60,000 soldiers of color, mainly black, were used in experiments during WWII. No, this wasn’t Nazi Germany locking people of color in gas chambers, this was done by the US
According to NPR, 60,000 American soldiers of color were enrolled in a secret chemical weapons testing program. These soldiers were exposed to Lewisite and Mustard gas. Exposured to these chemical agents causes lung irritation and blisters. These soldiers of color were locked into gas chambers and exposed to the agents. The government used white soldiers as the control group.
As The Atlanta Black Star Reported:
Although the Pentagon had admitted as early as 1991 that the Army tested mustard gas on enlisted soldiers during World War II—and the experiment program was officially declassified in 1993—news about the racial targeting of soldiers was kept under wraps until recently.
This revelation that the Army tested chemical weapons on soldiers of color is both troubling and an outrage, but the concept of Black people being used in medical and other experiments is by no means a new phenomenon. There are numerous examples of Black people being used as guinea pigs in unethical medical experiments. Perhaps the most well-known example is the Tuskegee experiment, in which the Tuskegee Institute and the U.S. Public Health Service studied the natural progression of syphilis in 600 Black men, who were never notified of their condition and were not treated. The tests, which began in 1932, did not end until news reports exposed the inhumane and racist practice in 1972.
With America’s history of racial inequality, and the previously excepted idea that “colored” people are inferior, does this surprise you? I wouldn’t be shocked in the least if more recent cases of human testing on people of color come to the surface in the near future.
Source: Counter Current News