Spread This Like Wildfire!

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There has been no shortage of controversies surrounding citation practices in research, and in May 2022, the scientific community became embroiled in one of the more heated citation-related scandals in recent memory. After an avowed white supremacist massacred ten people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, it came to light that the shooter had released a 180-page screed referencing dozens of scientific studies as evidence for “race realism” and the supposed intellectual and cultural inferiority of the Black community he targeted. This sparked a deluge of commentary from scientists, who roundly excoriated the shooter’s flawed interpretations of the research he cited. Major academic societies and consortia released statements underlining their commitment to liberal values, including how modern genetics research is fundamentally incompatible with racist interpretations. Above all, scientists grappled with the question of what should be done to address their unwitting role in perpetuating racist violence. The prevailing sentiment—that the scientific community must “recognize and address the racist use of genetic research…[and] take an active role in fighting white supremacy”https://elsihub.org/news/cera-statement-against-weaponization-genetic-research. " title>¹—was repeatedly presented as a destination...