Psychopathology and Structural Dehumanization of Blackness: The “Silent” Scandal of Science

Since the institutionalization of racism and European colonial and imperial expansion activities, every conceivable effort was made to explain White racial dominance as well as justify the unequal treatment of Blacks and Indigenous people in Canada and the United States. Science offered to explain what religion previously failed to do: what it means to be a Black and an Indigenous person and remain human? Science collaborated with the cultural politics to portray Black and Indigenous peoples as less of a human and therefore deserved to be treated differently. For Blacks and Indigenous communities, science became the weapon of our destruction and not the sword of our protection. This chapter shows historical and contemporary examples to explain why Black and Indigenous communities remain distrustful of science. This chapter shows that the field of science has a lot to do to reconcile with the Black community and Indigenous communities.