Generational distrust of medical science in Black families traces to documented experimentation abuses.

Evidence

I also understood my mother’s and other relatives’ distrust of medical science in a new light now. My mother had always preferred natural remedies as her first line of defense against any illness, whether ginger tea and asafetida bags to ward off colds or chrysanthemum tea to treat asthma. These were African and indigenous traditions that had been passed down through the generations. She only sought medical treatment when it was absolutely necessary—and cited the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, which took place at the Tuskegee Institute, a school in Alabama that she once attended, as one of her many reasons for suspicion. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 974

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Real government medical abuses complicate dismissals of health conspiracies — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 533; Respected mid-century health institutions experimented on poor minorities without consent — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 160