> Ultimately, the discourse about the quantum gravity model of string theory provides an example of how white supremacist racial prestige asymmetry produces an antiempiricist epistemic practice among physicists, white empiricism. In string theory, we find an example wherein extremely speculative ideas that require abandoning the empiricist core of the scientific method and which are endorsed by white scientists are taken more seriously than the idea that Black women are competent observers of their own experiences. In practice, invalidating Black women's standpoint is an antiempirical disposal of data, in essence turning white supremacist social structures into an epistemic practice in science. Therefore, while traditionally defined empiricism is the stated practice of scientists, white empiricism -- where speculative white, male testimony is more highly valued than reality-based testimony from Black women -- is the actual practice of scientists.
> Quantum chromodynamics is a colorful name for a theory that uses color as an analogy for physical properties that have nothing to do with color. Unfortunately, QCD came of age in a time when Black people were still using a moniker given to us by white people -- "colored" -- and to this day, textbooks still sometimes call it "colored physics". A Black feminist physicist working in the 1960s would never have used this language, which -- though it lacks the same social meaning -- recalls for me the Third Reich-era phrase "Aryan physics"... What I'm saying is, I love the idea of QCD, but the language is a hot mess.
> Black thought can help us free science from the white supremacist traditions of scientists.