Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
“We built this country.”
– Black people
If you survived the American education system’s social studies curriculum, you might believe that Black people have slowly but generously achieved full citizenship into a country that white people created with their own hearts, hands and imaginations. Even the suggestion that America does not belong to white people will elicit consternation or a chuckle. When confronted with the idea that their beloved nation couldn’t exist without Black people, Erasure-Americans might tacitly acknowledge the small part that slavery played in America’s origin story, but that’s it.
That is not it.
To close out Black History Month, we decided to dispel some of the mythology around white history by explaining exactly how Black people built this country.
5. All Lives Matter
Although the United States has a mediocre ranking when it comes to life expectancy and access to health care, America is still the most medically advanced country in the world because Black doctors and scientists made America great at medicine. Their innovations form the foundation of America’s public health system and medical research, and the way medicine is practiced around the world are Black creations. In fact, one could argue that four Black American entities may have saved more lives than all of the white doctors combined.
- How Charles Drew won World War II: Whether it is a car accident or cancer treatment, every two seconds, Dr. Charles Drew’s process for collecting and storing blood saves an American life. After creating blood banks and the Bloodmobile, Drew served as the head of the Blood for Britain Project and prepared the U.S. for World War II by developing a system to collect, package and store dried blood plasma. Not only did Drew’s innovation save the lives of Allied…
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