The "Racial" Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future

Science and Black People: Editorial The Black Scholar

SCIENCE AND BLACK PEOPLE Editorial, The Black Scholar The uses of scientific knowledge cannot be separated from the society in which those uses occur. The myth of "pure" science, of science as a detached, ivory tower pursuit, has been exposed. Science is enmeshed in the prevailing social ideologies. The choice of what subjects to investigate, which experiments to undertake , what methods to employ, which results to emphasize as important, to whom to report results, how to use results, etc., all these and countless other decisions made by scientific investigators are colored by ideology. Ideology is not simply a nebulous cloud hanging in the social atmosphere. It is the assumptions underlying scientific education and training; it is the prod held by the public and private bureaucracies which fund research; it is the personal ambition of scientists who live in a bourgeois materialist society. Consequently, it comes as no great surprise that black people have been largely excluded from the world of science and technology-both as practitioners and as factors relevant to decision making. Of course, there have been outstanding black scientists and inventors, and their achievements are worthy of emulation, but the reality of racism has excluded most of us from the pursuit of science. Regarded as degraded beings, prisoners of undisciplined emotions and suitable only for manual labor, black people have for generations been barred from white institutions of scientific training. Moreover, racism has meant that white scientists have regarded us as an undifferentiated part of the environment, a given, rather than a subject active in changing the environment. Our cranial capacity and social institutions may be investigated from time to time, but our brainpower and social needs are seldom considered relevant when important scientific and technological decisions are being made. To the white world of research and development, we are indeed invisible. Unfortunately, our agrarian heritage and general exclusion from the world of science has generated an anti-science, anti-intellectual attitude among many of us. In colleges today many young black people regard the pursuit of scientific training as "copping out," as individual "tripping" at the expense of the struggle. Certainly it cannot be denied that some black scientists and technicians have dropped out of the struggle, but this must be attributed to their subservience to SCIENCE AND BLACK PEOPLE / 457 the individualist and materialist values of this society; it is not a result per se of being a scientist. It is imperative for us to realize that, despite its abuses in this country, science is key to the material development of society. Industrial advancement and social progress would be impossible without scientific research and development . While it is true that science cannot be separated from ideology, it is also true that ideologies can be changed and hence the uses of science can be redirected . It is no accident that the developing countries of the Third World have given highest priority to building scientific and technological institutes and training young scientists and engineers. Their future survival and independence hinge on developing a culture that encourages science and makes it truly serve the people. (And it is with the intention of undermining their struggle against underdevelopment that the capitalist West has instituted a "brain drain" of scientists and technicians from these Third World nations.) Scientific training and well-informed inputs into the process of technological decision making can be a progressive addition to the general struggle for black liberation. This is the message that must be taken to black youth today. We are oppressed by our exploiters, but to the extent that we remain ignorant and apathetic we are accomplices in our own oppression. No struggle can be undertaken without knowledge, and it is not enough simply to blame others for our ignorance . Like our brothers and sisters in Africa and the Third World, we must encourage the pursuit of useful knowledge-physical, biological and social-that will enable us to intelligently take command of our own destiny. ...