An Indiana University humanities course teaches students about the health consequences of “mass incarceration,” while having students watch a movie that portrays white people as violent.
“Survive, Breath, Thrive, Black Health and the Humanities” is a cross-listed course in African studies and medical humanities at the public university in Bloomington.
The syllabus, which is publicly available, connects racial health disparities to racist public policies.
“The pandemic and protests of 2020 exemplified the interplay between health justice and social justice in the Black American experience,” the syllabus says. “The disparate impacts of COVID-19 and state violence prompt a ‘biopolitical’ analysis of policies — segregation, redlining, policing, mass incarceration — that disproportionately result in ill health and premature death.”