Sitting with Truth- Dedicated to my Papa
We can only be true writers if we completely
surrender to the coming together of the pen and paper in the deepest moments of
pain.
This article was sent to me numerous times this
week. All I kept thinking with a heavy heart, Did my Papa experience this?
In sharing this, I know I run the risk of creating
more isolation from my white Zonian friends/classmates and also from my Black
Zonian friends/classmates. Yet I truly believe that for us to really know each
other and see each other without the blinders on, we need to know and
acknowledge this truth. Those friends/classmates, who have been paying
attention and have engaged, know the movement of my pen comes with good
intentions, intentions to heal.
Being a “Zonian” carries a different meaning for me
from that young carefree girl. Mi Papa, family and community mean the world to
me. To ignore their journey that allowed
me to move in and through spaces, is, to not honor them. It would also mean not
accepting, that who I am today is a product of these painful moments along the
way.
They say, the truth will set you free. This truth
brings us closer to saying, Privilege? Yes, but at what price? Today the answer
is, the price of my grandfathers and the many others well-being?
I will take this moment to answer a question that
keeps presenting itself. Yvette, will you go to the Canal Zone Reunion? Answer,
Yes, I want to see my classmates, coaches, teachers that I care about dearly.
No, because I do not want to spend days being reminded that my Canal Zone
experience was not the same as yours. No, because the map of Rainbow City, Paraiso,
Pedro Miguel and Gamboa are still not visible. When they are, then I will know
that you will include our truth at the risk of seeing a painful truth of a
mindset we elevate as paradise.
Thanks to The Silver People Heritage Foundation and Lydia Reid
and to all who kept sending this to me.
It made me pause pay attention and take it in.
I took it in,I shared it and I close saying, thank you Papa, I
love you!
In peace and with the light of a Silverman,
Yvette
The silver people heritage on back punch
This blog is
dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the little known but
significant contribution of the West Indians in the culture and history of
the Republic of Panama.
The
“Back Punch”
February 2, 2010
tags: Jim-Crow-in-the-Panama-Canal-Zone,
Medical-Apartheid-in-Panama,
non-consensual-medical-treatment,
The-Back-Punch
The spinal tap as
requirement for processing their retirement papers became known in Panama by
the Black Westindians as "The Back Punch."
by Lydia M. Reid
Of the many
practices carried out by the Panama Canal Zone administration in regards to
the men of the Silver Roll probably one of the most questionable and
the least investigated is the notorious “Back
Punch.” It consisted of requiring
the black Westindian men approaching retirement age- or 25 year service- to
sign a release or consent form as, basically, a condition to processing their
retirement applications from the Panama Canal Zone and submit to a dangerous spinal
tap. It was one of these back-door types of policies that in no
way was supposed to be “required” of the black workers but that in order for
them to receive their long awaited pension, this medical procedure had to be
“agreed to.”
The Back Punch,
as it became known throughout the Westindian community of working people, was
the process of drawing spinal fluid from these tough, hard working and loyal
laborers who, despite institutional obstacles, Jim Crow hurdles thrown in
their path, low pay and rigorous working conditions, were still strong in
their sixties and seventies and many even in good health and vigor.
Apparently, the Canal Zone authorities were perplexed by the
extraordinary vigor and virility of the Westindian men who in no way seemed
to exhibit any problems with their vitality and sexual health. They wanted to
probe the secret of this mysterious source of strength and somehow tap
it for “scientific” reasons. That they turned a profit from uncovering this
secret along the way never figured into any plans to improve the living
conditions of the black Canal Zone population which made up the vast
majority.
It turns out that
the samples from these potentially risky and
painful spinal taps were promptly sent from Panama to The Tuskegee Institute where they presumably underwent screening
until they were re-sent to a laboratory in Switzerland- which one is still a
mystery.
Right about this
time Tuskegee was also the site of the infamous Tuskegee
Syphilis Experiment, the longest lasting experiment testing
the effects of untreated Syphilis on uninformed and non-consensual subjects
which lasted from 1932 to 1972. By “non-consensual” in the case of the
Westindian workers on the Pan Canal we refer to the implication that the
workers were really not in agreement with this “requirement” but that if they
wanted to receive their long awaited retirement pension they would have to
submit.
The aftermath of these experiments is now common knowledge but the
revelations point to the kind of “medical apartheid,” a term coined by author
Harriet Washington in
her revealing book “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical
Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present,”
that was part and parcel of the Jim Crow system that prevailed in the Panama
Canal Zone.
Since it was kept
“under wraps,” we have yet to discover the exact dates this experiment was
initiated and terminated but we have good reason to believe that the target
population was the group of black workers nearing retirement during the late
30’s and 40’s.
In Switzerland the
spinal fluid was processed into a high-priced serum to be sold on the
international market to any man who could pay for this remedy for whatever
sexual incapacity problem he might have. We are quite certain that the
proceeds from this nefarious trade never trickled back to the Westindian
laborers that unwittingly donated their life’s essence.
We have gathered from our sources that the “Back
Punch” spinal taps were administered by GorgasHospital but that some
“private” hospitals and clinics may have been involved as well. Again, exactly
when these spinal taps were terminated is unknown at present but we are
continuing our investigations.
These kinds of
practices should not come as a surprise, however, in light of the historical
fact that the Panama Canal Zone Administration used this institutional
arm twisting with great frequency on the Black West Indian workers. We recall
clearly the Panama Tribune front page article entitled:
“’No Strike Pledge’ or Get No Pay” which stated that“All P.C. (Panama Canal)
and Railroad employees will be required to sign affidavits that they will not
engage in strike against the United States government. – The third deficiency
appropriation bill approved by President Truman.”
This was published
in The Panama Tribune, Sunday, July 28, 1946 issue and it pointed to
the P.C. Administration’s habitual use of intimidation and institutional
bullying tactics to achieve their desired ends- total submission to unjust
policies on the part of Black workers on the Canal Zone.
Knowing how
important the retirement pension must have been to this large group of Black
Westindian employees, it isn’t surprising that many, if not most, would sign
a release permitting the good doctors at Gorgas Hospital to administer
such an extreme medical procedure without the existence of a medical
necessity.
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