Episode 90: How Western Media's False Binary Between "Science" and Indigenous Rights is Used to Erase Native People
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\\u201cScience and religion fight over Hawaii\'s highest point,\\u201d one CNN headline puts it. \\u201cDesecrating sacred land or finding new frontiers?\\u201d BBC asks. "Science, Interrupted: Mauna Kea Observatories \\u2018caught in the middle,\\u2019\\u201d Pacific Business News writes.
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When tensions arise between native communities and the so-called \\u201cpursuit of science,\\u201d more often than not Western media presents this point of conflict as a symmetrical and simplistic case of \\u201cscience vs. superstition.\\u201d Science is framed as a morally and politically neutral quest for truth\\u2013\\u2013an objective and innovative good that will unequivocally benefit humanity. But Western \\u201cscience\\u201d\\u2013\\u2013despite its rank-and-file advocates\' often best intentions\\u2013\\u2013 has historically been used as the public relations vanguard of colonialism and white supremacy. A Trojan Horse presented as ideologically neutral, followed by an outpouring of exploitation, industry and the erasure of native peoples\\u2013\\u2013both culturally and physically.
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While everyone can agree scientific research and progress are good things, the institution of \\u201cscience\\u201d as such\\u2013\\u2013from North America to Australia to Africa to Palestine-\\u2013has a long history of serving on the front lines of white, capitalist expansionism. This week we are going to discuss this history, how anti-colonial scientists are pushing back against these forces, and how we can expand human knowledge and understanding without weaponizing the enterprise to serve the interest of power.
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We\'re joined on this episode by Nick Estes, Assistant Professor in the American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico.
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