How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
David drove Henrietta nearly twenty miles to get [to Hopkins], not because they preferred it, but because it was the only major hospital for miles that treated black patients. This was the era of Jim Crow—when black people showed up at white-only hospitals, the staff was likely to send them away, even it if meant they might die in the parking lot. (15)
Skloot includes this important backstory to give us context for Henrietta's story, but also to remind us that the era of institutionalized discrimination is not long gone. Segregation is illegal today, but Henrietta was treated in 1951, when separate facilities were the norm in the south. Though we can't know if Henrietta's actual treatment at Hopkins was affected by her race, we do know that the legacy of racism still affects African American communities. Just check out the latest from Baltimore, where Henrietta lived.
Quote #2
There's no way of knowing whether or how Henrietta's treatment would have differed if she'd been white. According to Howard Jones, Henrietta got the same care any white patient would have; the biopsy, the radium treatment, and radiation were all standard for the day. But several studies have shown that black patients were treated and hospitalized at later stages of their illnesses than white patients. And once hospitalized, they got fewer pain medications, and had higher mortality rates. (64)
Skloot does emphasize that we have no way of knowing if Henrietta was subjected to a lower standard of care than a white woman, and she does share information to suggest that every effort was made to relieve her pain. But the averages are a good reminder of how race can affect medical treatment and its level of success. Cancers were discovered in their later stages, when they were more difficult to treat, partly because poor black families had less access to adequate medical facilities, and partly because they had very little confidence in the medical community. Skloot said that for Henrietta, going into Hopkins was like going into a foreign country, and she avoided it if possible. She didn't follow up on recommendations for treatment of her syphilis and gonorrhea.
Quote #3
I told her about the four maps, and she threw a box of lard onto the shelf. "Now we got the four-map syndrome," she said. "They keep trying to push us off the earth, but God won't let them." (72)
Skloot tells Courtney Speed how difficult it was to find Turner Station since it was no longer represented on Baltimore maps. Speed addresses a more symbolic and personal reason for the omission: the once robust and mostly black community had been pushed out by corporations and left to fade from memory. Speed wants to keep the historical memory of the area alive.