The prestigious British scientific journal Nature suspended its publications for one day on Wednesday, joining academics and scientific organizations which have put their activity on hold in the name of the fight against racism after the death of George Floyd.
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" Nature opposes all forms of racism and we join others around the world to say unequivocally 'Black Lives matter' ", says the journal in a form editorial of mea culpa, published on his site. “ We recognize that Nature is one of the white institutions responsible for bias in research and scholarship. The world of scientific research has been - and remains - an accomplice of systemic racism, and must do more to correct these injustices and amplify marginalized voices , "says the editorial.
The scientific journal thus joins the movement called #ShutDownStem launched within American universities and scientific organizations and will publish on Wednesday " only the contents which are directly relevant to support blacks in universities and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics, note) ".
" As members of the global academic community and STEM, we have the enormous ethical obligation to stop acting 'as if nothing had happened', " reads the movement's website. American research.
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“ Our research documents are transformed into press releases, books and laws that reinforce anti-black narratives. In the STEM field, we are creating technologies that affect all parts of our society and that are regularly used as weapons against blacks, ”add activists from #ShutDownStem.
The journal Nature also announces a commitment to produce a special issue " which will explore systemic racism in research, research policy and publishing - including the journal Nature ".
