(National Archives via AP) In this 1950s file photo released by the National Archives, men included in a syphilis study pose for a photo in Tuskegee, Ala. Historic failures in government response to disasters and emergencies, medical abuse, neglect and exploitation have jaded generations of black people into a distrust of public institutions. Some might call it the Tuskegee effect, referring to the U.S. government’s once-secret syphilis study of black men in Alabama that one study shows later reduced their life expectancy due to distrust of medical science.