The Breakfast Club - IDKMYDE: Medical Apartheid and Mommy

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Todays episode of IDKMYDE is special because Today, February 13, 2025 would have been the 67th birthday of B Daht’s Mother, Irene Palm, had we not lost her May 5, 2024. B Daht can’t help but vulnerably admit his PTSD and possible sources in this transparent episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is Mel Reed, LPGA Tour winner and six-time Lady Geo-Bean Tour winner. And Kira K. Dixon, NBC Sports reporter and host. And we've got a new podcast, Quiet Please, with Mel. And Kira, we are bringing you spicy takes on sports and pop culture, some interviews with incredible people who have figured out how to make golf their superpower. And I Heart Women's Sports Production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. On today's episode of I Didn't Know, maybe you didn't either, I'm going to start

with something personal. On May 5th, 2024, I lost my mom. She was complaining about a stomach hurt so we took her to the ER. Hours later later she was still in pain and they finally moved her upstairs to the ICU. 45 minutes later she was on a breathing tube. Her organs were shutting down because of sepsis. And just like that, she was gone. Now let me tell y'all, losing your mom is hard enough, but when you're black, you have this extra layer of PTSD. Why? Because you know black women are often dismissed in the medical field.

They're overlooked, ignored, and it's not just a feeling, it's facts. There's a book, Medical Apartheid, by Harriet Washington, and it lays out the long dark history of how black folks, especially black women, have been used, abused, and experimented on in the name of science, from slavery to right now. Let me break it down for you. Did you know there is still this misconception that black women have a higher threshold for pain? And I know mama made miracles every Thanksgiving,

every Christmas, and every birthday but then white doctors were thinking black women were superheroes for real. Oh she's black she can take it. What? And if you want to know how deep this rabbit hole goes Let's talk about Henrietta Lacks. Sis went to the doctor in 1951 for cervical cancer and without her knowledge They took her cells then named them HeLa cells Hela and those cells turned out to be immortal like they could survive and multiply in labs Which had never been done before. They helped develop vaccines, cancer treatments, IVF, you name it.

HeLa cells have saved millions of lives. But here's the part that'll make your blood boil. Henrietta Lacks never gave consent and her family never saw a dime. Pharmaceutical companies made billions off those sales while her kids and grandkids were struggling to pay for healthcare. It made a bunch of dollars, but it damn sure don't make no sense.

So when we talk about black folks in the medical field, we're not just talking about distrust, we're talking about a system, a system that has dismissed us, stolen from us, and experimented on us without shame. And for me, every time I think about my mom's last hours, it's hard not to wonder. If she wasn't black, would they have taken her pain a little more seriously? Would they have moved faster?

These questions haunt me, and I know I'm not alone. That's why it's so important for us to know our history and advocate for ourselves, because if we don't speak up, who will? Medical Apartheid, a book by Harriet Washington, was something that I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. This is Mel Reed, LPGA Tour winner and six-time Lady GeoBean Tour winner. And Kira Kaye Dixon, NBC Sports reporter and host. And we've got a new podcast, Quiet Please, with Mel.

And Kira, we are bringing you spicy takes on sports and pop culture, some interviews with incredible people who have figured out how to make golf their superpower. And I Heart Women's Sports Production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of I Heart Women's Sports.