Population Health, School of Medicine and Population Health, University of Sheffield, UK.
Community Dent Health. 2024 Feb 29;41(1):70-74. doi: 10.1922/CDH_IADR24Lala06.
There are important calls for greater inclusion of Indigenous and racialised communities in oral microbiome research. This paper uses the concept of racial capitalism (the extractive continuity of colonialism) to critically examine this inclusion agenda. Racial capitalism explicitly links capitalist exploitations with wider social oppressions e.g., racisms, sexism, ableism. It is not confined to the commercial sector but pervades white institutions, including universities. By using the lens of racial capitalism, we find inclusion agendas allow white institutions to extract social and economic value from relations of race. Racially inclusive research is perceived as a social good, therefore, it attracts funding. Knowledge and treatments developed from research create immense value for universities and pharmaceutical companies with limited benefits for the communities themselves. Moreover, microbiome research tends to drift from conceptualisations that recognise it as something that is shaped by the social, including racisms, to one that is determined genetically and biologically. This location of problems within racialised bodies reinforces racial oppressions and allows companies to further profit from raciality. Inclusion in oral microbiome research must consider ways to mitigate racial capitalism. Researchers can be less extractive by using an anti-racism praxis framework. This includes working with communities to co-design studies, create safer spaces, giving marginalised communities the power to set and frame agendas, sharing research knowledges and treatments through accessible knowledge distributions, open publications, and open health technologies. Most importantly, inclusion agendas must not displace ambitions of the deeper anti-oppression social reforms needed to tackle health inequalities and create meaningful inclusion.
有重要呼吁要求在口腔微生物组研究中更多地纳入原住民和少数族裔社区。本文使用种族资本主义（殖民主义的掠夺性延续）的概念，批判性地审视这一包容议程。种族资本主义明确将资本主义剥削与更广泛的社会压迫（如种族主义、性别歧视、残疾歧视）联系起来。它不仅限于商业部门，而且渗透到包括大学在内的白人机构。通过使用种族资本主义的视角，我们发现包容议程允许白人机构从种族关系中获取社会和经济价值。种族包容的研究被视为一种社会公益，因此吸引了资金。从研究中开发的知识和治疗方法为大学和制药公司创造了巨大的价值，而对社区本身的利益有限。此外，微生物组研究往往从将其视为受社会因素（包括种族主义）塑造的概念转向认为其受遗传和生物学决定的概念。将问题定位在种族化的身体内，加剧了种族压迫，并使公司能够进一步从种族主义中获利。口腔微生物组研究中的包容必须考虑减轻种族资本主义的方法。研究人员可以通过使用反种族主义实践框架来减少剥削。这包括与社区合作共同设计研究、创造更安全的空间、赋予边缘化社区设定和制定议程的权力、通过可访问的知识传播、开放出版物和开放健康技术共享研究知识和治疗方法。最重要的是，包容议程绝不能取代解决健康不平等和实现有意义包容所需的更深入的反压迫社会改革的雄心。
