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Kaitlyn Tom
Professor Clarence Spigner
Honors 391A
7 December 2012
Undercut by the One Percent
Within the non-fiction book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot,
the social interconnection of gender, socioeconomic status, and education with the prominent
structure of race allow various minority communities to be repressed as well as exploited by the
Institution, Johns Hopkins Hospital. A symbol of power and authority, the institution controls the
ability to set the status quo within its respective domain. The status quo, or social standard,
established by Johns Hopkins Hospital identifies the following qualities: white, male, well -to
-do, and educated. Using this standard as a basis for judgment, Johns Hopkins self-righteously
takes advantage of minority groups who do not fit this norm and embody these specific
characteristics. Unfortunately for the minority, such as Henrietta Lacks, Day Lacks, and Susan
Hsu, the biased Marx hierarchy based on the structures of gender, economic status, education,
and particularly race, selects against them and gives way to major health disparities and
opportunities for exploitation. Yet in speculation of a more realistic view of society, while the allpowerful institution and the impeccable standards that it embodies, ironically represents the
minority, the minority who are repressed by the institution, actually represent the whole of
society.
In close affiliation with the issue of race are the social structures of education and
socioeconomic status. The disadvantages that result from the interconnection of these structures
within the book give rise to the bodily exploitation of certain individuals. Historically, one of the
most infamous examples involving exploitation of the bodies of the underprivileged is the
medical experimentation conducted on slave women by Dr. J. Marion Sims in the 1880s.

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Undeservedly revered as the Father of Gynecology, Sims performed uncertified surgical
procedures on female slave subjects, many of who suffered and died as a result of his work (Dr
J Marion Sims, 2004). One of the more notorious examples however, is the horrendous 40-year
long Tuskegee Syphilis Study performed on African American men beginning in 1932. Without
the benefit of informed consent, the men were told they were being treated for bad blood,
when in fact they were not being treated at all for their syphilis. They were helpless lab rats
simply assisting with researchers experiments. Even when penicillin became approved as a form
of treatment, researchers did not offer it to their subjects (U.S. Public Health, 2011). African
American, this minority community in terms of race served as the perfect target for exploitation
by the Tuskegee Institute. Observing the time frame of the Study, which took place during the
institutionalized racism Jim Crow Era, African Americans were routinely treated as inferior by
their white counterparts. Thus, experimentation on African Americans during this time sadly
wasnt unheard of or largely subject to moral implications. In addition to the issues surrounding
their race, these men were impoverished and lacked medical education. They would have done
anything out of desperation for a hot meal and place to stay, no questions asked. Also, widely
accepted during this era of laissez faire science was the notion that all medical research will
serve humanity. As result, it was a rare occasion when anyone, especially those of African
American decent, questioned or spoke against the actions of institutions. With this faith in a
higher authority came a public acceptance of a power dynamic and structural hierarchy. In The
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a woman named Henrietta Lacks also falls victim to the
unethical yet established practice of medical exploitation, as she seeks cervical cancer treatment
from Johns Hopkins Hospital. Resembling the subjects of the Sims and Tuskegee experiments,
Henrietta personifies the interrelated qualities: African American, of low socioeconomic status,

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and lacking education. Classified as inferior by Marxist ideology and the standards of Johns
Hopkins Hospital, Henrietta and her cells fall prey to the unrestrained doctors of Hopkins.
Ultimately, exploitation of her body is inevitable. Similar to the African American men involved
in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Henrietta is not given the benefit of informed consent. Her white,
male, educated, and upper class doctors at Hopkins discriminate against her based upon her
substandard qualities, and assume utter control and ownership over her vulnerable body. In
addition to the racial biases of living in the Jim Crow era, Henriettas low socioeconomic status
and lack of proper medical education leave her in complete darkness. As result, like the men
involved in the Tuskegee Study, Henrietta never questions the actions of her doctors. Often
observed within uneducated, poor, and racial minority communities is the threatening mentality
that if you have everything to lose, you dont question authority. Even as Henrietta continues to
suffer from that blackness be spreadin all inside (of her) (Skloot, 48), she maintains trust in her
doctors. For the sake of her children and her hope of living, she has no choice but to. In Johns
Hopkins Hospitals last attempt to exploit Henriettas body, they contact her reluctant yet
underprivileged husband Day Lacks and coax his consent by saying that the autopsy might help
his children someday (Skloot, 89-90). In this display of unprofessionalism, the doctors at
Hopkins foresee Days vulnerability and desperation, and manipulate his emotions. With
Henrietta gone, the children are all that he has left. With everything to lose, Day woefully
consents, giving the greedy doctors at Hopkins rights to exploiting Henriettas body once more.
Johns Hopkins Hospital, a supposed charity hospital for the sick and poor (Skloot, 15), in very
uncharitable efforts takes everything that Day has left, his highest hopes, and uses it against him.
Disturbingly predominant throughout this book and in our current society resides this issue of
institutions preying upon the bodies of poor, uneducated, and racial minority communities.

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Unfortunately, the imminent discrimination that emerges from the correlation of insufficient
education and socioeconomic status with race continues to repress minority communities and
permit further mistreatment. Gaping health disparities and inequalities persist without
improvement. Another community that struggles from bias and is often overpowered within
health institutions is women, especially women of color. When interconnected with the everpresent construct of race, the concept of gender prompts stereotypes of women that lead to their
repression.
As the issue of race provides basis for discrimination against non-white communities, the
subject of gender presents a power hierarchy that subdues women. Together, the two
constructions of race as well as gender create generalizations of racial minority women that
prove to be disadvantageous and that lead to their mistreatment. In regards to gender, the
imbalanced power dynamic that ranks women lower than men emanates from the effeminate
stereotypes rooted in our nations past. In the early to mid 20th century, America resembled a
patriarchal society in which women were heavily suppressed. In acknowledgement of the status
quo, women were expected to serve and obey. Gender roles and the supremacy of men over
women dictated societal protocol. In the case of postdoc and Chinese immigrant Susan Hsu,
much of the manipulation she receives by her superior, Victor McKusick of Johns Hopkins
Institute, is most likely attributed towards the stereotypes of her gender and race. Born in a maledominant society that demands obedience and places women at the bottom of social ranks, Susan
Hsu exemplifies the stereotypical hardworking and submissive Asian woman. She did as she was
told, didnt ask questions, and never challenged authority. Susan was every researchers dream
research assistant. Revered by Susan as a god (Skloot, 182), Victor McKusick knew exactly
what he was doing when he hired her. She would do anything for him and the institution that he

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represented, even if it meant placing her life in danger. The immense scale of power that
McKusick has over Hsu is understood when he orders Hsu As soon as you get back to
Baltimore, get this done (Skloot, 82) There is no explanation by McKusick and certainly no
questioning by Susan. While the juxtaposition of Susans race and gender to that of McKusick
suggests inequality, the demanding tone of his voice insinuates an evident assertion of power.
Susan, compared to her white and male superiors, is a minority within the institution. Despite the
exemplary contributions that women like Susan Hsu and Elizabeth Blackburn, the 2009 Nobel
Prize winner who discovered how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme
telomerase (Elizabeth H. Blackburn, 2009), have made to science, women within the scientific
community still lack the same level of respect that their male peers receive. They continue to be
generalized by the effeminate stereotypes of the mid 20th century. In a report by The New York
Times, Dr. Nancy Hopkins confirmed that due to small slights, accumulated over the course of a
career, they (women of science) dont have the confidence level to get to the top. Theyre getting
undercut (Chang, 2012). Despite Susans exceptional level of education and middle-class
socioeconomic status, the inferior implications of her race and gender hinder her from being
treated with respect by the institution. As women of color, Susan Hsu and Henrietta Lacks are
discriminated against and victimized by an institution composed of primarily white males. In
observing the ramifications of race and gender within the professional field of science, it may be
speculated that the discrimination against women, particularly women of racial minorities, exists
as a social pattern. Despite efforts to diversify the institutional standards, the white male still
prevails over the non-white woman in the structural hierarchy.
When considering the implications of race as a social construction, one must question
why it plays such a dominant role in the allocation of power. Though species of the human race

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are virtually identical and share 99% of the same genes and characteristics (Grubach), that
small biological variation of 1% has the immense capacity to define differences in physical
appearances. This minute yet significant 1% establishes the precedence of a single race over the
rest. This 1% represents the institution and the ability to dictate the status quo. When
interconnected with the structures of education, socioeconomic status, and gender, the variable of
race selects against certain communities and allows them to fall victim to Institutions like Johns
Hopkins Hospital. The resulting structural hierarchy permits for profuse health disparities and the
exploitation of the underprivileged. From 2000-2010, the Census Bureau reported a 32%
increase in mixed-race Americans (Rampell, 2012). As our society becomes more interracially
mixed and the construct of race is no longer an explicit and discriminatory factor, the standard
that defines and separates the institution from the majority of society will be forced to diversify
and change for the better.

Bibliography
Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway
Paperbacks, 2010. Print.
Dr J Marion Sims: The Father of Modern Gynecology. The Wellness Directory of Minnesota,
2004. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.
< http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/history/biographics/marion_sims.htm >.
U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee. CDC, USA.gov, 2011. Web. 30 Nov.
2012. < http://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm# >.
"Elizabeth H. Blackburn - Biographical". Nobelprize.org, 2009. Web. 4 Dec 2012.
< http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/blackburn.html >.

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Chang, Kenneth. Bias Persists for Women of Science, a Study Finds. NYTimes.com, 2012.
Web. 4 Dec. 2012. < http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/science/bias-persists-againstwomen-of-science-a-study-says.html?_r=1& >.
Grubach, Paul. The Biological Meaning of Race. Duke.org. Web. 4 Dec. 2012.
<http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/sciences/lifescience/humanraces/meaningofrace/m
eaningofrace.htm >.
Rampell, Catherine. Mixed-Race America. NYTimes.com, 2012. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.
< http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/mixed-race-america/ >.