;Fear of racial discrimination acts as a barrier to human connection.
As a young asian kid who just moved to sunny California, you’re not taught much about culture. All I knew was that I had to leave my childhood home, boarded on a plane with my teddy, and all of a sudden, I found myself in a new continent, in the middle of the brightly colored cereal aisle, white lights glaring off the reflection of the floor. I jumped in the shopping cart excitedly, whoops and cheers as the promises of my brother to push me around the store was blurred by the wind rushing past my ears.
Thanks to the emptiness of the aisle, we were able to dash down to the end before we were met by our mom’s glare. Not quite sure what exactly we were doing wrong, just assuming we were just not supposed to roughhouse in the store, the smiles dropped from our faces and we became serious once again, pretending to discuss the intricacies of Frosted Flakes vs Coco Puffs.
She reprimanded us for being loud and disturbing other shoppers, and we behaved for the rest of the trip; all the way from the cold freezers of milk to the pyramids of apples to the hot rush of air that spilled out from the heated car. Once we settled in the seats, she explained that we had to be careful with how we behaved, not only for the sake of how we were perceived, but also for the sake of how asians were perceived.
The underlying fear of being racially stereotyped or discriminated against is magnified by Henrietta’s family. After a history of doctors experimenting on blacks and being taken advantage of because of lack of education regarding cells, they were justifiably weary of Skloot.
“He warned her not to talk to white people about her story. She panicked and called her brother Lawrence, who told her the man was right.” (250).
They’ve had a bad time with reporters and doctors previously, so when Skloot, a white reporter, wanted to interview them, the family was against the idea. They’ve developed a skepticism to white people in fear of being stripped of their rights because of their race.
Since black oral history has been filled with tales of ‘night doctors’ who kidnapped black people for research” (165).
It wasn’t just the Lackses, the black community was afraid of being used by doctors because of the extensive use of black bodies in experiments.
Recently, due to coronavirus, the asian community has similarly begun to fear racial stereotyping. People are afraid of being discriminated or made fun of because they happen to be asian.
I sat next to a Chinese girl in the Library and her English wasn’t good but she immediately noted that on a piece of paper that she hasn’t got that virus and its safe for me to sit there. She looked so nervous. For those being hella rude and racist about it towards them, stop.
— Hossain (@hossain_876) February 9, 2020
Quote Citation: Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Books, 2010. Print.
Image Citation: Rothstein, Arthur. “A man is tested for syphilis in 1935.” History Collection. Corbis. https://historycollection.co/20-photos-tuskegee-syphilis-study/