Henrietta Lacks Reflection

I chose to write my Cultural Reflection assignment on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This book is about a young black lady, Henrietta Lacks, whose cells played an important part in medical research. Henrietta felt a lump on her cervix and was experiencing unexplained vaginal bleeding, so she decided to go to her doctor. He tested the knot for syphilis, but the results were negative and he sent to the gynecology clinic at John Hopkins. She was seen by Howard Jones, who did a biopsy of the mass on her cervix. It was then that she was diagnosed with Stage 1 epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix in 1951 at John Hopkins hospital. This was the only hospital within miles of her home that treated “colored” patients. If a “colored” person showed up a white only hospital, they would be sent away even if they were dying. …show more content…
I had always heard similar stories from my elders, but I found both of these behaviors surprising and appalling because people should be treated equally no matter what their skin color is. I had to step back and realize that this was in the 1950’s when blacks and whites were segregated. This is one of the many things that bothered me because I could not possibly imagine what it felt like to be treated as if I had an infectious disease. It really saddens me that my ancestors treated “colored” people this way and this type of behavior has been handed down from one generation to the next. I am sure that I have treated a “colored” person differently in my past, but it was not meant to be mean nor racist. While reading this book, I have realized that no one person is better than the next and I wish that we could all see each other as equals. This has taught me that I need to be more mindful of how I treat others, whether they are white or black. I know that we have made some improvements in this area, but we still have a long way to

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