Opinion: The Politics of Science and Racism

Race has been used to segment humanity and, by extension, establish and enforce a hierarchy in science. Individual and institutional commitments to racial justice in the sciences must involve political activity.

| 7 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
7:00
Share

ABOVE: UNSPLASH, JOHN CAMERON

The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Riah Milton, and many other Black people have once again created an awareness of the systemic racism that is endemic in the United States of America and in many other parts of the world. In the US, this virus has been receiving long-term treatment via the emancipation of slaves in the 1800s and the ongoing civil rights movement since the 1900s. But it has not been cured. For example, over the course of a lifetime, 1 in every 1,000 Black men are at risk of fatal police violence compared with 1 in every 2,500 white men. Most recently, George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis has increased support for the Black Lives Matter movement across political party affiliations, age, education, and race. This has spurred people around the world to march in protest, to display messages of racial solidarity on social ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • A black and white photo of Sadye Paez

    Sadye Paez

    Sadye is a Latina and first-generation American. She is a Senior Research Associate in the Neurogenetics of Language Laboratory at The Rockefeller University, a fellow with New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, and the program director for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). She earned a master’s degree in physical therapy from the University of Central Florida. She then completed a master’s degree in public health leadership and a doctoral degree in human movement science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sadye seeks to address the principles and practices that shape STEM culture as the chair for the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee for the Earth Biogenome Project.

  • A black and white photo of Erich D. Jarvis

    Erich D. Jarvis

    Erich, an alumnus of the Rockefeller University and former professor at Duke University, returned to Rockefeller in 2016 as a tenured professor heading the new Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language. As an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2008, Erich is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the 2015 Ernest Everett Just Award from the American Society for Cell Biology, and a 2019 NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award. He is also a member of the Hunter College Alumni Hall of Fame. As co-leader of an avian genomics consortium consisting of more than 200 scientists in 20 countries, he oversaw the sequencing of genomes from representative species of every avian order—48 genomes in all. Erich also now chairs the Vertebrate Genomes Project, formed with the goal of assembling high-quality genomes for all 70,000 vertebrate species on Earth. Jarvis also serves on The Scientist’s editorial advisory board.

Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo
New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

Sino

Products

Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio
Inventia Life Science

Inventia Life Science Launches RASTRUM™ Allegro to Revolutionize High-Throughput 3D Cell Culture for Drug Discovery and Disease Research

An illustration of differently shaped viruses.

Detecting Novel Viruses Using a Comprehensive Enrichment Panel

Twist Bio