A third of surveyed medical students believe Black skin is thicker than white skin

Evidence

Other unproven theories persist as well. One-third of the medical students surveyed in the 2016 study published by the National Academy of Sciences still believed the lie that Thomas Hamilton tortured John Brown to try to prove nearly two centuries ago: that Black skin is thicker than white skin. Even after many reckonings with its racist past, our medical establishment still has not fully accepted how the distorted beliefs that were born during slavery play a role in creating healthcare inequality today. As a result, scientists, doctors, and other medical providers—and those training to fill such positions in the future—are often unaware of their own complicity in perpetuating the internalized racism and the conscious and unconscious biases that drive them to go against their oath to do no harm. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 976

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: what modern medical-school curriculums still teach that traces directly to 18th-century pro-slavery physicians.