From the History of Science Society “Statement on the Death of George Floyd and Racism in the United States”:
We know from our historical work how thoroughly entangled science is with racism. Our histories have demonstrated this across medicine, science, and technology, including, among many others, the use of the bodies of unwilling enslaved women in the creation of gynecology techniques, the collection of blood from indigenous communities in Cold War preservation programs, the development of racist database surveillance practices in policing, or in the deployment of anthropology to legitimate racist public policies.
We grieve the devastating impact of Euroamerican race science that divided humans into separate and unequal categories. We denounce the historic and ongoing exclusion of Black scientists from professional scientific networks, resources, and credit for their work. And we call out the role that science and medicine have played—and continue to play—in creating and sanctifying racism, particularly in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic that is disproportionately affecting Black, brown, and indigenous communities in the United States.
