3 chapters across the catalog
Rizk Islam discusses Benjamin Rush, the "father of American psychiatry," who allegedly claimed that Black skin was caused by a mental disease called "negritude," which he described as a form of leprosy. The hosts use this to show how "science" has historically been used to justify segregation and the "othering" of Black Americans through medicalized racism.
The hosts criticize a CBS segment and the musical "Hamilton" for rewriting the history of founding fathers like Benjamin Rush. While modern media portrays Rush as a progressive abolitionist, the hosts point out that he owned slaves and authored pseudoscientific racial theories. They characterize "Hamilton" as a form of "programming" for New York elites to accept a sanitized version of history.
The segment examines how 19th-century Social Darwinism was used to empirically "prove" Black inferiority. Dr. Benjamin Rush is mentioned for his theory of "Negritude," which characterized being Black as a mild form of leprosy that could be "caught." The hosts argue that this historical use of science to justify segregation is being repeated today, with those who refuse medical mandates being labeled as "subhuman" or "Neanderthals."
