“Its Time to Pay”, Says DNA
Alondra Nelson is a genuinely brilliant and inspiring African American female. Her keynote speech touched on the remnants of colonial racism in science and tech industries. Because of this ghost in modern society Nelson speaks of utilizing the science of genealogy to reconcile the adverse effects of racial discrimination and implement a structure of morality in more institutions.
Since Alondra Nelson was one of her kind her perspective was steered toward women of color in the SciTech industry. She also focused on people of color during their civil rights movements. To support her position on using genealogy Nelson introduced multiple cases in which genealogy was used to get imperialist wrong doers to pay for their part in the power imbalance. One example would be the study of Venture Smith and his published genealogical record before it became a credible genre of science especially among African Americans. It was the family’s hope that the study of his body would bring forth healing and a learning experience. In another case Nelson brought up The Disappeared in Argentina and the mothers of these lost souls utilizing genealogy to investigate their cases and get reconciliation for their loved ones. In a third case Nelson brings up the African Burial Ground Project, which was basically the discovery of African slave remains excavated at a construction site in New York. The initial examination of these remains had lacked an interdisciplinary perspective that would have garnered better respect for the remains and possible extraction of genealogical evidence. But, after proper examination African Americans were able to lay claim to the remains and memorialize the site they were founded upon. This pleased some but others still did not find the memorial to be enough penance for the strife of African Americans. In the end, the hope of adopting genealogy in the future of African Americans is to restore our history, repay for our history and reunite what was broken throughout history.
Near the end of Alondra Nelson’s speech she spoke of a term called trans-scientific. A term which is defined as transcending science, asking questions of science which cannot be answered by science. Nelson’s speech and this term made me think of Banu Subramaniam and her book, Ghost Stories for Darwin. Both of these women spoke of conducting interdisciplinary studies to debunk the hegemonic exclusivity of the unsung, women and people of color in science. And in return, these scientific revelations will declutter the path to a future of inclusive, collaborative scientific practice and retribution through the implementation of institutional morality.
