Community-Based Research Can Be a Tool in the Fight Against Structural Racism

This Article suggests that doing non-extractive research, what some have called liberation science,7 involves transformation starting from the earliest stages of the research process to upend implicit hierarchies of knowledge and power. Part I of this Article explains the concept of wicked problems and documents the embedded wicked problem of structural racism. Part II focuses on decision makers like scientists and lawyers, showing how their actions are enmeshed in this wicked problem and how that reality limits the effectiveness of their actions. Part III begins to describe how we might do things differently. Drawing from medicine, public health, and law, this part offers examples of research that defies the conventional parameters of academic research and shows how research can be a tool for surfacing and addressing structural racism. Part IV concludes with some thoughts about how these principles can be incorporated into legal and medical education.