Racial Biofutures: COVID-19 and Black Futurity Otherwise.

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Critical Race Theory
• Bioethics

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted existing racial inequalities and their impact on future health outcomes.
• Sociological analysis often relies on recursive patterns, leading to predictable and often negative future projections for marginalized groups.
• Existing frameworks struggle to move beyond identifying repetitive cycles of racial disadvantage.

Purpose of the Study:

• To challenge conventional sociological approaches to understanding racial biofutures.
• To critique the limitations of recursive analysis in predicting and addressing racial inequities.
• To advocate for a shift towards prioritizing and amplifying present-day efforts that create alternative, equitable futures.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of sociological theories and racial biofutures.
• Critique of recursive logic in social science research.
• Examination of COVID-19 as a case study for understanding racialized precarity.

Main Results:

• Viewing racial biofutures through a lens of recursivity perpetuates predictable, precarious outcomes, particularly for Black communities.
• Identifying these repetitions (a "recursive trap") is insufficient analytically and politically.
• Sociology must actively engage with and elevate practices that actively construct "alternative futurity" in the present.

Conclusions:

• Sociological approaches to racial biofutures must move beyond recursive analysis to avoid reproducing harmful patterns.
• Prioritizing present-day practices and voices that actively create equitable futures is essential.
• A proactive, generative approach is needed to dismantle systemic inequities and foster genuinely different futures.