{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T19:20:50Z","timestamp":1774984850933,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"American Public Health Association","issue":"10","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Am J Public Health"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:p> In this commentary, I take up the question of why beliefs in fundamental, innate racial differences between Black and White people\u2019s bodies persist in medical discourse, despite evidence to the contrary. <\/jats:p><jats:p> I locate the origin of some of these beliefs in the infamous yellow fever epidemic that struck Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1793. During that early public health crisis, White physicians and lay people erroneously thought that Black people were immune to yellow fever because of their race. I then highlight the efforts of Philadelphia\u2019s Black leaders during the epidemic\u2014namely Absalom Jones and Richard Allen\u2014to challenge the belief in fundamental and innate differences between Blacks and Whites. <\/jats:p><jats:p> I conclude by asking us to consider how the false belief that there is something peculiar about Black people\u2019s bodies has become a feature, not an aberration, in the production of medical knowledge. Indeed, I point out how medical experimentation in the 20th century and in the marketing of new drugs in the 21st century have been buttressed by this persistent yet incorrect assumption that innate racial differences exist. <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2105\/ajph.2019.305245","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,15]],"date-time":"2019-08-15T20:00:41Z","timestamp":1565899241000},"page":"1339-1341","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":38,"title":["The Myth of Innate Racial Differences Between White and Black People\u2019s Bodies: Lessons From the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"],"prefix":"10.2105","volume":"109","author":[{"given":"Rana Asali","family":"Hogarth","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Rana Asali Hogarth is with the Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign."}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"844","reference":[{"key":"bib1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1516047113"},{"key":"bib2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0306312708091925"},{"key":"bib3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pmed.0040271"},{"key":"bib4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/ajpa.20983"},{"key":"bib5","volume-title":"Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Difference in the Atlantic World, 1780\u20131840","author":"Hogarth R","year":"2017"},{"key":"bib6","volume-title":"A Treatise on the Yellow Fever as It Appeared in the Island of Dominica in the Years 1793\u20134\u20135\u20136","author":"Clark J","year":"1797"},{"issue":"6","key":"bib7","first-page":"306","volume":"3","author":"Tidyman P","year":"1826","journal-title":"Philadelphia J Med Phys Sci"},{"key":"bib8","volume-title":"A Description of the American Yellow Fever, Which Prevailed at Charleston South Carolina in the Year 1748","author":"Lining J","year":"1799"},{"key":"bib10","volume-title":"A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia and a Refutation of Some Censures Thrown Upon Them in Some Late Publications","author":"Jones A","year":"1794"},{"key":"bib11","volume-title":"An Account of the Bilious Remitting Yellow Fever as It Appeared in the City of Philadelphia in 1793","author":"Rush B","year":"1796"},{"key":"bib12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/ssh.2015.20"},{"key":"bib13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/1005108"},{"key":"bib15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7326\/0003-4819-146-1-200701020-00009"},{"key":"bib16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1748-720X.2008.294.x"},{"key":"bib17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/hpu.0.0354"},{"key":"bib18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/pbm.2003.0087"},{"key":"bib19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1377\/hlthaff.W5.455"},{"key":"bib20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/9781108289726"}],"container-title":["American Journal of Public Health"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/ajph.aphapublications.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.2105\/AJPH.2019.305245","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,10]],"date-time":"2022-05-10T00:16:55Z","timestamp":1652141815000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/ajph.aphapublications.org\/doi\/full\/10.2105\/AJPH.2019.305245"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,10]]},"references-count":18,"journal-issue":{"issue":"10","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,10]]}},"alternative-id":["10.2105\/AJPH.2019.305245"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2105\/ajph.2019.305245","relation":{},"ISSN":["0090-0036","1541-0048"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0090-0036","type":"print"},{"value":"1541-0048","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,10]]}}}