How scientific community is using #ShutDownSTEM to support Black Lives Matter movement
Thousands of societies, universities, publishers and researchers have vowed to #ShutDownAcademia, #ShutDownSTEM and #Strike4BlackLives on Wednesday in support of the Black Lives Matter movement triggered by the recent killing of George Floyd while in police custody.
The scientific community promised “no research, no meetings, no classes and no business as usual” to shine a bright light on what they say is the systemic racism that has always and continues to plague STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, as well as society at large.
Angela Saini, a British journalist of Indian descent, wrote in her book Superior: The Return of Race Science that intellectual racism is the “toxic little seed at the heart of academia. However dead you might think it is, it needs only a little water, and now it’s raining,” according to a blog in Scientific American.
Now, those behind the #ShutDownStem movement want to highlight how those in the scientific community can do better.
“Our responsibility starts with our role in society. In academia, our thoughts and words turn into new ways of knowing. Our research papers turn into media releases, books and legislation that reinforce anti-Black narratives. In STEM, we create technologies that affect every part of our society and are routinely weaponized against Black people,” the organizers of #ShutDownStem wrote on their website.
“Black academic and Black STEM professionals are hurting because they exist in and are attacked by institutional and systemic racism. Black people have been tirelessly working for change, alongside their Indigenous and People of Color allies.”
The movement calls for white and non-Black people of color to “not only educate themselves, but to define a detailed plan of action to carry forward,” the website said. Black academics should take time to “prioritize their needs — whether that is to rest, reflect or to act — without incurring additional cumulative disadvantage,” organizers said.
The pause in scientific work and publishing started when Particles for Justice, a group of physicists from across the country organizing under #Strike4BlackLives, joined forces with a separate group of astronomers and biologists working under #ShutDownStem, Science Magazine reported.
There are nearly 6,000 individual “pledge strike participants” as of noon Wednesday, according to the Particles for Justice website.
“We recognize that our academic institutions and research collaborations — despite big talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion — have ultimately failed Black people,” the group wrote. “Demands for justice have been met with gradualism and tokenism, as well as diversity and inclusion initiatives that — while sometimes well-intentioned — have had little meaningful impact on the lived experiences of Black students, staff, researchers, and faculty.”
A third group operating under #VanguardSTEM — an online network empowering women of color to work in STEM — also joined the other organizers, together coming up with today’s planned movement.
Racism in academia
A 2018 survey revealed that 84% of Black people in STEM said racial and ethnic diversity in the workplace is extremely or very important compared to 49% of white people in STEM, the Pew Research Center said.
Science itself has been influenced by racial bias in funding decisions, study participants and general claims about the biology and health of Black people, experts say.
Researchers have long claimed that Black Americans suffer more from hypertension than people of other races because it’s in their genes, however environmental factors such as stress and poverty resulting from discrimination are actually to blame, Saini writes in her book, according to the Scientific American blog.
Black people are also not offered equal opportunities when it comes to being accepted into academic programs or positions. Live Science Editor-in-Chief Jeanna Bryner wrote about a “striking, disappointing” fact she recently learned.
“Harvard University’s astronomy department has graduated 425 Ph.D.s since 1925. How many of those degrees were awarded to Black astronomers? One,” Bryner said.
“Acknowledgement of these numbers (and the discomfort they bring to me and I think many other white individuals) has come only after the latest killing of a Black person at the hands of a police officer.”
Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died after a now-fired Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than 8 minutes, sparking protests across the U.S. and beyond. That officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
#ShutDownStem organizers have therefore advised federal agencies, and research leaders receiving funding, to “examine, critique and change the demographics of who receives funding.”
“Federal laws require that we do not discriminate on the bases of race, yet the only people who continuously receive funding, or are selected as PIs of missions, are usually white people,” the organizers wrote.
They suggest discussing articles about racism at meetings, hiring criteria and to check in on how people are doing.
“Human-to-human connection — knowing names, faces and getting to know the people who are around us — is key to breaking down stereotypes.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 5:30 PM.
