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Surfacing anti-Black science and building antiracist teams

Nature Biotechnology volume 38, pages 923–925 (2020)Cite this article

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As a Black man living in the United States, a professional contributing to the science and commercial business of biotech, and a police survivor6 myself, I was invited by Nature Biotechnology to write this piece. Here, I hope to raise awareness of unethical anti-Black ‘science’ and help improve public understanding of the causes and effects of racial inequity and exclusion in the life sciences. I also outline concrete action items that the biopharmaceutical industry may consider to create equitable antiracist teams.

Written in 1776 by Thomas Jefferson, a founding father who owned about 600 Black slaves himself, the US Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” In the centuries that followed, the reality has been that the United States has not treated all men as created equal. One group who has power has felt entitled to determine which people fit a profile of what it is defined to be a suitable human being on the basis of racial hierarchy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Connection Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    H. Hugo Caicedo

  2. Corporate Sustainability and Innovation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    H. Hugo Caicedo

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  1. H. Hugo Caicedo
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Correspondence to H. Hugo Caicedo.

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Caicedo, H.H. Surfacing anti-Black science and building antiracist teams. Nat Biotechnol 38, 923–925 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-020-0637-6

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