In the winter of 2004, a source first told me that the Federal government had sanctioned testing an AIDS vaccine on mostly black and Latino foster children ages 1 month to late teens. I did not believe it. When finally convinced that it was true, I sobbed openly as we walked through the park. I had only the back of my hand to wipe my eyes and my nose, but I didn’t care. I was so enraged and so impotent. It was excruciating and useless to have this knowledge because I didn’t have enough of the story to go to a reporter and it would be almost impossible to prove anyway cloaked as it was in the “private records” of foster children.

Then mercifully, a few months later, AP broke the story:

WASHINGTON – Government-funded researchers tested AIDS drugs on hundreds of foster children over the past two decades, often without providing them a basic protection afforded in federal law and required by some states, an Associated Press review has found.

The research funded by the National Institutes of Health spanned the country. It was most widespread in the 1990s as foster care agencies sought treatments for their HIV-infected children that weren’t yet available in the marketplace.

The practice ensured that foster children — mostly poor or minority — received care from world-class researchers at government expense, slowing their rate of death and extending their lives. But it also exposed a vulnerable population to the risks of medical research and drugs that were known to have serious side effects in adults and for which the safety for children was unknown. SOURCE

Then nothing; there was almost no reaction. This news didn’t even rate a “Frontline” or “Nightline” spot.

When many white people hear Reverend Jeremiah Wright preach about AIDS being created by the US government and given to African Americans, they laugh at his suggestion as preposterous. But most black Americans understand Jeremiah Wright’s suspicion. We understand suspicion because we remember that Indians were given blankets infected with smallpox by government. We understand suspicion because we remember the Tuskegee experiments. We understand suspicion because we remember that the CIA facilitated cocaine sales to the Bloods and Crips and channeled proceeds from those sales to Nicaraguan contra guerillas. We understand suspicion because we remember that black and Puerto Rican women were sterilized against their will by the US government. We understand suspicion because we know that on any day, another secret government sanctioned experiment that puts black people’s lives at stake will come to light. And we know there will be more after that. Here’s the latest:

BALTIMORE – Scientists using federal grants spread fertilizer made from human and industrial wastes on yards in poor, black neighborhoods to test whether it might protect children from lead poisoning in the soil. Families were assured the sludge was safe and were never told about any harmful ingredients.

Nine low-income families in Baltimore row houses agreed to let researchers till the sewage sludge into their yards and plant new grass. In exchange, they were given food coupons as well as the free lawns as part of a study published in 2005 and funded by the Housing and Urban Development Department.

The Associated Press reviewed grant documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and interviewed researchers. No one involved with the $446,231 grant for the two-year study would identify the participants, citing privacy concerns. There is no evidence there was ever any medical follow-up. Sludge fertilizer program spurs concerns, Associated Press

Do you see now? Do you understand?

UPDATE – Senate Hearing Planned On Sludge, NAACP Watches On

hat tip Bakare Chronicles & African American Political Pundit