I had never heard that the Tuskegee experiment involved deliberately infecting people with syphilis. I always thought that the sin was leaving it untreated in men who already had it, so that the progression of the disease could be studied (a sin that was mitigated by the fact that at least at the beginning of the study, there was no known effective treatment, anyway).
But apparently, in the wake of Jeremiah Wright’s lunacy, several news people have bought into the nonsense that the researchers infected healthy men. I guess that there’s no libel that is too difficult for some people to believe, and even embrace, as long as it is directed against the US.
Anyway, Jonah has more (including the fact that it was a “progressive” project).
Someone should publicly, and loudly, confront Wright on this latest lie. There is a huge leap from studying men already infected, and deliberately inventing a disease and then infecting a race of people for the purpose of genocide, which is what he accuses the country of doing, with Tuskegee as a supposed existence proof.
But don’t hold your breath.
[Update a few minutes later]
Jonah has more at The Corner.
I expect Jeremiah Wright actually believes fervently the lunacy he spouts. That people take his statements as truth is still dangerous.
Actually, the Tuskegee Experiment isn’t why I think blacks can be justified being paranoid about government. Poll taxes, the minimum wage, and the affects of affirmative action on minority drop-out rates seem so much more “conspiratorial” since they target race indirectly, rather than overtly. The big point is, whether is deliberate like the minimum wage or accidental like affirmative action, it’s always Progressives. My latest post on my blog makes this exact point: a big government is a White government, and a White government big enough to hurt blacks. I think Republicans are missing their biggest chance to talk to blacks in decades by casting Rev. Wright as “crazy”; it would be much more productive to paint him as “wrong but understandable, and we (and small government) are the assurance you need.”
Wasn’t the study also done as a comparison against an earlier decades-long study in Germany of the course of the disease in infected individuals — white men, by the way?
Jon,
I hear you on changing the debate for the better. But when Wright’s sermons came to light, it is pretty hard for Republicans, or anyone else who cared about the US after 9/11, to say “we understand” in regards to “G-d Damn America”. Sorry, can’t understand that. I can understand the outrage of Tuskegee Experiment as it is portrayed by Wright, and I think your point would be reasonable for that issue.
I agree with you; I don’t think God’s hurrying over to damn us. But your point is my point. That part of what he said is beyond us, but you can’t meet someone half-way unless they’re half-way again beyond that.