Chapter 9Science, Technology, and the Future of African Am

Chapter 9
Science, Technology, and the
Future of African Americans
Science
The intellectual and practical activity
encompassing the systematic study of the
structure and behavior of the physical and
natural world through observation and
experiment.
Technology
The application of scientific knowledge for
practical purposes, especially in industry;
Machinery and equipment developed from the
application of scientific knowledge;
The branch or knowledge dealing with
engineering or applied science
Popular Culture is increasingly supplanting
science as the major purveyor of cultural

imagery, values, and interpretations of social
and physical phenomena.
It's not magic, it’s Science!
Science is the process and the body of knowledge that enables
us humans
to know nature. So far, it’s the best idea we’ve ever had.
Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” is an American mechanical
engineer, science
communicator, and television presenter
Receiving the Presidential Medal of
Freedom from Barack Obama at the
White House on 12 August 2009
Eddie Redmayne and Stephen Hawking at
the Theory of Everything feature film
premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square,
in December 2014.
Stephen Hawking floating in a zero-
gravity jet undertaking parabolic dips to
simulate space conditions over the
Atlantic.
The first episode in which theoretical physicist and

cosmologist Stephen Hawking guest-starred as
himself (1999).
Stephen Hawking
The pop idol turned science idol, Professor Brian Edward Cox is
a British physicist and professor of particle physics at the
University of Manchester. He is best recognized as the presenter
of science programs for the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC).
After presenting six programmes about physics, Prof Cox and
his TV mentor, BBC head of science Andrew Cohen, felt he
was ready to make a blockbuster series of his own. Wonders of
the Solar System established his mass appeal in 2010.
Today, after the airing of Wonders of the Universe, Wonders of
Life and Human Universe, and countless appearances on
other programmes he is the undisputed heir apparent to David
Attenborough as Britain’s premier presenter of science.
Science is too important not to be a part of popular culture.
— Brian Cox
neil
degrasse
tyson
The good thing about science is
that it’s true whether or not

you believe in it
Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2013
Integrating Science and Technology Studies
into African American Studies
S. E. Anderson has taught mathematics, science and Black
History courses at Queens College, Sarah Lawrence College,
SUNY
at Old Westbury College, Rutgers University and the New
School University as well as CCNY & Queens Colleges’ Centers
for
Worker Ed. He has also spent many years working within the
anti-apartheid movement and for various African Liberation
struggles. He is currently doing national and international
education consulting work with a particular focus on developing
Africa Diaspora’s Math and Science curriculum. He is also a
math/science/Black History consultant within the African
American education community from public schools to the
university.
“Blackfolk have to struggle against a double psych-barrier:
Science as
divine and mysterious, and science as non-black in the socio-
historical
sense.” He argues that
“Technological oppression and dependence blocks us from
developing
- Revolutionary black scientists,

- Scientific and technological alternatives, and
- Scientific education among the masses of blackfolk.”
‘Hidden Figures’ and the journey to celebrate
NASA’s black female pioneers
A portrait of a young Dorothy Vaughan.
Photo courtesy of Vaughan Family
Mary Jackson grew up in Hampton, Virginia and was a
teacher in Maryland before joining Langley Research Center
in 1951. She became NASA’s first black female engineer in
1958. Photo by NASA
Katherine Johnson, a NASA mathematician who calculated the
trajectories that launched the first Americans into space, at
Langley
Research Center in 1980. Her story features in Hidden Figures,
a book
and film about contributions made by African-American women
during
the early days of U.S. aeronautics. Photo by NASA
“I like to learn,” the mathematician told PEOPLE in 2016.
“That’s an art and a science. I’m always interested in
learning something new.”
Johnson went on to play a pivotal role in many of NASA’s first
space missions —performing trajectory analysis for

America’s first human spaceflight in 1961, and was also the
first woman in the Flight Research Division to get credit
as an author of a research report one year earlier.
One of her most memorable contributions, though, came in
1962, when Johnson helped crunch the numbers that
would control the trajectory for astronaut John Glenn (played by
Glen Powell in Hidden Figures) during his orbital
mission, making sure the IBM computer calculations were
correct.
“‘If [Katherine] says they’re good, then I’m ready to go,'”
Johnson recalled Glenn, who died in 2016 at the age of 95,
saying, according to her biography.
Before retiring from NASA in 1986, Johnson coauthored 26
research reports and worked on the Space Shuttle and
the Earth Resources Satellite, according to the agency. She also
received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from
President Barack Obama in 2015.
Lenneal Henderson is a distinguished professor emeritus of the
School of Public and International Affairs at the University of
Baltimore and an internationally recognized urban scholar who
has lectured and consulted on housing issues, energy
management, environmental policy and public management for
federal, state and local government and the corporate and
nonprofit sectors for more than 30 years. He is currently
Adjunct Professor of Government at the College of William and
Mary.

“Black participation in public technology must include
policy decisions, scientific and professional employment,
White collar and blue-collar employment and, where
necessary, legal and community action” and Henderson
insists that “…Blacks be involved in informed decisions
about the implications of technological developments.”
HBCU’s should focus their attention on
“reaching modern science of matter and
life” through the experiences of peoples of
African descent.
W.E.B. Du Bois (1933)
“The relationship between technological change and the
economic, social,
cultural, and political struggle of African American people is
the missing link
in the ‘history of African American history.’”
Abdul Alkalimat, (PhD, Sociology, University of Chicago),
Professor Emeritus of African-American studies and library and
information
science at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He
is the author of
several books, including Introduction to Afro-American Studies,
The African
American Experience in Cyberspace, and Malcolm X for
Beginners.

Impacts of
modern
science and
technology
on people of
African
descent???
Science, Technology, and the Oppression of
African Americans: Impacts and Exploitation of
African American Labor
The invention of the cotton gin (1794) led to the expansion
of Southern slave-based plantation system.
The invention of reapers, combines, and tractors
made the operation of small farms uneconomical
and led to the expulsion of huge numbers of
Black sharecroppers from farmlands. Those that
remained on the farm, were unable to acquire
enough capital for equitable participation in
industrialization.
The Negro and the Labor Unions
“Shall the labor unions use their influence to deprive the black

man
of his opportunity to labor… [or] unite with those who want to
give
every man, regardless of color, race or creed, what Colonel
Roosevelt calls the ‘square deal’ in the matters of labor?”
By Booker T. Washington (June 1913, The Atlantic)
Trade unions in the North excluded Blacks, and the
Depression largely eliminated independent Black artisans
and craftsmen.
5 Black-led Labor Unions:
❖ Black Sleeping Car Porters Union (est. 1925)
❖ Colored National Labor Union (est. 1869)
❖ National Domestic Worker’s Union (est. 1968, Atlanta)
❖ Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (est. 1972)
❖ American League of Colored Laborers (est. 1850)
Science, Technology, and the
Oppression of African Americans
Science, Technology, and the Oppression of
African Americans: Storm Damage
Blacks provide cheap labor and forced to live in areas most
prone to storm damage and
subject to the least well-designed technological applications to
prevent flooding and
related catastrophes.
Galveston, Texas (1900)
Hurricane killed 6,000 people exposed racial animosities
(Blacks falsely accused of stealing
jewelry from victims)

Mississippi (1927)
During “Great Flood,” Blacks rounded up into work camps, held
by armed guards, and
prevented from leaving as the waters rose. After flood, city
leaders intentionally flooded
areas and reneged on promises to compensate those w hose
homes were destroyed.
Hurricane Katrina (New Orleans, 2005)
Blacks re-located to the Superdome, which was inadequate and
ill-
prepared to accommodate 1000s of Blacks seeking shelter
during
and after storm. Blacks were also accused of looting.
Hurricane Katrina was a large and destructive Category 5
Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125
billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of
New Orleans and the surrounding areas.
Flooding, caused largely as a result of fatal engineering flaws in
the flood protection system (levees) around the city of
New Orleans, precipitated most of the loss of lives. Eventually,
80% of the city, as well as large tracts of neighboring
parishes, were inundated for weeks.
Hurricane Katrina was the largest and 3rd strongest hurricane

ever recorded to make landfall in the US.
In New Orleans, the levees were designed for Category 3, but
Katrina peaked at a Category 5 hurricane, with winds up
to 175 mph.
96,000 fewer African-Americans are living in New Orleans now
than prior to Hurricane Katrina. Nearly 1 in 3 black
residents have not returned to the city after the storm.
Most shocking is the Lower Ninth Ward, where the average
resident was living on $16,000 a year before the hurricane.
You can still drive blocks there and not see a single home. The
neighborhood is still missing more than half its pre-
Katrina population.
The Lower Ninth Ward is a shell of its former self, with fewer
homes and fewer
people. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
Lakeview, a prosperous white neighborhood on the east side
that also suffered
catastrophic flooding, looks better than it did before the storm
because of all the new
homes and businesses.
New Orleans’s economy is in many respects stronger today than
it was the day before the levees broke.
Yet the city’s remarkable recovery has, to a troubling degree,
left behind the African-Americans who still

make up the majority of its population. Black New Orleanians
are less likely to be working than when the
storm hit in 2005 and are more likely to be living in poverty.
Black household incomes, adjusted for
inflation, have fallen. And the earnings gap between black and
white residents has grown.
Fully 74% of blacks said they felt depressed by what had
happened to areas affected by the hurricane;
nearly as many (71%) felt angry. Fewer whites experienced such
strong emotions – 55% said they had
been depressed and 46% angry.
Aug 27, 2015
Science, Technology and the Oppression of African
Americans:
Segregation and Social Control
Long-standing tradition in America of using technology and
public policy to control residential options
available to African Americans
Segregation and Social Control

Gentrification (movement of middle-class Whites into central
city areas) is occurring in
many cities leading, in time, to Black displacement.
The withdrawal of federal support for low- and moderate-
income housing created
massive unmet housing need and persistent underdevelopment
in many inner-city areas
Broader pattern of racial segregation in cities creates an
environment in which most
Blacks have a high probability of experiencing policy
discrimination and differential access
to the benefits of technology.
Racial Segregation and Surveillance
Segregation enables public
officials to enhance the
surveillance of both individuals
and groups.
Technology makes surveillance
increasingly intrusive and a
potential threat to privacy
rights.
Social acceptance due to
concerns about future terrorist
attacks
Cameras mounted on street
corners monitor innocent and
lawful activities related to hip

hop artists/rappers or peaceful
protests against racist policies,
war, etc,…. and Increase use of
house arrest and electronic
monitoring 24-hours/day
Racial Medical Experimentation
❖ Abuse and Exploitation
❖ Clinical Material (slaves provided “bodies” for American
medical
research and medical training)
❖ Involuntary (poor, uneducated and/or incarcerated Blacks)
❖ “Blame the Victim” (Blacks responsible for their own
illnesses,
need for experimental remedies)
❖ Tuskegee Experiment
❖ Institutionalized Racism and Apprehension (racial/genetic
differences produced different physiological effects)
❖ Genetics
(Sara) Saartjie Baartman (1789-1815)
She was derisively named the “Hottentot Venus” by Europeans
as her body would be publicly examined and exposed
inhumanly throughout the duration of her young life. Moreover.
her experience reinforced the already existing and
extremely negative sexual fascination with African women
bodies by the people of Europe.

Born in South Africa, she was sold into slavery to a trader
named Pieter Willem Cezar, who took her to Cape Town where
she became a domestic slave to his brother, Hendrik. On
October 29, 1810, although she could not read, 21-year-old
Baartman supposedly signed a contract with William Dunlop, a
physician, who was a friend of the Cezar brothers.
This contract required her to travel with the Cezar brothers and
Dunlop to England and Ireland where she would work as a
domestic servant since technically slavery had been abolished in
Great Britain. Additionally, she would be exhibited for
entertainment purposes. Baartman would receive a portion of
earnings from her exhibitions and would be allowed to
return to South Africa after five years. However, the contract
was false on all details and her enslavement continued for
the remainder of her life.
Baartman was first exhibited in London in the Egyptian Hall at
Piccadilly Circus on November 24, 1810. In September 1814,
after staying four years in Great Britain, Baartman was taken to
France and sold to S. Reaux, an exhibitor who showcased
animals. He put Baartman on public display in and around Paris,
often at the Palais Royal. He also allowed her to be
sexually abused by patrons willing to pay for her defilement.
Reaux garnered considerable profit due to the public’s
fascination with Baartman’s body.
Sara Saartjie Baartman died in Paris
on December 29, 1815 at the age of
26 for unknown reasons. Even after
her death, many of her body parts
would go on display at the Musée de
l’Homme (Museum of Man), in Paris

to support racist theories about
people of African ancestry. Some of
the body parts remained on display
until 1974.
In 1994 South African President
Nelson Mandela formally requested
that Baartman’s remains be returned
to South Africa. On March 6, 2002,
her remains were returned and
buried at Hankey in the Eastern Cape
Province.
https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-
history/baartman-sara-saartjie-1789-1815/
The Tuskegee Experiment
Experiment involved the deliberate denial of treatment for
syphilis to approximately four hundred African American
men and their families in the Tuskegee, Alabama, area from
1930 to 1970.
The experiment was conducted under the auspices of the Public
Health Service and had nothing to do with
“treatment.” No new drugs were tested, neither was any effort
made to establish the efficacy of old forms of
treatment. It was a non-therapeutic experiment, aimed at
compiling data on the spontaneous evolution of syphilis
on black males.
The Tuskegee Experiment has been one of many negative
experiences with medical, scientific, and technological
research that has contributed to tremendous apprehension
among African Americans about their use as guinea
pigs and the possibility of their being targets of genocidal

policies.
Many in African American community believe illnesses or
diseases like AIDS were created in a laboratory and
designed to annihilate people of African descent.
Variety of medications used to immobilize inmates and
subjugate “violent” or mentally ill African Americans
(including but not limited to anti-depressants, sedatives,
tranquilizers, and other powerful hypnotics)
Traditional African Technologies
The Struggle for Freedom
Food Production and Security
Households with children are more likely to be food insecure
than those without, although in more than half of these
households, only the adults were food insecure, because adults
typically choose to ensure their children eat even if it
means they go hungry.[9] Nevertheless, 5.3 million children
faced food insecurity themselves, and 361,000 children
suffered from very low food security in 2019.[10]

Households with children headed by a single woman are nearly
twice as likely as those headed by a single man to be
food insecure, though women living alone are at virtually equal
risk as men living alone. Black and Hispanic Americans
are much more likely to be food insecure than White Americans.
Read more:
https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/food-insecurity-
and-food-insufficiency-assessing-causes-and-historical-
trends/#ixzz7QxuD3lM5
Food Production and Security
Counties with the highest rates of food insecurity (top 10
percent) tend to be disproportionately rural and located in the
South. This is largely due to persistently high rates of
unemployment and poverty. Socioeconomic disparities exist in
other
parts of the country as well, but have a disproportionate impact
on people of color, especially African Americans. As a result,
food insecurity sheds light on systemic barriers caused by
structural and institutional racism and discrimination.
Prior to COVID-19, all 3,142 counties and
county equivalents and 436 congressional
districts in all 50 states were home to
people who struggled with hunger. The
percentage of the population estimated to
be food insecure in 2018 ranged from a low
of 3.6 percent in Burke County, North
Dakota up to 30.4 percent in Jefferson

County, Mississippi.
Locally, we estimate that food insecurity
will increase in every county, congressional
district, and state because of COVID-19.
States with the highest projected food
insecurity rates in 2020 are largely
consistent with rankings based on 2018
rates.
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was a scientist, an accomplished
pianist, and a world renowned inventor. He used his creative
and scientific mind to create hundreds of uses for peanuts that
greatly increased farming and contributed to the economy
in the South. In fact, Carver researched and invented 300
different uses for peanuts including:
❖ Food products: peanut lemon punch, chili sauce, caramel,
peanut sausage, mayonnaise and coffee.
❖ Cosmetics: face powder, shampoo, shaving cream and hand
lotion
❖ Other commercial products: insecticides, glue, charcoal,
rubber, nitroglycerine, plastics and axle grease.
❖ He also developed 100 consumer products from the sweet
potato and 75 from the pecan in an effort to generate
markets for these alternative crops
Information Technology and the “Digital Divide”

The new information and communications revolution
could easily bypass the minority communities of America.
“Failure to bridge the gap will relegate our sons and
daughters to sit in the backseat of the technology train on
the Information Superhighway.”
Rep. Maxine Walters (D-CA), 2000
Technology and Racial Health Disparities
Black-White health disparities have remained
virtually unchanged since 1960, despite
reduced gaps in housing, education, and
income.

TOPIC: Creating Your Professional Identity
Competency
· Determine the attributes that help form the professional
nurses’ identity.
· Apply principles of professional nursing identity and
professionalism.
Scenario
As a nursing student, you have a vision of your core values and
expectations as a professional nurse. In this assignment, create a
plan to guide you as you form your professional identity.
Instructions
This formation will include the following:
· Describe the meaning of nursing professionalism identity
· Identify the most important professional identity
characteristics/attributes
· Explain how you will adapt these characteristics/attributes in
the clinical setting
· Reflect on your educational journey and describe how this
shaped your professional identity.
· Create your goals for continued professional identity
formation during your career as a nurse.
· Provide stated ideas with professional language and attribution

for credible sources with correct APA citation, spelling, and
grammar.
THIS ASSIGNEMENT SHOULD BE IN A PAMPHLET
NO CONSIDERATION FOR PLAGIARISM
APA FORMAT AND INDEX CITATION
PLEASE WRITE FROM NURSING PERSPECTIVE
REFERENCE FOUR
DUE 9/2/2022 AT 10AM
MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW ALL STEPS WITH IN THE Rubric
Details TO GAIN FULL POINTS
· Professional Identity
undefined% of total grade
Mastery: Advanced or exceeds achievement
Thoroughly describes the meaning of nursing professionalism
identity. Thoroughly identifies the most important professional
identity characteristics /attributes.
20
Proficiency: Clear/effective achievement
Clearly describes the meaning of nursing professionalism
identity. Clearly identifies the most important professional
18.6
Competence: Adequate/basic achievement

Briefly describes the meaning of nursing professionalism
identity. Briefly identifies the most important professional
16.8
Emerging: Limited or growing achievement
Did not describe the meaning of nursing professionalism
identity. Did not identify the most important professional
13
· Professional Identity Attributes and Formation
Thoroughly explains how you will adapt these
characteristics/attributes in the clinical setting. Thoroughly
reflects on your educational journey and describe how this
shaped your professional identity. Thoroughly creates your
goals for continued professional identity formation during your
career as a nurse.
25
Clearly explains how you will adapt these
characteristics/attributes in the clinical setting. Clearly reflects
on your educational journey and describe how this shaped your
professional identity. Clearly creates your goals for continued
professional identity formation during your career as a nurse.
23.25
Briefly explains how you will adapt these
characteristics/attributes in the clinical setting. Briefly reflects
professional identity. Briefly creates your goals for continued
21
Does not explain how you will adapt these
characteristics/attributes in the clinical setting. Does not reflect

professional identity. Does not create your goals for continued
16.25
· Spelling and Grammar
Demonstrates an exemplary application of spelling and
grammar.
5
Displays proper grammar application and writing contains
minimal to no spelling errors. May contain rare improper uses
of words (ex., their vs. there), a misplaced modifier, or a run-on
sentence, but does not detract from the overall understanding of
the sentence and/or paragraph.
4.65
Spelling and grammar errors occur but are inconsistent.
Paragraphs and sentences are coherent but may exhibit spelling
errors, run-on’s or fragments, and/or improper verb tense usage.
4.2
Spelling and grammar contain substantial errors that makes
sentences and/or paragraphs incoherent.
3.25
Instructions
Referring to the course materials for Chapter 9, what are some
of the major STEM and Health Disparities in African American
communities? (Please be very specific in your references to the
course materials.) Why do these disparities exist? In thinking

about your health care and medical history (family and
individual), do these disparities influence your attitudes about
science, technology, and health care in America? How and why?
(When was the last time that you had a doctor's visit or check
up? Do you trust America's doctors, researchers, and scientists
to give you the right information? Do you think that it is best to
trust only doctors, researchers, and scientists that are of the
same ethnic group(s) and/or gender as you are? Why? Would
you (or, have you in the past participated) participate in a
medical research study if it would cure or improve treatment for
a particular disease or medical condition? Why or why not?)

Chapter 9Science, Technology, and the Future of African Am

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Chapter 9Science, Technology, and the Future of African Am