PROJECT STATEMENT:
For WW12 I am writing and illustrating “The Itches”, a comic about navigating the racist medical system when I accidentally gave myself heavy metal poisoning last year. This webcomic guides you through my process of curating western and herbal medicine in order to diagnose and cure myself.
INSPIRATION:
I was initially inspired by the book “Medical Apartheid” written by Harriet A. Washington. This book guides you through the dense history of the racist U.S. healthcare system from the colonial period to the present. This book is incredibly important to me because its roots in history validated a lot of my feelings around the medical system. It goes beyond the normal anxiety of visiting the doctors and reveals how experimentation on Black bodies has been at the forefront of the medical advances we enjoy today. Most importantly this book reveals how ingrained racism is in medicine and how we continue to experience this today.
I was also inspired by a segment on the Brian Lehrer show called “Combatting Black American’s vaccine hesitancy” . This segment highlighted mistrust rather than hesitancy which I thought was important because hesitancy erases the violent legacy of the U.S. medical system.
FIRST DRAFT OF COMIC:
The first draft of my comic was a bit of a catch-for-all, trying to not only highlight what I learned from the “Medical Apartheid” but also making a case for reparations. This proved to be too much and not a great narrative because 1. It wasn’t following a character(s), which didn’t allow for the reader to emotionally attach themselves to the story, and 2. Although referencing history it felt heavy-handed and not something you would particularly be excited to pick up.
MOVING FORWARD:
Critique helped me reel the story back a bit and remember that the personal is political. Although this is a serious subject matter I was missing my humor. I realized that this past year I had experienced navigating the medical system in a way that not only showed my growth but came from years of experience navigating the U.S. medical system when professionals would not listen to me.
