7 Race and STS

Definition

What is “Race?” What deems us to be so different from each other? According to the National Human Genome Research Institute, “Race” is a social construct used to group and marginalize people based on physical appearances such as skin color, hair texture, and facial features, social factors, and cultural backgrounds (Race, (n.d.)). It is a human-invented term that is often used to divide people into groups that are often ranked as superior or inferior. Looking through the lens of Science and Technology, coming from a racial perspective can have a major impact on how so-called “superior” or “inferior” races are perceived in society and their roles in STS.

Challenges

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Relationship to STS

Here is where you will describe how your theory or concept directly relates to STS.

Examples

Here you will provide examples of this theory or concept as it relates to STS.

Race and STS within the world has been a missing voice upon history. Plenty of historical events that have occurred in history, have not heard the voice of people of different races. For example, Latin Americans are a major missing voice within modern history. The Latin Americans effect of science and technology within society, has not been seen to the fullest extent, as it is not written about much. It can be seen with many other individuals and cultures the importance of spreading their ideas and how these ideas have impacted society. It is the contribution of certain ideas and backgrounds that shape the world we live in today and have advanced technology in a positive light. Two examples of latin missing voices in history are the Great Depression and the Cold War, as major historical impacts on United States citizens. I want to look into how latins were impacted in the United States by these historical events.

Firstly, latins had a different impact from the Great Depression compared to other races but that was never stated in any textbook. I have found primary and secondary sources that explain how they were affected during this catastrophic event. The first article, “Tejana Radical: Emma Tenayuca and the San Antonio Labor Movement during the Great Depression,” focuses on hispanic Americans fighting for equality in the labor force. The article goes into how and what they fought for based on labor, as well as how the New Deal can help them. This article is reliable as it is a part of the Pacific Historical Review, and published by the University of California Press. This article contributes to STS, as it focuses on the Hispanic society, and how an event that occurred can change the work they were doing at said time. The hispanic Americans are the missing voice. Secondly, another example of this event was represented in “Framing Mexicans in Great Depression Editorials: Alien Riff-Raff to Heroes.” This article compares three different articles during the Great Depression. One sees Mexican immigrants as harmful to society, the other sees them as the hero, and the third a Spanish based one that represents immigrants through their eyes. It was William Randolph Hearst, the San Antonio Express, and the La Prensa, respectively. This article is reliable as it was published by American Journalism. Immigrants from Mexico are the missing voice, and this relates the society of immigrants to the workforce during the depression.

Secondly, latins had a different impact from the Cold War as well. One main thing was the Cuban Missile Crisis, which had a major effect on all latins in the United States. Other examples such as, “The Hispanic Community of Nations: The Spanish-Argentine Nexus,” article focuses on what occurred in Latin America during the Cold War, and how communist ideas made its way there. It focuses on the Argentine Revolution, and how it would have impacted the rest of the world if it became the main fight. This takes the missing voice of Latin Americans and talks about how a war was occurring, and the technology/ science for the war to occur, during the Cold War. This is reliable as it comes from Open Edition Journals, and is in the Cahiers des Ameriques Latines. Secondly, another source that shows Latin Americans as the missing voice is “Tejas, Afuera De Mexico: Newspaper.” This article focuses on many different ideals, such as immigration to America, ethnic backgrounds and the early 1900s overall. This relates the missing voice of hispanic immigrants during the 1900s, and how they are affected by a depression, how they advanced past it. This article is reliable as it is in the Journal of American Ethnic History. Although this article does not focus fully on how the Latin Americans were impacted by the Cold War, it explains their ideologies, and what they believe in. As stated in the article, the hispanic immigrant had opinions about communism compared to the economic aspect of where they live now. As this goes on to show the missing voice of how a person growing up in this time, under hispanic descent, really felt during the Cold War or other historical events.

In conclusion, Latin Americans can relate Science and Technology in Society to Race, as the culture of Latin Americans are impacted throughout history. Latin Americans are impacted by science and technology throughout history, as events impact them either similarly to other groups of people or slightly different based on the economic display that is to occur from the event at hand. Within this section I focused on two examples in which Latin Americans were the missing voices in society, as they were still impacted by the science and technological advancements in the world. The first example that was focused on was how Latin Americans were impacted by the Great Depression. I wanted to look into how they as a different race in society were impacted by such an economical catastrophe. Secondly, I used the Cold War and Communism to demonstrate another way in which Latin Americans were impacted in the world. I wanted to show how this ideology impacted their beliefs as well as their actions within society. Overall, I wanted to show how Latin Americans were impacted by the science and technology within the world, and how throughout history they have been. I wanted to explain their voice as it is missing from these events as well.

Missing Voices

Here you will provide information about ways that voices may have been left out of the conversation about this theory or concept.

Throughout history we have heard a lot about how Science and Technology have impacted us as a society, brought about great advancements, and had harmful impacts on us. But as we know, most of what we deemed those affected by these impacts in society were mainly targeted and focused on the White race. Throughout history many of these science and technological advancements have had impacts on not just the White race but on many other races we often never hear about in history books or scholarly articles. Thus deeming these races as “missing voices” in our world. Races such as the African American, Latin American, and so much more have had their greatest technology or science impacts left out of our education and history. Impacts of these technological advancements on certain races have also been mostly left out of our history.

Health equality is often a topic that has been discussed throughout history and is considered a critical topic of discussion in our society. However, when we think about all the great science and technology advancements within our medical field, some groups are often underrepresented, left out, biased against, and easily more susceptible to mass amounts of misinformation. It is important to get the voices and representation of all races when developing new scientific advancements to ensure that each race is treated equally. Unfortunately, in our medical field throughout history and even today, we still see many missing voices of certain races, which changes how these technological advancements and new medicinal techniques play a role. An article published by the Medical Care blog states that “At many times those who were of a different race other than the White race were often miscategorized” (Lines et al., 2022). American Indians, in particular, were frequently miscategorized in medical registries as White. Similarly, individuals who had multiple racial/ethnic identities and Indigenous people are often misidentified on death certificates (Lines et al., 2022). With people being misidentified on medical records, it makes it hard to represent those of a specific race in the medical field and make new science and technological advancements that cater to them, not just those who are of the White race. With being misidentified as White on medical records, these achievements still only cater to the White race, often overshadowing those who do help those of a different race and make it harder to make improvements for everybody. Thus leading races such as American Indians and individuals with multiple racial or ethnic identities to be deemed “missing voices” from our history and professional care.

Another example of missing voices of race within STS is the period during COVID-19. During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple people were being held in hospitals in severe conditions or dying due to the impacts of the virus. However, multiple scientific and technological advancements were coming to solve the issue. Even though these issues were being solved, it mainly only catered to the White population, and other races were still being harmed by it more and more every day. Looking at a more specific race, “Black and Latino populations were disproportionately affected during the COVID-19 pandemic due to multiple barriers to getting vaccinated, such as their limited resources, and socioeconomic background, as well as being the target of conspiracy theories, misleading news, rumors, and misinformation from social media” (Amazeen et al., 2023). Firstly, there was little to no data on how and why this pandemic was affecting the Latin American and African American populations. Because of the scarce data, finding a solution that could cater to them was more difficult. Large in part due to their being limited resources for those races to get the vaccinations needed. Another major impact that made it harder to collect data was that a lot of the information was mistrusted, but again that was due to there being many misleading news information and rumors spread. “Fueled by years of exploitation, manipulation, and discrimination, Black Americans have a high degree of distrust of healthcare facilities and institutions, which may make them vulnerable to scientific misinformation” (Amazeen et al., 2023). Underrepresentation in health outcomes ultimately led certain races to gain more mistrust in the system, pushing these races to become further hidden and missing voices in the process of finding solutions.

The media is another example that shows how certain races were and are missing from society. Throughout history, “it was white people who owned the camera and made the movies, white people who ran publishing companies, edited the newspaper and funded the research” (Hill & Brewster, 2023, p.1). Because of this, a lot of misconceptions and misrepresentations were spread about those of other races, showing just how missing their voices were in everyday things. Although in the past, a lot of that has carried over into today’s generations. Yes, in today’s society, things are different and other races are becoming more integrated in artificial publishing, movie making, and so much more; however, media use still leaves many voices hidden and overshadowed and often discriminated against. When it comes to the African American race in today’s television media when compared to the White race, “Black women often display Eurocentric features, like straight hair. On the other hand, black men are seen as unemployed, athletic, or entertainers” (Dixon et a., 2019). Leading society to believe these stereotypes and often discriminate against them. When portrayed in the news, “news media over-represent black criminality and exaggerate the notion that black belong to the undeserving poor class” (Dixon et al., 2019). On the other hand, it is not just the African-American race that the media portrays negatively in society. The Latino population is also affected by these issues by representing them in “hypersexualized roles and low occupational jobs as well as over-representing Latino criminality” (Dixon et al., 2019). Social media outlets often portray certain races negatively when they bring so many contributions to the science, technology, and society as a whole.

Overall, I wanted to discuss how certain races, such as the Latino population and African American population, are often represented harshly or not represented at all in our medical fields of society, as well as in our online world. It’s important to not let these races become “missing voices’ when in fact, they play a significant role in how our society functions.

Summary

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Chapter Questions

Type your questions here.

• Short Response: Can you make any connections to other events throughout history or current events in which Latino culture has influenced an outcome or response?

References

Amazeen, M. A., Vasquez, R. A., Krishna, A., Ji, Y. G., Su, C. C., & Cummings, J. J. (2023). Missing voices: Examining how misinformation-susceptible individuals from underrepresented communities engage, perceive, and combat science misinformation. Science Communication, 46(1), 3–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/10755470231217536

Dixon, T. L., Weeks, K. R., & Smith, M. A. (2019, May 23). Media Constructions of culture, race, and ethnicity. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. https://oxfordre.com/communication/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-502

Domínguez, Jorge. “Latinos and U.S. Foreign Policy.” Latino Impact on U.S. Immigration and Foreign Policy, 26959053, 2007. EBSCO, web-s-ebscohost-com.libproxy.clemson.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=8&sid=aa38d8a2-4a9f-4872-87db-c64c18169c3b%40redis.

“Framing Mexicans in Great Depression Editorials: Alien Riff-Raff to Heroes.” Taylor & Francis,

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08821127.2016.1275216.

Gunnar Kressel, Daniel. “The Hispanic Community of Nations: The Spanish-Argentine

Nexus and …” Cahiers Des Amériques Latines, Institut Des Hautes Études De L’Amérique Latine, 25 Feb. 2016, https://journals.openedition.org/cal/3669.

Hill, M. L., & Brewster, T. (2023). Seen and unseen: Technology, social media, and the fight for racial justice. Atria Paperback. pp. 1-2.

Lines, L. M., Humphrey, J. L., & Barch, D. H. (2022). Imputing race and ethnicity. Medical Care, 60(5), 351–356.  https://doi.org/10.1097/mlr.0000000000001717

Race. Genome.gov. (n.d.). https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Race

Tejas, Afuera De México: Newspapers, the Mexican …

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerethnhist.40.2.0052.

Vargas, Zaragos. “Tejana Radical: Emma Tenayuca and the San Antonio Labor Movement

during the Great Depression.” Pacific Historical Review, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3642237.