The Story Behind Vaccine Scepticism in Minority Groups
With the arrival of the Coronavirus vaccine, we have seen a dramatic rise in scepticism surrounding the jab. Often, this scepticism has been aggressively dismissed as anti-vaxxing. People who have shown the slightest bit of concern as to what the vaccine contains and its potential long-term side-effects have been accused of being uneducated and, often, of halting the process to getting over the pandemic. This scepticism has not, however, been attempted to be understood.
The government has proved over and over again that they will place profit over people no matter the cost. There have been several u turns on extremely important guidelines, people have become angry and distrustful of the powers of authority that are supposedly meant to be there to ensure our safety and health. Although this might be a relatively new feeling for a vast majority of white people, many people of colour have reported to have felt this way for most of their lives, knowing that the system simply does not favour them. Medicine isn’t any different.
In an effort to better articulate my argument, I will be referring to the work of Angela Davis, who writes incredibly compelling work on the ways in which medicine has, throughout history, been used against minorities. In Race, Women and Class, her chapter on ‘Racism, Birth Control and Reproductive Rights’ largely focuses on women’s fight for birth control to aid their decision-making power when it came to having children, but also the ways in which this fight was used to further a white supremacist cause.
In the 19th Century, women became increasingly more vocal about their discomfort at their sole societal purpose of bearing children at their husbands’ whims. The option of birth control helped to provide women with the ability to choose when to have children, say no to sexual intercourse and ultimately, reclaim their power within the household.
Davis writes about how the increased support for birth control threatened the number of births within white communities, citing President Roosevelt’s speech who declared the support for the movement as ‘race suicide’ stating “race purity must be maintained”. His argument was that, eventually, the birth control movement would lead to white communities becoming the minority while Black, Indigenous and South American communities would grow increasingly, bringing a devastating end to humanity. Thus, the birth control movement started to be adapted to suit a racist agenda. White supremacists pushed the birth control agenda on minorities and looked to ensure they would reduce their reproduction. In order to do so, the U.S government cited economic reasons to legitimise the policy. In 1939, “Roosevelt’s Interdepartmental Committee on Puerto Rico issued a statement attributing the island’s economic problems to the phenomenon of overpopulation.” - this led to an experimental sterilisation campaign being carried out in Puerto Rico, in an effort to reduce the population.
At various points throughout history, it has been made clear to minority groups that they would be targeted if they proved to be a threat to white supremacy; established orders going so far as to using infrastructures that are meant to maintain community wellbeing in order to keep a grip on power and dominance. Scepticism for the vaccine is motivated by several factors for various different communities.
Among Black communities, scepticism is driven by a reported continuous neglect shown towards them by public health organisations, as well as limited progress having been made regarding research on sickle cell, a disease that disproportionately affects Black people. Studies, conducted by white people, suggest that the Black body has a higher threshold for pain, explaining the underestimation of the seriousness of Black health, often, with many people believing that Black men and women are built differently, in many cases stronger, than their white counterparts. In the United States in particular, the belief that Black and white bodies are different stemmed from physicians and slave owners in the 19th century in order to justify slavery and the use of Black bodies for medical research. The racial bias in medicine is deeply linked with a heavily detrimental and oppressive understanding of Black people and proves how we haven’t progressed far in our understanding of Black bodies.
It is, however, extremely important to note here, the scepticism for the vaccine is widely different to the misinformation that has been spread by anti-vaxxers. I’m not condoning the actions of anti-vaxxers, I am fully aware that there are arguments against the vaccine that are unfounded and, frankly, ridiculous and these are the actions we should be condemning.
To disregard this legitimate scepticism as anti-vaxxing is, once again, not listening to the real problem at hand. In her gal-dem article, ‘This is why some black parents don’t vaccinate their children’, Niellah Arboine quotes Dr Carol Lynn Curchoe, an American reproductive biologist, who states that vaccine denial is “one of the worst types of white privilege” - she highlights that middle class white women can deny the vaccine knowing that most-likely they will be fine if they suffer the consequences of an illness. Scepticism within PoC communities comes from a fear of medicine - due to governments’ historical weaponisation of it against them.
Unfortunately, the wide amount of misinformation currently available will easily fuel the distrust already in place. The truth is, the issue is not just related to this particular vaccine, but to the medical/pharmaceutical industries as a whole. Countless times we have heard people of colour describe instances of neglect they have faced in hospitals, their pain disregarded and their voices ignored. It is through this continued neglect that the lack of trust will run deeper.
The government needs to make it clear that people of colour are a priority and their health is a major concern. Throughout the pandemic, not once has that been made clear. We have seen that Black communities are at a higher risk of Covid-19, yet no real care has been introduced into these communities. For this exact reason, the vaccine is all the more important for Black and South Asian communities, who, having faced years of medical prejudice, will need extra reassurance.
Sources:
Gal-dem
Zesha Saleem, ‘We love conspiracy theories’ - why getting the Covid-19 vaccine to PoC communities is an uphill battle.
Niella Arboine, This is why some black parents don’t vaccinate their children.
Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class: Racism, Birth Control and Reproductive Rights.
Dezimey Kum, Fueled by a History of Mistreatment, Black Americans Distrust the New Covid-19 Vaccines.
Michael Arceneaux, There is a reason Black people don’t want to take the vaccine. If we don’t talk about it, we can’t solve the problem.
Written by Simone Casimiro
Simone lives in London where she currently works at a children's film school. She does some filming of her own, having worked on short documentaries and music videos in the past. Her work focuses on the subtleties of day-to-day life documenting everyday people and their movements. She dabbles in writing and photography - follow her insta @simone.casimiro to see the snaps.