Waltham Public Library - A Year of Black History: Slavery & Its Legacy in Today's Health Disparities

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdTXtI1eYcw

The American healthcare system is riven with inequalities. African Americans and Latinx groups suffer higher rates of many serious health conditions and diseases, including higher rates of maternal and infant mortality, heart disease, and cancer, to name a few. In addition, harmful stereotypes continue to influence clinical care, including notions that African Americans experience pain differently than whites. Such ideas about racial differences have existed since the era of slavery and many continue into the present day. Professor Evelynn Hammonds' work examines how harmful and erroneous ideas about racial differences persisted from the 17th century to the present day, while social conditions that impact health were largely ignored. Join us for a talk on the historical origins of health disparities. Professor Evelynn Hammonds is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, Professor of African and African American Studies and chair of the Dept. of the History of Science at Harvard University. Her current work focuses on the intersection of scientific, medical, and socio-political concepts of race in the United States. She is the co-editor of the book, The Nature of Difference: Sciences of Race in the United States from Jefferson to Genomics (2008).