OK, here's more information: The Hopkins researchers chose East Baltimore because that's where lead poisoning happens - and frequently.
"Lead poisoning of children in Baltimore has been a problem of epidemic proportions. Ingestion of lead - largely from old paint, but also from other sources, such as contaminated soil - can cause incurable neurological damage and other health problems," the two Hopkins officials wrote in this week's op-ed.
"At the height of the epidemic, physicians at the Kennedy Krieger Institute were treating thousands of East Baltimore children in their lead-poisoning clinic. Those doctors wanted not just to treat lead poisoning but also to help find ways to prevent it."
Imagine that: Doctors - thinking men and women - trying to keep lead out of the veins of children by turning some commercially sold organic fertilizer into the soil of the yards where they play.
We understand and appreciate why black American adults would have this kind of reaction, particularly given the sinister-sounding undertones of the original AP story. (And researchers gave the families who agreed to the experiment food coupons as an incentive? What's up with that?) I'll listen to anti-black conspiracy theories about the spread of AIDS and the CIA's importation of cocaine - up to a point.
Then I say: Think.
Don't feel. Think.
Don't leap. Think.
We live in the most opinionated culture in history. We've grown so used to hearing opinions we forget what facts sound like.
But, if you're going to accuse Johns Hopkins of exploiting East Baltimore as a laboratory and using its neighboring poor as guinea pigs, then you'd better have something more than racially charged rhetoric, damning assertions and reference to old tensions.
Conspiracy theories make great barbershop talk, great talk-radio talk and great blog entries. They provide intriguing distractions from the often tedious business of civic life. It's human nature to question the motivations of other human beings, and particularly so if the story runs along racial lines. Knowing your history is vital to knowing who you are. But, in the matter of Hopkins/Orgro, in the year of 2008, the people calling for a criminal investigation need to get real. The enemies in East Baltimore do not work at Johns Hopkins.
