The 1990s mark a significant turning point in Charles Wetli's career. By reflecting on Wetli's personal evolution, the chapter explores how Wetli testified on behalf of the Santeria church Lukumi Babalu Aye in a discrimination case against the City of Hialeah. Religious freedom was on the line in this case, which ended up in the US Supreme Court. By exploring the role of religion in the lives of Wetli and his associates, the author investigates the relationship between researchers and their subject matter. Even as Wetli distanced himself from the criminalization of Afro-Latiné religions, the chapter highlights the enduring impact and unintended consequences of Wetli's scholarly work. The author develops the concept of the “racial laboratory,” to show how White Western scientific knowledge crystallizes time-worn tropes of Black and Brown criminality into scientific “facts,” which then take on a life of their own.
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