Your Brain and Racism
By Kristie Garza
Protests for racial justice have erupted all over the world. This increased attention toward systemic racism has increased popularity of The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. BLM focuses on issues of racial injustices and human rights, issues that are deeply embedded into every aspect of our society, including academia. In solidarity with the BLM movement’s goal to increase education around these issues, my goal for this post is to focus on neuroscience and systemic racism and how each has impacted and continues to impact the other.
History of [Neuro]science and Race
Racism has tinged science since before the founding of The United States. In 1785, Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on The State of Virginia, stated “we will not be able to know [that Africans are naturally inferior] until science gives us the answers.” This statement has been identified as a call on science to find these differences, a "request for proposals" of sorts, in its day. This request…
Protests for racial justice have erupted all over the world. This increased attention toward systemic racism has increased popularity of The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. BLM focuses on issues of racial injustices and human rights, issues that are deeply embedded into every aspect of our society, including academia. In solidarity with the BLM movement’s goal to increase education around these issues, my goal for this post is to focus on neuroscience and systemic racism and how each has impacted and continues to impact the other.
History of [Neuro]science and Race
Racism has tinged science since before the founding of The United States. In 1785, Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on The State of Virginia, stated “we will not be able to know [that Africans are naturally inferior] until science gives us the answers.” This statement has been identified as a call on science to find these differences, a "request for proposals" of sorts, in its day. This request…
