5.1: The Racialization of Scientific Progress

The word science comes from the Latin term scientia—a reference to the creation and acquisition of knowledge. Science, as a social institution within sociology is thus a systematic approach to exploring social phenomena and interpreting it through research. Science is often thought of as an institution that we look to for safe and reliable information, and although this is often the case, we are not always aware of what happens behind the scenes where and when science is becoming science. Indeed, at times, how we arrive at this scientific information is not always the most humane and just approach to producing the science we’ve come to understand as such.

In the mid-to-latter half of the nineteenth century, an American physician named James Marion Sims (1813-1883) administered perhaps some of the most inhumane procedures pursuant to treating the female vaginal condition of vesicovaginal fistula—an abnormal opening between the vagina and the bladder. Although his primary goal was to treat this condition effectively, how he went about it violated so many ethical standards that his work would be as unacceptable as it was appalling.

Indifferent to the plight of the BIPOC community in the era of slavery, Sims believed that the enslaved were part of an inferior race and could be used as expendable test subjects in his experiments. With this superiority complex in mind, Sims took in several enslaved women upon whom he would administer various experimental procedures and given the time period wherein slavery was still very much an accepted institution, these women were not given the option of opting out. Instead, these women were effectively just another part of his laboratory instruments, and he treated them as he wished—treatment that came with total impunity. Sims poked and prodded these women, doing so without administering any anesthesia. Suffering from incredible pain, Sims remained unsympathetic to their agony, as he had full credence in the racist belief that Black people had a higher tolerance for pain. Although these women were a major part of these procedures, suffering great indignity and violence, little was ever publicly known of their story until nearly a century later.

Additionally, according to journalist Brynn Holland, Sims found other ways to advance the progress of science, all while maintaining his racist beliefs. As she noted,

Sims also believed that African Americans were less intelligent than white people, and thought it was because their skull grew too quickly around their brain. He would operate on African American children using a shoemaker’s tool to pry their bones apart and loosen their skulls. (Holland 2025)

Examples such as these and many others reveal a troubling pattern of how Science and the pursuit of medical progress can actually be built upon the most vulnerable among us—in this instance Black women and children during a period where civil rights only applied to those considered White. It is important to note that race is very much a part of such disparities, as well a further note that Science has, in many cases, advanced due to the exploitation, violence, and other unethical treatment of subjects of color.

Up until the first quarter of the twenty-first century, the story of Sims was effectively ‘swept under the rug,’ as most people lauded Sims as a pioneer in the field of Gynecology, even dubbing him “The Father of Modern Gynecology.” In fact, his introduction, use, and development of the speculum—the instrument used to dilate the vaginal cavity—was seen early on as one of the greatest achievements in the field. Of this fame, several statues of Sims were erected in his honor, one of which stood on a plinth in New York’s Central Park until 2018 when New York City’s Public Design Commission voted to have it removed, after so many of these tragic stories or abuse, violence, and racism were revealed.

Today, much more is known about at least three female subjects that Sims experimented on: Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey—all women working on different plantations in Montgomery, Alabama, prior to Sims taking custody of them for experiments. In paying some tribute to these women for what they endured, artist and activist Michelle Browder erected a monument in their honor titled “The Mothers of Gynecology Monument” near the former office of Sims in Montgomery.

In the end, the impact on BIPOC by instances like this often leave individuals of color leery of the scientific community and the research it conducts—a telling example of how social institutions and human interactions intersect at sociological realities.