History of Science as an Antiracist Discipline

This week, I attended a roundtable discussion titled “Past and Futures: Current Challenges in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine”. There were two speakers present, each presenting a different challenge in the history of Science.

During this talk, I was struck by the words of Dr. Terence Keel. His work focuses on the history of racism and how it connects to current disciplines such as religion, law, medicine, public health, and the biological sciences. He discussed the possibility of using the history of science as an antiracist discipline. He argued that the history of science lies at the intersection of so many different fields, methodologies, and ways of understanding the world. This puts it in the unique position to utilize interdisciplinary measures to detangle racist power structures that have been codified into the American way of life.

He emphasized that his talk was not meant to be a presentation, but a provocation. It was a call to action for students and scholars in attendance to acknowledge the harms that racism continues to have on society and actively find ways to do something about it. He asked us to critically examine the kinds of activities we pursue and the research questions we find interesting. What are the motivations behind asking this question? How do these pursuits cement or dismantle the system which continues to uphold white supremacy?

Listening to his words, I found myself thinking about what antiracism means to me and the ultimate goal it hopes to achieve. The purpose is to decenter the white European worldview that has held America and the world at large in its clutches for so long. The goal is to acknowledge the continuous erasure of non-white cultures and spotlight the contributions they have made to our current society. We want to tear down this monolith plagued by years of restriction, contradiction, and oppression and envision a new world premised on inclusivity, exploration, and understanding. 

It led me to conclude that antiracism is not only useful as an academic discipline, but as a mode of life. Academic disciplines, especially the sciences, are lauded in front of the world has strictly empirical, unbiased findings. Yet, when we examine the history of scientific practice, we start to see that this social and scientific separation is not so clear cut.  

Furthermore, Dr. Keel states that current circumstances continue to persist because the institutions in power are constantly reaffirming them. This presents itself on an institutional level when we think about colleges and universities. The kinds of projects that continue to receive funding in our neo-capitalist society are not helping to move the needle on creating social change. New fields of exploration should be encouraged, if nothing else than for their potential to envision a new future that goes beyond the present moment. 

I thought about the precarious situation of Black and Brown communities in the American healthcare system. In light of the COVID-19 Era, the media points to the Tuskegee experiment and other instances of medical experimentation as the reason for vaccine hesitancy in the black community. While this assertion is true on some level, it overlooks the fact that the American healthcare system was never meant for black people in the first place. When they were slaves, black health was purely contained in maximizing profits for the plantation economy. When they were freed, millions died due to the ambivalence of the U.S. Government. This tradition continues into today with an underfunded public health system and a culturally incompetent healthcare field.

People have to question why the trends and patterns we see in society exist,  beyond the surface level implications of financial feasibility and lack of creativity. A machine will continue to produce the same product unless it is reprogrammed. Similarly, the institutional machine will continue to uphold the current dynamic, unless it is repurposed for a different outcome. That is the work antiracist practice is meant to do: to expose the rot hiding underneath and plant seeds for a new path forward.