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Module 3: Who benefits from science?

Hey everyone! I’m loving all of your thoughtful responses to these sections. It’s great to see you take some time and sort of chew on these ideas about neutrality and objectivity. I’m sure plenty of professionals in your respective fields never do this deep dig, it’s provocative af! and forces us to really take into consideration how the work we do impacts the world around us (ick! feelings!)
I was planning on finishing up Science Under the Scope, but I think we can break it up between this week and next week just to really take our time. There’s no rush! we have nowhere to get to! Urgency is a trait of ableist white supremacy culture (bonus personal growth points if you have a moment to check out the link), it perpetuates the myth that we need to be productive to be valuable, that we need to be doing labor to have value. Fuck that noise.

We will take our time, let’s let this all marinate.

Segments eight, nine and ten of Science Under The Scope dive deeper into the real world impacts of uneven resource distribution and how that siphoning of resources by the overly resourced (usually white people) will intentionally minoritize other people and keep hold of power. Wang shows us this through breaking down “who benefits” from science industry funding. This is not the science we think about when we’re dissecting frogs (do the youth even still do that? I’m old and I still remember those little frog organs omg).

The example Wang gives is the difference between scientific research funding for cystic fibrosis (which predominantly affects white people) and sickle cell anemia (predominantly affects Black people). 
How does this under representation happen? “The reason the answer to all of these questions is kind of the same – (middle class folks, white folks, folks with access to science ed, folks who see themselves represented in science, by science, as scientists) – is not by chance or some inherent factor of culture or biology. The reason is because our world’s histories of injustice, oppression, marginalization, and white supremacy have created this segmentation, this privilege.” 
And so when we start to think about the intentional and systemic oppression of non-white people by white people and people who uphold white supremacist ideals, it becomes clearer how scientific research and data skews to favor a specific group.

For this week, please read eight, nine, and ten, and share two or three areas of research or technological development that might have bias towards people in power. Extra points if you can find something like this in your field (we’ll be doing writing project later this semester, you might want to use the content you find now).

Thanks everyone! Next module we’ll finish up Science Under the Scope. Have a great week!

13 Comments

  1. Insulin production and availability has a bias towards people in power and people who can afford it. It is extremely expensive, sometimes even with insurance, but yet it is necessary to survive for some people. I used to work in a small pharmacy and I remember always hearing some type of complaint about the price and availability. It was always in low stock or on order until a prescription came because it is too expensive for the pharmacy to order, unless there was a guarantee that a patient would need it. Chemotherapy is another medical treatment that has a bias towards people in power due to the cost of it and the availability for some people. It was shocking to read about how much the CEO of the EpiPen has made and it is upsetting to think about how much money goes to the people in power instead of decreasing costs and allow more people to have access to products and research.

  2. Treatment for bypass surgery is biased towards those of higher power within the healthcare department. It has been noted that many physicians were convinced that black people were not as educated as white people and for that reason they wouldn’t take part in the required physical activity after bypass surgery. As a result, they recommended white people in getting the surgery disregarding black people overall. In my opinion, this is really unfair and is definitely a representation of marginalization because in this particular situation white people are being favored for invalid reasoning and this is seen in the high number of deaths experienced by black people who suffered from coronary artery disease. Transplant waitlisting is another form of medical bias faced in the field of medicine. Many studies have shown that African Americans have lower rates of kidney transplants compared to white people and we can see that this disparity exists in every stage of the transplant process. These individuals are less likely to be placed on the transplant list after going through the interview stage just because of the color of their skin. They can be on verge of having a low chance of surviving the next couple of months (having a short life expectancy), but white people, in the end, would triumph.

  3. The bias in mining industry like oil and gas has caused many to be affected like the workers or having less in wages. Especially in the oil crisis right now, workers have been assigned longer hours for fewer wages while owners tend to rack up their portion, causing the consumer to pay heavier fees. Working bias in warehouses like Amazon, having workers sometime over tally in a given shift or having to work long hours walking back and forth between huge areas in a short amount of time. One of my friends used to work in an Amazon warehouse, and he’d come home either sore or in pain of how much labor is stressed upon the individual workers that are assigned. Their managers seem to not care of the individual and would rather just fill the quota that is given to them day to day.

  4. African Americans, American Indians, and Alaskan Natives in the US have the highest rates of morbidity and morality among all the racial and ethnic groups present. They are 1.6 time higher than that of a White person. This is because they do not receive proper treatment for their illnesses before it came detrimental. This may be due to their inability to access healthcare or insurance since the government makes it so hard on them. As well as, the working class of individuals who have no work based insurance or lack any representation. Moreover, Vietnamese-American women experience the highest incidents of cervical cancer at almost six times higher than that of a white women. South and Southeast Asians are disproportionately uninsured because of the unequal bases towards minorities in the US. Clearly minorities are placed underneath the whites in the medical world here in the US. They are marginalized and are forced to live in poorer conditions because of the people in power who abuse their positions and the those that need help.

  5. Workers or their wages have been affected by the bias in mining industries like oil and gas. With the current oil crisis, workers are being assigned longer hours for fewer wages while owners rack up their portions, resulting in heavier fees for consumers. Big warehouses often have workers do double shifts or have to work long hours walking back and forth between large areas within a short period of time because of labor bias.
    Also, Individuals without work-based insurance or who lack representation in the working class are also impacted. Moreover, non white people in the U.S. are much more likely to get sick or have greater health issues, here minorities are clearly positioned below whites in the medical field. In my experience, I have worked a server job for a few years now to support myself for school, and I’m talking about a full time job,and never got an offer for insurance, sick day and not even mentioning vacation days.

  6. There is no doubt that science is sometimes used as a commodity. I believe scientists and physicians will benefit the most, particularly in developing countries. As a young Nigerian, I witnessed firsthand the marginalizing and unethical behavior of physicians. Nigeria, in particular, regards medicine as a transaction, and hospitals prioritize monetary gain over patient health. Many hospitals will not allow physicians to begin a surgical procedure or treat a patient unless they are paid or have a temporary down payment. Furthermore, if a down payment is agreed upon and you fail to make the next payment, the patient’s medical care will most likely be revoked. In essence, medicine in countries such as Nigeria can be viewed as a monopoly. It’s unfortunate because this gives people the impression that doctors are distrustful and apathetic.

  7. Cryogenics deals with using very low temperatures. Cryonics deals with the freezing of human remains. These remains are frozen with the hope that as science advances, the dead body will be resurrected. This topic deals with bias in its research because only the wealthy can afford this. The average human could not go to a company specializing in Cryonics and sign up themselves without putting down a hefty sum of money. Leisure space travel is a technological development dealing with bias coming from people in power. It will cost millions to get a seat on Elon Musk’s spaceship. This is a technological development that only the wealthy can afford. Currently, we may not be interested in being a part of space travel but who knows in the near future when traveling to another planet may be the only means of survival if Earth became uninhabitable.
    I agree with Sophie Wang about the unequal distribution of knowledge based on communities. Sickle cell and Cystic fibrosis are similar in that they are both debilitating diseases and both have a low average life expectancy. However, neither one has a cure even though Cystic Fibrosis has way more funding being pumped into it. I was surprised to learn the salary of Susan G Komen’s founder. It is understandable that these nonprofit organizations need to have individuals set up to run them but it makes you think if there should be a cap on the salaries that these founders and other people in power receive so that even more money can go towards research.

  8. Two technological developments mentioned in the comic that have a bias towards people in power are mines and EpiPens. Mines that are supported by wealthier communities benefit more than the communities around them. The mines do not want to lose power so they cause damage to the other mine. They also get more funds from people.The needs of the other mine are not met so it does not make progress and develop.
    Another technological development mentioned by Sophie Wang is the EpiPen that helps with allergies. EpiPens only benefit the people that are able to afford them or have insurance that does. On the other hand, the company that owns the EpiPens makes millions. This shows that there is an unequal distribution of EpiPens.

  9. In business, a technological development that many overlooks is the stock market. The market is biased towards the wealthy/people in power. The more money and influence over people you have, the more manipulative you can be with the stocks you invest in. A prime phrase used to label these people is “snakes”. These snakes invest a load of money in one stock and raise the stock leading people to invest in it and later on sell the stock after they made enough money due to all the people investing in it and raising the stock. This causes them to gain every other thousand and maybe even millions of people who invested afterward to lose their money due to the sudden dip (when the rich dudes sold the stock causing it to go down). Another concept in business that is very biased towards the people in power is called selection bias. When starting a business or in a business you would usually gather research for what you are trying to pitch or sell. Nowadays without realizing many people are victims of selection bias. Without realizing it many flourishing businesses are luxury brands. These brands select people with money to take information from which leads to products catered to them. Many clothing companies today are actually doing this which is why you would go to stores and see more sections with absurd price tags and “brand names”. This leaves a lot of middle to lower-class people with fewer things to buy in their price range causing them to opt for the worst due to the greed people have for money.

  10. One bias that I know so far is part of the medical field. Let’s talk about Pharmaceuticals. They might have a lot of medications and so on, but the prescription can be really expensive. According to the comic, most of the money doesn’t even go towards research but towards something that would increase their profits. And not to mention, many prescribed medications may even bypass federal checks just because they can come with fake clinical trials or because they have connections with those in power. So who suffers the losses? The general public who rely on their insurance. Not even insurance can cover the prescription prices, which are increasing as time goes on. Another bias would be the subjects used for the experiments. Since they choose the subject and they can easily exclude many subjects who may not prove the drug to be effective. So can we really say that scientific experiments are truly randomized as they say? Can we say that the shareholders, the business owners of the pharmaceutical company, really don’t have any hand in all of this?

  11. There is an epidemic of widespread healthcare disparities affecting minority groups throughout the US. Healthcare in the US is a booming business built around profitting off patients’ health with billable services. Black americans are served sub par treatment and offered less treatment options than white of the same economic standing and as a result die, on average, 5 years earlier than white americans. This is nothing new for America or for black americans as scientific racism has long been used against blacks by white supremacists as they justify the inequality and abuse on their hands. Scientific racism is strongly imbedded in the foundations of science. The founding father of science, Aristotle, believed strongly in inequality with a “natural order” of slave and master. From this point on, people in power and dominant cultures could use able to reaffirm this with science as the categorized and generalized people into a hierarchy of physical features. These hieracrhies have never been kind to people of color and have been passed down from one generation of scientist to the next. From Aristotle through Linnaeus and onto Darwin, this racism has become interlaced with the scientific theory, community and practice, benefitting those in power, those who can pay, and those that can research.

  12. https://www.prb.org/resources/black-women-over-three-times-more-likely-to-die-in-pregnancy-postpartum-than-white-women-new-research-finds/

    Black women are five times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications such as cardiomyopathy, and blood pressure disorders than white women. There was research conducted where they found that the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic black women was 3.5 times that of non-hispanic white women. To add on they also found that black women faced a maternal death rate of 2.5 times that of white women. Now the question is why this happens. Three words come to mind racism, money, and health care. There’s a difference between a woman of color giving birth and a white woman giving birth. From the research, we could tell that white women is most likely to survive. However, there’s a difference between a wealthy person giving birth then a poor or middle-class person. The difference is that the wealthy can afford the best doctor, prenatal care, hospital, and aftercare. They can even stay in the hospital as long as they want to when they don’t feel safe to leave themselves all because they can afford it. While a middle-class or poor person only gets the average care. They are not a priority because there are many other people in the hospital in need of care as well. When it comes to the baby needing extra care the mother is not allowed to stay after she is discharged maybe it’s because she can’t afford to stay those extra days. Now, when it comes to health care not everyone has access to healthcare. Not everyone can go appointment after appointment to take the baby to the hospital. Some can’t afford to and not to mention if you don’t have health care that medical bill is a lot to handle.

  13. I feel like the healthcare system is biased toward people in power. Hospital bills are a major issue today and it does favor people in power with money. People who are sick and need medical attention shy away because of how expensive the bills are. I’ve seen many people turn down prescriptions because they have no money with or without insurance. Medicine is up to 2,000 dollars. Imagine being so sick and your life depending on a medicine that you can’t take because you can’t afford it. Healthcare system caters to those in power who can afford all these expesencies and leave the less unfortunate in the dark.

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Course Info

Professor: Andréa Stella (she/her)

Email: astella@ccny.cuny.edu

Zoom: 4208050203

Slack:engl21003fall22.slack.com/