It’s not often that I get to read the ‘right of reply’ written by a descendent of the subject of another book I’ve read. Henrietta Lacks is a person whose name should never be forgotten. What she’s done for humanity is far more than one book can do justice to. As far as I can tell the book by Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is the book that opened it all up and told the world how important she is to us. We get from this book that she was a real person, flesh and blood, and much more than just the cells HeLa. From Henrietta Lacks: The Untold Story the follow up book by Henrietta Lacks grandson, Ron Lacks, we find out all of that and ever so much more. Reading this book made me feel white, over-privileged and under-educated.
Ron Lacks does not beat around the bush in exposing Skloot’s book as white-centric. And it’s true, Skloot details her detective skills. We’re told how she digs up the medical details and how she finds the family. She tells us how she is vetted by friends before being given the once-over by the family. We even hear how she travels from point A to point B. To a white person it feels as if the book is enough about Henrietta Lacks and her family, and the detecting sounds good. But Ron Lacks tells us how it feels from the family’s point of view.
He talks about how the family were not given any information. They had asked over the years after it was discovered that HeLa was Henrietta Lacks, but had been turned away. And they only discovered what had been done when a scientist contacted them asking for more blood samples. In my thinking I’d expect the family to be given information over and above a journalist. But it took a white journalist to be given access. There were other examples of white privilege in this book.
I loved this book. It’s really short at 148 pages, but it’s a good read. I am annoyed that it took me so long to buy it and then read it, but that doesn’t impact the message of the book. It’s also printed in a large and clear print so it made it easier on my old eyes than most other books.
One of the things I found in both books, but more so in Lacks’ book is about Henrietta Lacks herself. She came across as a lovely, caring person. When cousins came to stay she made sure they understood how to get across town, even taking them on public transport more than once. She fed people, made sure they were comfortable and had everything they needed. In Lacks’ book I find that she wasn’t as poor as Skloot made her out to be. And when I look at the front cover of Skloot’s book, at the photo of Henrietta Lacks I just wonder about her clothes. That coat with the fur trim looks like it was not cheap.
Ron Lacks has taught me that every time I read a book I need to stop and look at the people (whether real or imagined) and find the evidence within the words to see if my white mind is taking over. And that’s entirely possible, I do know that when I read a book I automatically see the people as white. It’s not a good thing, a large percentage of the world is absolutely not white, and I read to learn about other people. I feel there is a problem in my brain. Maybe I need to read Lacks’ book again to keep my mind in check.
Trying to sort through my notes to see what else I want to write about I find myself drawn back into the book. I wanted to find out why I’d made a note of 15 acres! on page 18. It reminded me that Lacks’ grandfather worked a 15 acre tobacco farm by himself back in Clover. Then they moved to Baltimore and he got a better paid job, but the family weren’t there which made Henrietta rather lonely. But they both opened their home in Baltimore to people they’d known back in Clover while they worked and saved for their own house.
Ron Lacks doesn’t pull his punches, he relates how the Johns Hopkins hospital chose Skloot when they decided to release the information about the HeLa cells. Yes, she approached them, but they had other people who were also approaching them for information and yet they chose a white woman.
As with any book I find myself wanting more. Lacks starts one of his Instagram stories with ‘Everyone has a story’, and that’s true, I feel the Lacks family story has more validity to be told than mine, just as an example. And what I want more of would be invasive as I want more family stories. You know the ones, they often start with ‘the corner store’, or ‘standing on the corner’, or ‘sitting down to a meal’, or even ‘Grandma did’. These are the stories that tell us more about the person and that’s where my interests lie after having read this book.
I found this book by chance. I was writing about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and needed to get a digital image of the cover photo. I went to Booktopia and only put in ‘Henrietta Lacks’ into their search engine because I’m a little lazy. Imagine my pleasure to find Henrietta Lacks: The Untold Story written by a family member and not some unknown person. I didn’t buy it instantly, I wish I had, but I got there in the end. When I do the same search today in Booktopia I find there are more books. The suspicious side of me is wondering if people are trying to make quick money.
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