(sax play smooth jazz)
(groans softly)
Oh, hello.
Welcome to CP Time, the only show that's for the culture.
Today, we'll be discussing the history of Black doctors.
And I know that nowadays there are Black doctors everywhere.
On the sexy TV shows, in the rapping studios,
even in the state penitentiary.
There are so many Black doctors,
we even have fake Black doctors.
Like Dr. Love, the 17-year-old who put on a white lab coat
and gave medical advice until he was arrested.
And I'm glad he got caught
before he gave me that vasectomy.
Money saved.
But while Black doctors may seem commonplace today,
for the longest time Black people's contributions
to the field of medicine have been overlooked.
And by "overlooked," I mean stolen by white people.
So let's discover some of these Black professionals,
starting with Dr. Charles Drew.
During the Second World War Dr. Drew conducted
groundbreaking research into blood transfusions
that led to the creation of blood banks,
which saved the lives of thousands of soldiers.
Dr. Drew's research undoubtedly helped Allied forces
defeat the Nazis.
And it helped Matt Damon get home to his mammy.
But in 1942, the military decided to segregate
blood banks by race.
And in response, Dr. Drew resigned in protest.
And I applaud him for it.
Getting blood donations from one race
isn't gonna change your race.
And trust me, I received plasma from a white man once.
It did not affect my credit score at all.
Moving on. Another Black doctor who overcame racism and sexism
was Dr. Alice Ball.
Dr. Ball developed the first effective treatment
for leprosy by chemically modifying chaulmoogra oil
to make it water-soluble.
I have no idea what any that means,
but it sounds smart.
Makes me wonder if this chaulmoogra oil
might help me with my ashy skin.
This pandemic got me washing my hands so much,
I'm going through two bottles of lotion a week.
You know how much this costs?
Moving on to Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who, in 1893,
performed the world's first successful heart surgery.
Interestingly enough, Williams started off as a barber.
Which makes sense.
The only thing with higher stakes
than performing the first heart surgery
is cutting a Black man's hair.
You don't want to mess that up.
Dr. Williams was a pioneer,
and his work opened the door for other Black surgeons.
Like the world-famous neurosurgeon,
Ben Carson.
Dr. Carson made a name for himself in the 1980s
by separating conjoined twins.
And that's what I choose to remember him for.
Great job on that surgery, Dr. Carson.
It's too bad we never heard from you again.
Finally, we must discuss Onesimus,
a Black man who made contributions
even while he was enslaved.
During a smallpox outbreak in Boston in 1721,
Onesimus taught his master about inoculation practices
he had learned in Africa.
Over there, they would take the pus from a sick person's wound
and rub it into the open wound of a healthy person.
It's nasty, but it works.
Eventually, the idea caught on, and, thanks to Onesimus,
Massachusetts vaccinated its population
and stemmed the outbreak.
And today, people's mistrust of vaccines
is a thing of the past.
Totally a thing of the past
never to be discussed ever again.
Well, that's all the time we have today.
I'm Roy Wood Jr., and this has been CP Time from Home.
And remember, we're for the culture.
I've got to call Dr. Love, see if he out of jail.
This vasectomy, I still might need to get that.