The Bloody Scalpel of Dr. J. Marion Sims: Unmasking the Medical Butcher of Enslaved Black Women and Infants

History remembers Dr. J. Marion Sims as the “Father of Modern Gynecology.” But let’s be brutally honest—Sims wasn’t a pioneer. He was a butcher, a eugenicist, and a man who built his legacy on the torn flesh of Black women and the skulls of Black infants. His story isn’t one of medical advancement—it’s a grotesque display of how white supremacy and cognitive dissonance birthed a field of medicine at the expense of dehumanized Black bodies.

Racism, Not Science: The Foundation of Sims’ Practice

Sims didn’t operate with scientific integrity or by using science based theories at all. He operated with a racialized delusion—the same delusion that justified slavery, lynching, and medical experimentation under the guise of progress. He believed that Black people, specifically Black women, did not feel pain the way white people did. This wasn’t based on science. This was based on what we social scientists have defined as the cognitive dissonance of white supremacy—an ideology so fragile it had to invent lies to justify its own inhumanity.

What Is Cognitive Dissonance?

Cognitive dissonance occurs when people hold contradictory thoughts or behaviors and feel uncomfortable as a result. To reduce this discomfort, they unconsciously change their beliefs, justify their actions, or reject conflicting information.

Why Does This Matter?

This theory helps explain:

• Racism & White Supremacy Myths: White Americans justified slavery and medical abuse (e.g., Dr. J. Marion Sims' experiments) by convincing themselves that Black people didn't feel pain the same way—an outright lie driven by cognitive dissonance.
• Consumer Behavior: Marketers use this principle to get people to justify expensive purchases.
• Politics & Misinformation: People ignore evidence against their views to avoid discomfort.

Can We Call Cognitive Dissonance "Real Science"?

Yes. Cognitive dissonance is proven, repeatable, and visible in every system of oppression, from racism to gender inequality. However, mainstream psychology has historically failed to acknowledge its role in colonialism and systemic injustice—something a decolonial framework corrects.

By naming and exposing cognitive dissonance as a tool of colonial and racial oppression, we decolonize the conversation, stripping away the false neutrality that academia tries to maintain.

The Truth: Cognitive Dissonance is Both a Psychological Reality and a Colonizer’s Weapon

This is no longer just a theory—it is a lived, institutionalized, and historical reality that continues to shape global power dynamics today.

J. Marion Sims performed surgery after surgery—without anesthesia—on enslaved Black women, including Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey. These women endured Sims’ torturous experiments, their screams filling his crude “hospital.” But because they were Black, their pain was ignored. The “miracle” of his vesicovaginal fistula repair surgery was built on their agony.

Slave Skin and White Cannibalism: The Untold Truth

Sims was part of a broader medical community that saw Black bodies as experimental playgrounds. Enslaved people’s skin was often used for medical experimentation. Their body parts were harvested, their corpses dissected, and their skin was even tanned into leather for shoes, belts, and furniture upholstery. Yes—white America literally wore and sat on the skin of enslaved Black people. Let that sink in.

Medical “Marvels” Born from Atrocity

The medical field’s advancements didn’t come from genius alone. Many breakthroughs came from human experimentation on the most vulnerable.

• Gynecology: Sims tortured enslaved women to refine his surgical techniques.
• Vaccines & Disease Treatment: Enslaved Black people were deliberately infected with smallpox and syphilis to “test” immunity theories.
• Anesthesia Research: Early anesthesia methods were perfected on enslaved bodies because doctors didn’t believe they could feel pain despite their harrowing screams. White "Doctors" convinced themselves that they simply weren't in pain.
• Orthopedics: Limbs were amputated without consent, studied, and discarded like waste.

Infant Murder in the Name of Medicine

Sims wasn’t just fixated on Black women—he turned his knife on Black infants too. He believed that neonatal tetanus (lockjaw) in Black babies was caused by skull deformations at birth. "The white skull" was believed to be the source of whiteness" and the model for the perfect skull. His solution to fixing this? He took a shoemaker’s awl—a sharp, pointed tool used for punching holes in leather—and punctured the skulls of live infants in an attempt to “relieve pressure.”

Every single one of those babies died.

They were not patients. They were victims of medical murder.

And yet, the world lauded Sims as a hero.

Why This Must Be Taught—And Taught Loudly

This is not just history. This is the foundation of modern medicine. The same racist myths that allowed Sims to mutilate Black bodies persist today:

• Black women are still less likely to receive pain medication because of the false belief that they have a higher pain tolerance.
• Black maternal mortality rates remain disproportionately high.
• Black patients are still experimented on, often without their knowledge, from the Tuskegee syphilis study to the forced sterilization of Black and Indigenous women.

White supremacy does not birth science. It births atrocities disguised as innovation.

To those who say, “That was a long time ago”—tell that to Black women who are still dismissed in hospitals. Tell that to the families of medical racism victims. Tell that to the history books that still gloss over these crimes.

Tearing Down the Myth, Rebuilding the Truth

They put up statues of Sims. They painted him in gold and draped him in medals, pretending he was anything other than a butcher. But his legacy is not one of triumph—it is one of suffering.

The true pioneers were Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey. They were the ones who endured. They were the ones who paid for medical advancements with their bodies, their dignity, and their lives. Their names deserve to be etched in history—not the name of the man who tortured them.

Educate. Speak the truth. Tear down their statues, erase their false glory, and uplift the voices of those who truly paid the price for progress.

Because if we don’t tell the truth, history will keep lying.

Western Medicine: A Mixture of Science and Ignorance, Fueled by White Supremacy and Colonialism

Western medicine has always been a contradictory fusion of legitimate scientific discovery and deeply entrenched ignorance, much of it rooted in racism, colonialism, and the dehumanization of non-European peoples. It was never a purely noble pursuit of knowledge; rather, it was often a tool of empire, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation, where medical advancements were made at the expense of Black, Indigenous, and colonized bodies.

1. The Science: Legitimate Advances Were Often Built on Stolen Knowledge

Western medicine did produce real breakthroughs, but let’s not pretend those came from thin air. Many of the so-called "pioneering discoveries" were either stolen, plagiarized, or built on non-consensual human experimentation.

• Surgical Techniques (Dr. J. Marion Sims) → Perfected through repeated mutilation of enslaved Black women with no anesthesia.
• Vaccination (Edward Jenner) → The concept of inoculation was already practiced in Africa, the Ottoman Empire, and China before Jenner's "discovery."
• Anatomy & Physiology (Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey, etc.) → Human dissection was often performed on executed criminals, enslaved people, and marginalized bodies—many of whom were unwilling participants.
• Gynecology & Reproductive Medicine → The forced sterilization of Black, Indigenous, and Latina women well into the 20th century (e.g., the U.S. eugenics movement) provided Western doctors with reproductive data at the cost of bodily autonomy and genocide.

2. The Ignorance: White Supremacist Myths Disguised as Medicine

For centuries, Western medicine operated on false assumptions and pseudoscience, many of which were designed to justify racial and gender hierarchies rather than actually heal people.

Racist Myths in Western Medicine:

• "Black people have a higher pain tolerance." → A myth dating back to slavery, used to justify not giving anesthesia to Black patients (and still affecting pain treatment today).
• "Skull size determines intelligence." → The racist pseudoscience of phrenology, used to claim Black people were inferior.
• "Non-white races are biologically predisposed to disease." → Used to justify apartheid-style policies, forced sterilization, and unethical medical experiments.
• "Hysteria in women." → Any woman who resisted patriarchy was diagnosed as “hysterical” and subjected to horrific treatments (even lobotomies).

3. Colonialism and the Weaponization of Medicine

Western medicine wasn’t just used for healing—it was also weaponized as a tool of oppression.

• Enslaved Black people were experimented on for the benefit of white medicine.
• Native American women were sterilized without consent to control their population.
• Colonial doctors justified eugenics and racial extermination programs.
• Medical apartheid ensured that Black and Indigenous people received substandard or no healthcare for centuries.

Even today, racial disparities in healthcare exist because Western medicine was built on systems designed to exclude, exploit, and experiment on non-European people.

Science and Ignorance Coexisting

Western medicine was never just science—it was a battleground of scientific progress, white supremacist ideology, and colonial exploitation. While some genuine medical advancements came from it, they often came at the cost of human lives, dignity, and ethics, disproportionately affecting Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities.

The decolonial approach to medicine acknowledges both:

? The legitimate scientific discoveries.

? The racism, ignorance, and violence that came with it.

What’s the Solution? Decolonizing Medicine

• Reclaiming Indigenous, African, and non-Western healing practices.
• Ending racial biases in healthcare today.
• Acknowledging and repairing the harm done to marginalized communities.
• Dismantling the idea that Western medicine is the "gold standard" of science.

Because real medicine should heal—not exploit, not justify racism, and definitely not erase the truth.