Another Comment on Reparations

I wanted to write a follow up blog to my previous blog on why it is still necessary today that we provide African Americans with reparations, most importantly in the form of an apology. In keeping with the idea of who should receive reparations, I came across an article in People magazine about a new book by Rebecca Skloot, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman who passed away in 1951 from cervical cancer. Scientists used her cells to create a revolutionary immortal cell line, called HeLa. The magazine's summary of the novel said that Henrietta's cells were put to extraordinary use: they were used to develop the polio vaccine, were the first cells sent up into space, and the first cells ever to be cloned. So many of our life-changing scientific discoveries as a country would not have been possible without these cells.

Yet while so many people benefited from Henrietta's cells, her family did not. They had no money and no health insurance. Later, in the 70's, when scientists went to track down her family, Skloot says, "[her] husband had a third-grade education. He thought they had part of his wife alive in a laboratory, they'd been doing tests... he didn't understand." Henrietta's family continued to struggle, most notably one of her sons becoming 150,000 dollars in debt after undergoing surgery.

To me, this another example of when reparations need to be due. In this case, I believe an apology and monetary reparations are necessary. To think that the the future of this family in 1951 could have been vastly different is extremely sad. And it is ironic that while Henrietta's cells were being used to fuel research and monumental discoveries that would help improve and educate the lives of others, her family was left disregarded, uneducated. I wonder how much Henrietta's family's race had to do with the scientists and governments decision not to compensate or help her family.

Like I said before, we can't go back and change the decisions that were made in the past. But hopefully, Rebecca Skloot's novel will bring light to the Lacks family's situation (Skloot has launched a foundation: www.henriettalacksfoundation.org), and reparations can be given to the descendants of her family, including health insurance, scholarships, and other monetary reparations. In this situation, I believe they are definitely due.