The science of black hair special edition

This dehumanization of Black people also served as a major obstacle to keep us from practicing science. During this episode we're going to feature some notable Black scientists who have made huge contributions in their field, despite being pushed to the margins, refused jobs, and denied proper credit.

Charles Henry Turner was a biologist, neurologist, and psychologist who was a pioneer in animal cognition studies. He was one of the first African Americans to earn a PhD from the University of Chicago, and in , was the first Black scientist to be published in the prestigious journal, Science.

He was an incredibly productive student, publishing over 30 scientific papers by the time he got his doctorate. But, despite his achievements, he couldn't find work as a researcher or academic due to racial barriers, and ended up teaching at an all-Black high school instead. Even without access to lab facilities or research materials, he pursued his science at an impressive pace.

He made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of animal behavior, which went against the prevailing ideas of the time that suggested animals were not capable of complex cognition. Among his many discoveries, he was the first to prove that insects have the capacity to hear, that they can learn by trial and error, and showed how bees use olfactory and visual cues to find nectar.

Race science has contributed to and shaped modern racism - particularly anti-Black racism - which has so scarred Black lives and distorted and damaged modern society. A quick scan of some of the most recent scientific studies shows an overwhelming amount of concerning news. Like one, which shows that the urban areas in which many Black people live have less biodiversity and poorer air quality because cities don't invest in parks and plant fewer trees in these neighborhoods.

And this in turn intensifies the impacts of climate change. But I want to talk about health. Because all of this inequality has taken a huge toll on the health and well being of Black people - something that has become even more obvious during the COVID pandemic.

Life expectancy of the Black population in the US has dropped 2. One person who knows these realities all too well is Dr.

Roberta Timothy. She's a researcher at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health and she studies the health effects of systemic racism on Black and Indigenous communities.

Science is intrinsically linked with the anti Black racism that impacts Black folks' lives. So the notion of science as objective and fair and rational versus irrational is not actually correct. We know that Black women are overrepresented in the national rates for most significant chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular disease, HIV AIDS, lupus and hypertension.

We also know that one in seven people are living with HIV in Canada. And we know that there was a study in researchers at McGill University in , found that Black women in Canada have substantially higher rates of premature birth than white women, and this resembles the disparities in the United States. So these are just some examples of the impact. And we know that this has intensified for Black communities. Wow, so okay, take me through this.

How did we get here? What causes these differences in health care? Well, I think that you know, the number one thing is our histories and herstories of racism, how we have been treated, what services we had access to. If there's a situation they're not getting health treatment. That has to do with years and years of mistrust within the system that has violated them, right.

So it's a system that has not created equal access and a system that when people go to appointments, you know, have been they've been treated harshly and harmed and folks are not, they're not wanting to go based on safety.

They don't feel safe within our healthcare system, and our health care system doesn't cater to Black folks also. So I'll give you a couple examples. James Marion Sims, he's known as the father of quote, unquote, modern gynecology. His research was conducted on enslaved Black women without anesthesia, and some were operated on up to 30 times. So these women, these enslaved women, their bodies were used as medical test subjects, and slave children were also used. And we have to remember the context.

This is during slavery, right and at the same time, in , there was a diagnosis developed called Drapetomania, which was a conjectural mental illness, quote, unquote, developed by American physician Samuel A.

Cartwright, who hypothesized the illness, this is an illness that causes enslaved Africans to flee captivity. And, you know, I mean, and this is the legacy of what we're seeing today. This directly relates to the notion of Black people and pain, and in medicine, and the studies that say that, you know, many medical professionals do not believe or give the same amount of pain relief for Black folks, this is really huge.

So if people are not thinking or feeling that Black folks feel pain, the same as white folks, and not giving not giving relief is also this notion of not being human, right, not not being biologically the same and being biologically different than others.

But this is something that now trickles down to the actual practice in our medical systems. Another study I can give you is the radiation of Black cancer patients, that it was a study until was Dr.

Eugene Saenger, a radiologist at the University of Cincinnati. And he led an experiment exposing 88 cancer patients, so exposing 88 cancer patients, poor and mostly Black, to whole body radiation. You know, this is like, this is not only a cruel and painful thing to have happen to somebody, you know, but these patients were already dealing with chronic illness.

So on top of that, a report done in indicated, as many as a quarter of these patients died of radiation poisoning, so they were killed by this experiment. Now, talking about these experimentations, how does that make you feel? When you hear about this? I feel a lot of pain, I also feel anger. To me, the anger makes me act. Obviously, I was doing other things on Black health. Yet we have to do this work, because it's about life and death for our community members.

So yes. Um, can you tell me about that? What are you looking at? So basically in March, you know, we noticed the numbers were increasing. And people were hearing different things about folks, you know, who are being hospitalized locally and globally. So, you know, we're transnational, Black people are transnational, we have folks everywhere. And decided that I was going to do this research project. And I'm looking at, you know, how folks are impacted.

So, people who are working in you know, as essential workers in the medical field, you know, working groceries, TTC, nurses, doctors, students, children, people are working in childcare. What interventions are working within the community. What other things can we do? So, you know, I know it's still somewhat early but what are you seeing so far, when it comes to the Covid 19 pandemic?

The mental health impact of this in our community is really, really critical. There's not enough resources for mental health. Also, I would say, you know, vaccine mistrust or distrust. So far, this is preliminary, folks are saying, you know, we don't want to be the first one in line to get that, you know, vaccine, we don't trust it.

And we don't trust that you will actually take care of us. So that's some, those are some of the things that I'm finding in the, in this study. And again, also looking at the, as I said earlier, the impact of folks not going into the hospital, So what does that mean in the long run for Black people and their well being and and and basically life and death?

Born in Chatham, Ontario in , Jones was fascinated by science, and wanted to study medicine from a young age. But she was denied access to full medical training at the University of Toronto because she was a woman. So she applied to, and was accepted by, the University of Michigan, which had just started admitting women a few years earlier. In , she became the first Black woman to graduate from the school, and then became the first Black faculty member at Atlanta's Spelman College, where she organized the first training program for nurses in the American South.

During her long career, she practised medicine in St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Kansas City, spearheading many public health programs, and pushing for health equity for Black Americans. She published the restrospective article "Fifty Years of Negro Public Health" in , which looked at systemic barriers to health care for Black people. It's great to be able to present these profiles of unrecognized Black scientists.

And we should let you know we've got more on our web site that we recommend you look for. But we need to look at why they're unrecognized. Why aren't there more Black faces in science? And that does a few things. It means that you can't necessarily see people like you doing the work, so you're not sure if you're welcome there.

And to be honest, it means that our colleagues who are not Black, their impressions of what is possible for Black people, is going to be shaped more potentially by stereotype than by actual interactions with people who identify as Black.

That's biologist Dr. Maydianne Andrade. When you don't see anyone who looks like you in the room, this leads to imposter syndrome -- the feeling that you shouldn't be there - that you don't belong.

Here's planetary astrochemist Ashley Walker:. There were times where I felt like, I could not succeed that maybe this isn't the right choice for me. There were times where I felt lesser than then what I am as a scientist.

And that's entirely aside from how other people treat you. Here's data scientist Dr. Tyrone Grandison. I've had people mistaking me for the chauffeur, or the help. And it also like, makes you feel angry, who are these people to make these assumptions? And like, why is this place so messed up? It's important to remember, though, that Black people are, of course, and always have been scientifically-minded.

But Black people have been doing scientific type things, I think, for centuries. And for my enslaved ancestors running a plantation took expertise. And it was enslaved people who were doing a lot of the day to day management, on a plantation.

So agriculturalists, midwives, engineers who were building things even if they couldn't read or write and couldn't calculate by paper, which I have a hard time doing math in my head. So that's actually pretty impressive. And even though more Black scientists like Dr. Prescod-Weinstein are getting opportunities in the science world, that doesn't mean it's an even playing field.

Structural racism is not just a barrier to entry - it's an entire system. Roberta Timothy still faces many barriers when it comes to doing her work. Now, this was in May, when we knew that there was a disproportionate, you know, numbers of Black folks who are getting COVID, and yet our research was not funded. So I say that, I say that to say that we are often not funded, Black researchers, particularly when you're doing research that challenges or wants to dismantle anti-Black racism.

And that, of course, then limits our ability to do major interventions, right, major programs, Major supports. Last spring, of course, was a difficult time for Black people.

It triggered months of protests and resistance. But at the same time, and in parallel, Black scientists were having their own distinct racial reckoning. Triggered by this event on the same day George Floyd was killed. This video, showing Ms Cooper calling the police on Mr. Cooper just because he asked her to put her dog on a leash, went viral immediately after it was posted.

He is recording me and threatening myself and my dog! Please send the cops immediately! I was definitely mortified. Because I mean, that could be any one of us just minding our business, and it can happen to us, and that's what typically happens, we're always minding our business.

And so we were tired of being targeted, and we want to show that our Black lives do matter. During that week, Black people from around the globe took part by posting and sharing images from the field and talking about their work. And I was really, really excited about it. I'd seen how, you know, the, the impact, and the togetherness of Black scientists who are passionate about their science, but also passionate about our communities, because you know, people often tell us that we we have to separate being Black and and scientists and we cannot, we can't separate being a Black scientist.

Because this is who we are. For all of the scientists that we've spoken to about the large number of Black in "Science" weeks, the reaction was universal - that by simply seeing people who look like them represented in their fields, it helped to make them feel more strongly that they belonged. And I mean, it was just a very it was just an amazing week where I got to know other people that look like me.

This is Dr. Emily Choy, a biologist. By simply introducing herself on twitter, not only was she able to meet countless other Black scientists, but that visibility also got her opportunities she's never had before.

And it was actually retweeted over a thousand times,. I was contacted by the marine mammal podcast from the Marine Mammal Society, and I got the opportunity to do a podcast with them. On Halloween, I actually have a little girl who dressed up as me, for Halloween.

I mean, that's why I think it's so important to have this representation for youth so people can have role models and see themselves in them. By Black scientists just being visible, it means that kids grow up knowing that becoming a scientist is an option for them.

Percy Lavon Julian was a chemist who discovered innovative and cost-effective ways to synthesize steroids. He was born in in Alabama, when Black people were only allowed to receive the equivalent of an 8th grade education. Despite this, Dr. Julian was accepted to DePauw University in Indiana, where he took high school courses alongside his university courses to catch up. And even though he graduated as valedictorian in , he couldn't find work, and was blocked from getting his PhD in the US.

And after getting his doctorate in Europe, he still struggled to find work at home. Eventually he became a research associate back at DePauw. This is where he became the first researcher to synthesize the drug physostigmine, a difficult technical accomplishment.

After proving his skills as a chemist, he was finally able to land a job as director of research at Chicago's Glidden Company. Over the next 17 years, he was awarded over chemical patents, including for a fire-retardant foam that saved many lives during World War 2. But his biggest contributions were to biomedical research. By figuring out how to synthesize important medicinal compounds from plants, he helped make steroids like cortisone and birth control pills significantly more affordable to mass-produce.

So let's look to the future. What can be done to make science - and society - a more equitable place for all? To discuss this, I'm joined by Dr.

She's a professor of biological sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and the president of the Canadian Black Scientists Network. I do think it's possible. I think it is a path, as opposed to a one time only effort, and it's something that will have to require constant thought, and work. It isn't something that we can sort of do one and done.

It requires a change in our mindset, a change in the way we think about what we're doing, and also recognition that, in fact, social norms and conventions, expectations and stereotypes do actually affect scientists and do actually affect our science.

That's a very hard thing for scientists to accept, but it is true. Alright, now, what do you think are the key things that we need to do to make science a better place for Black people? So there's two pieces to making science more equitable. And these are things that will benefit Black people, but also people from other underrepresented groups.

One piece is around policy. And to be honest, a lot of the policies are already in place to require equitable behavior. But I think what we've seen over decades of having those policies in place, but not really a change in representation, is that the policy needs to be a bit more ambitious, and assertive, and data driven.

It's ironic as a scientist that I'm saying, Why aren't the people in science looking at the data and using the data? Because they're not.

And then on the flip side, is culture change. Culture change is what affects whether or not policy actually has an effect on the ground. And the truth is that we know from our history, the history of science, that in fact, just like everyone else, we are influenced by social conventions and by stereotypes. So even though we do our best to be impartial, it's not entirely possible to do so unless you're aware of what's actually the structure in which you're making your decisions.

Now, you've recently launched this Canadian Black scientists network, how do you hope that that will help? The Canadian Black scientists network is aimed at doing things across several different levels. So on the one hand, for those of us already in science, it's providing connection and community that allow us to talk through, discuss, and strategize about how to change the challenges that we experience.

But more actively, we want to engage with the next generation of scientists. Our long term goals are to have a robust national level set of engagements with Black youth, not just in terms of them seeing that we, as Black people have succeeded in the sciences, but engaging and supporting their enjoyment of and recognition of the potential of being in science.

We want to engage with institutions with which they are interacting, to help them see the barriers that exist for Black youth currently going into science. And then we want to have visibility in terms of our interaction with policy makers. We need to address this at multiple levels, culture change, but also policy that has teeth and policy that is data driven.

So all of those things we're hoping to accomplish. Not Not Not a lot, just, just everything. It's funny, I'll, I was on Quarks and Quarks, and was described as an activist, a scientist and an activist.

And I have to say, it took me a while to sort of digest that. And I realized that I am an activist. And the reason I'm an activist now is that science and the university has made me so. Starting out, I would not have imagined this path for myself, I just wanted to do my science, just like white folks, just like folks who aren't Black. But after you spend decades, and you don't see change, and you send your 18 year old daughter who identifies as Black off to university, and you still haven't seen change, and you watch your 13 year old son growing up, and you look around and see the other young people, something has to change.

And I'm tired of waiting. So that has shaped some of what I'm doing. Like, sometimes it's tiring being the only, you know, person in the room.

I get it. Yeah, in fact, I could say one other thing briefly. Although it's good, I guess. I mean, so I've talked to colleagues about this. And many of us are now in academic administrative roles of various types. And a lot of us got into it, because we wanted to have a positive effect. And many of our universities really are engaging. But it's still the case that we can go through a whole day of meetings. And the only time we see other faces like ours at the table, is when the meeting is about equity, diversity and inclusion.

And that's just not right. Right, everyone needs to engage with these issues. So now, how do you think having more Black representation in science can help undo the harm of racism in society as a whole? I think for better or for worse, and maybe even more so now, during and post pandemic, people look to scientists, as authority figures in a variety of different ways. If you look at a particular group of people, like scientists who have all this authority, and knowledge, they're the ones at the front of the classroom.

They're the ones who are giving the briefings about the pandemic. And you never see people of a particular group there. You never see Black people, you start to think there's a deficit in those people, that means that they can never be at the front of the room.

So we need that to flip. We need that to change. When we see all sorts of different professions in which the representation of people in those professions reflects the people we see on the streets in Canada, then we know that we've reached sort of a milestone, right, where people are moving into these different areas as a function of their abilities and interests, not as a function of their ability to wriggle through a filter that that is designed to keep them out.

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