Sunday, March 17, 2013

SITTING WITH TRUTH-DEDICATED TO MY PAPA


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
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.