Abstract for “Geno-colonisation: How science executes structural violence”

Social institutions such as healthcare and education have been examined through a lens of structural violence— the systematic ways by which social institutions place certain members at a disadvantage thus causing various types of harm. However, science has escaped such scrutiny. In a post-colonial world, new forms of colonisation have taken the place of traditional ones, from the colonisation of bodies to the more recent colonisation of genomes—geno-colonisation. Geno-colonisation serves as a mechanism by which certain groups are dominated through the use of scientific authority, in particular, culturally constructed races. This paper demonstrates the inextricable historical connection between race and social class, argues that the social institution of science is complicit in the maintenance of racially divided class, and that science should be interrogated as an institution through which structural violence works. Furthermore, evaluating science in the broader context of neo-liberal Capitalism moves towards ending the hegemonic colonisation and construction of Black-ness, and frees science from use as a tool of social domination.

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