’t send us hate mail!). We know we didn’t cover everything surrounding this issue, but wanted to provide a starting point and foundation for those new to the subject. If there are any suggestions to strengthen the syllabus, please email poconlineclassroom@gmail.com 

This syllabus was compiled and written by Abaki Beck. It was last edited March 26, 2020.

Disease spread as a tool of colonialism 

  • Book: Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life by James William Daschuk

  • Book: Sharks Upon the Land: Colonialism, Indigenous Health, and Culture in Hawai’i, 1778-1855 by Seth Archer

  • Book: Medicine that Walks: Disease, Medicine and Canadian Plains Native People, 1880-1940 by Maureen Katherine Lux

  • Book: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann

  • Article: Disease Has Never Been Just Disease for Native Americans by Jeffrey Ostler

Using POC Bodies in Experimentation 

Who defines health? 

Eugenics and Scientific Racism 

Reproduction, Birth Control, and Forced Sterilization 


Contemporary Impacts: Trauma

Contemporary Impacts: Mistreatment in the medical field

Contemporary Impacts: Disparate Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Contemporary Impacts: Intersections between Public Health and the Carceral System

Resistance, Past and Present 

  • Book: Fugitive Science: Empiricism and Freedom in Early African American Culture by Brit Russert 

  • Book: Everything Below the Waist: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution by Jennifer Block

  • Book: Indigenous Healing: Exploring Traditional Paths by Rupert Ross

  • Resource: Black Health Matters podcast, blog, and advocacy group