Henrietta Lacks Racism Essay

Being born into a privileged life can provide more opportunity and the perception of more rights than what appear to be available to the average individual. The immediate and extended family of Henrietta Lacks were without such privilege considering they began from a slave owner, Mr. Lacks, and one of his slaves that he fancied. It is evident throughout that African American people are less privileged than the average individual as seen in their lifestyle and morale.

The non-fiction book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, details the happenings and life of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman and tobacco farmer who became a medical miracle in the 1950’s. The book is written in an attempt to chronicle both the experiences and tribulations of Henrietta Lacks and her family, as well as the events that led to, and resulted from, research done on Henrietta Lacks’ cells. Henrietta was a very average African American woman in this period; she had only a seventh-grade level education, and followed traditional racial and gender roles by spending her time has a mother and caretaker, as well as working on farms throughout her life until the involvement of the US in World War II brought her and her husband, “Day” Lacks, comparatively better work opportunities in industrial steel mills. However, after her death in 1951 Henrietta became much more than average to doctors at John Hopkins when the discovered that cells extracted from her cancerous tissue continued to live and grow much longer than any other tissue samples. Further investigation and isolation of these thriving cells led to the creation of the first ever immortal human cell line in medical history. The incredible progress in medicine made possible by Henrietta Lack’s tissue cells were not without downfalls, though. The treatments and experiences received by Henrietta and the effects it had on her and her family demonstrate both racial and gender

To Begin, Hennie came from a family of ten, they originally lived in Roanoke, Virginia in the 1920’s. In 1924 Hennie’s mother died while giving birth to her tenth child. Johnny Lacks, Henrietta’s father was now responsible for all ten children. But because of his health and little patience for the children they then moved to Clover, Virginia where the rest of the family lived and divided the children up between all family members. Henrietta ended up growing up and living with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks. She also grew up with her

Henrietta Lack was born on August1, 1920 in Roanoke , VA . As she moved on in life she became the wife of David “Day” Lacks in 1935. The two eventually moved to Maryland and had four children Elsie, David Jr., Deborah, and Joseph. One day Henrietta was

Henrietta was the daughter of Johnny and Eliza Lacks Pleasant. Tommy Lacks was Henrietta and David "Day" Lacks grandfather that had raised them both, and at Tommy 's tobacco farm was where Henrietta and Day fell in love. At Tommy 's farm, there was a man named "Crazy Joe" Grinnan, who was Henrietta 's cousin, that was obsessed with Henrietta and once he found out that she was marrying Day, he tried to kill himself, but gladly his father found him and saved him. Henrietta had a sister, Gladys Lacks, who disapproved of their marriage, but that did stop them. Later on, Henrietta and Day had an amazing and wonderful family, including: her two daughters, Elsie Lacks(born Lucille Elsie Pleasant) and Deborah "Dale" Lacks; and her three sons, Lawrence Lacks, David Jr. "Sonny" Lacks, and Joe Lacks, who later changed his name to Zakariyya Bari Abdul Rahmen.

Henrietta Lacks was born in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1, 1920. After 1924 when Henrietta's mother Eliza died giving birth to tenth child. Henrietta and her siblings where taken to her fathers hometown, clover. When all of the siblings arrived at clover they had to be divided and split up to live with different relatives in different homes. Henrietta ended up with Tommy Lacks, her grandfather and her cousin David Lacks also known as Day. As Henrietta grew older, she began to draw attention from he cousins Day and Joe. Since she had been sharing a room with Day ever since she got there she found herself pregnant with Day's child. At the age of fourteen she gives birth to her first child, Lawrence and at the age of eighteen she has her second

As documented in the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot, Henrietta lived her childhood in the segregated rural south. There was no real inspiration for her to attend school, much less develop a strong interest in getting a formal education. Segregation contributed to a cycle of oppression and poverty that affected Henrietta’s knowledge, and quality of life. The unfair early education laws, impaired all black children’s potential to learn, and negatively affected their confidence. America has laws that intend on producing, equal education for all children regardless of economic circumstances, race, religion, or academic ability level. On the other hand, a studied by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, find that “public school, especially in the south, is becoming re-segregated at a surprising level.”(Hancock Jones) Today there is evidence that suggest public education still needs equal protection reform in order to give all children a high quality education.

Why are people dehumanized to the point of becoming an abstraction? For the advancement of science and medicine? Henrietta Lacks was one of the abounding numbers of people invaded and taken advantage of, all in the name of science. Elie Wiesel’s epigraph as an introduction to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks unmasks the injustices inflicted upon Henrietta, exhibiting how scientists created her into a mere abstraction, disregarding the treasures, anguish, and a measure of triumph that constituted Henrietta’s truth as a human being.

After her death in 1951, for six decades, Henrietta Lacks did not exist in the eyes of the society, but her cells did. How? Well, the answer is quite simple. HeLa Cells are the first immortal human cells. These cells never die and multiply every twenty-four hours. After spending 10 years to perfect her first book, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot essentially captured the life, the death, and aftermath of Henrietta Lacks’ life. With controversial issues regarding science, ethics, race, and class Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey. From the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells, from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover,

Skloot writes about how family members and friends suffered from the outcomes of the HeLa cells. Henrietta herself suffered through the whole process, “Doctors examined her inside and out, pressing her stomach, inserting new catheters into her bladder, fingers into her vagina and anus, needles into her veins. (40) As well as, “Sometimes she would beat Joe for no reason while he lay in bed or sat at the dinner table. She'd hit him with her fists, or whatever she had close: shoes, chairs, sticks. She made him stand in a dark basement corner on one foot, nose pressed to the wall, dirt filling his eyes. (112) With this, the kids do not have a mom to protect them from, people took advantage of them, especially from Ethel. Joe was the one that suffered more from the death of his mom, because of Ethel’s abuse.

Henrietta was overall a morally good person even though she had kids out of wedlock at the age of 14, with her cousin, Day. She lived in a poor town where it was common for people to marry in the family. Henrietta's mom, Eliza Lacks, died giving birth to her tenth child. Her father with little patience to raise kids, distributed Henrietta and her siblings amongst the family. Henrietta ended up with her grandpa, who already had another grandchild living with him named David Lacks (also known as Day). Henrietta and Day eventually married "alone at their preacher's house on April 10, 1941" (24). Henrietta was a loving mother of five children: three boys and two girls. She had a daughter named Elsie, with mental retardation and epilepsy.

As seen in Rebecca Skloot’s book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Deborah Lacks is telling her brothers that when they go back into history, that they should not approach it “with a hate attitude.” (Skloot), but with an unbiased mind for the opinions of then differed from current ones. Deborah’s brothers are being realistic while Deborah herself is being too idealistic in regards to how she and her brothers view the past. I do not think it is possible to approach history from an objective point of view because all the events that are occurring today in 2016, makes it seem that we have not progressed from the ideas of the 1950s whatsoever.

African Americans and minorities had to deal with many barriers when it comes to receiving healthcare. Due to Henrietta being poor she also had to deal with judgment and misdiagnosis of her condition. The doctors assumed she had syphilis and this lead to her cancer not being treated at it's earlier stage. In Deborah voice, she mentions, “How come her family can't afford to see no doctors,” (Skloot, 8) Also the story mentions how the public ward at John Hopkins take in patients, who are mostly black, and are unable to pay their bills since it was a charity hospital. It does not seem that the Lacks family had health insurance. Also since she was poor and had little education it was easier for her to be taken advantage of.

She lay there thinking what life would be like for her family without her. The longer she laid there and the longer Henrietta thought to herself, she asked herself when she could die. Henrietta wondered why God kept her alive for this long, the one thing that Henrietta wanted was for the pain to end. She knew that when the pain ended for her the pain would start for her family. All she could do was lay there and think she could not get up and say sorry, she could not get up and say her goodbye, she could not get up and spend the rest of her time on Earth with her family. The thought that she could not spend the rest of her time with her family made her heartbroken.

Henrietta died shortly after giving birth to her fifth child, Joe. Her death left her husband, Day a widower; as a result, he would be solely responsible for the children. However, “because Day was working two jobs, Lawrence dropped out of school and spent most of his time taking care of his brothers and Deborah”(Skloot 110). Due to Day’s two jobs, Lawrence, their oldest son dropped out of school and raised three of his siblings--Sonny, Deborah, and Joe. Even though Henrietta’s cells went on to make millions of dollars, Day and Henrietta’s family received no monetary compensation for her contribution to the medical field. Unfortunately, Henrietta’s cousin Ethel stepped in to take care of the children when Lawrence departed for the military. Ethel starved the children, beat them, and her husband Galen physically abused Deborah for the remainder of her childhood. Because Day could not care for the children, due to him working two jobs, he unwillingly exposed his children to a poor childhood which continued to affect them later in life. Both Joe, who changed his name to Zakariyya, and Sonny, ended up in jail for various crimes because family influences lead them down the wrong path in life. Doing nothing caused this pattern to continue in the family, “And it looked like Deborah’s son Alfred was taking the same path as his