Sunday, June 14, 2020
By:
[The views expressed in this post are mine alone. They do not reflect the views of SPS, HSST, or Pomona College]
Today marks the end of Week 2. I feel like I’m growing more accustomed to the rhythm and flow of remote work now -- at the very least I’m more used to attending webinars, taking notes, and drafting memos. A couple highlights from this week in particular: I got to attend a virtual conference on flood mitigation and disaster management, a topic I knew little about beforehand but one that I now find critically important, particularly as a pressing example of human-impact issues that are directly exacerbated by climate change.
Additionally, the first issue of our House Science Space and Technology intern newsletter went out at the end of the week, and I for one think it’s a pretty cool first issue. My memo focused on impacts of the loop current on hurricane intensification (I encourage anyone with an interest in physics relating to oceanography to check it out). Our topics were all relevant to different subcommittees, and I’m finding that such diversity in interests among my fellow interns in the committee office is a great way to gain policy insight into different scientific fields.
To shift gears a bit, I recognize that the purpose of this blog is to document our summer internship experiences; however, by necessity those experiences are shaped by current events. As a result, I want to spend some of this post addressing the events that have come to the fore in our country over the last several weeks, namely the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests from the Black Lives Matter movement. The current demonstrations have reminded us that systemic racism is manifested at so many levels within our society. For those of us who have been privileged enough not to face discrimination be it explicit or implicit based on our race, the past few weeks have consisted of much introspection to both recognize that privilege, and more importantly, seek out ways to support Black members of our communities, both at the individual and institutional level.
The depths to which race and racism in our country can and should be discussed and addressed transcend anything that could be written in a blog post. One area I would like to highlight as it pertains to our roles as SPS interns, however, is the experience of Black students in physics, and more broadly in all STEM fields. Physics is a historically homogeneous, white-male dominated field, a trend that is acknowledged and even highlighted by studies from APS. While this trend is common in most STEM disciplines, the lack of representation of Black students in physics specifically, at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level, has remained noticeably low over the last twenty years.
My guess is, the existence of racial and gender disparities in physics and the sciences in general hardly comes as a surprise to someone reading this post. I think most would agree that acknowledging the issue of racial disparities and barriers in secondary and higher education is important, but should ultimately be combined with strategies to address the problem. I say strategies instead of solutions here because I think it’s important to recognize that these problems are not resolved with any single adjustment or action.
Racial disparities in our K-12 education system would suggest that systemic interventions should occur long before high school, let alone college. I absolutely think this is true. At the college level though, I still feel we can do more within our respective institutions to support our Black peers. As college students, we have an opportunity now, when people are receptive, to communicate with each other and with faculty about changes we can make in our respective departments to initiate those changes. I have felt encouraged this past week by the actions of my peers in our physics and astronomy department who have organized virtual town halls and interdepartmental reading groups to discuss concrete measures we can take in this endeavor, including but not limited to highlighting the work of Black scientists past and present, increasing engagement with Black student groups on campus, and exploring ways to further incorporate awareness of issues surrounding race, implicit bias, and stereotype threat more extensively into our curriculum. Whatever the measures, I think it is important that both faculty and students are able to take ownership of these initiatives, and thus far it has been encouraging to see high levels of participation from the two.
I should add that I do not mean to suggest that such efforts in our department are the only or best way to address the issue of race and systemic challenges faced specifically by Black students in the sciences. I also do not claim in any way to be an expert on racial barriers in physics, academia, or otherwise; there are others, including some of my fellow interns, who can speak to these issues more eloquently than I, and I encourage you to read their posts if you haven’t already. Yet I write this acknowledging the fact that I am continuing to learn about these topics and will more than likely make mistakes along the way; I encourage those in a similar situation to view those instances as an uncomfortable learning opportunity, not as a deterrent to engagement.
Finally, my motivation to write this particular blog post stems in part from the belief that it is easy to engage with social movements when they first arise and are pervasive in the news cycle and social media feeds. However, enacting widespread, institutional change often requires long-term engagement, and all too often such engagement tends to peter out before concrete, lasting change is implemented. My hope is two-fold: first, that my fellow students reading this now might feel empowered (not by this single post necessarily, but by the sheer volume of similar ones) to actively look for ways to implement changes to better support underrepresented minorities in institutions around them. I used the example of physics and STEM disciplines in higher education here, but as I stated before, racism pervades all levels of society, and opportunities for action exist at each in turn. Many have found their voices on issues of policing, public health, and education. I trust the reader to find theirs in their respective circumstances, if they haven’t already. Second, I have no idea what the status of the world will be like in a year. In addition to hoping that we are no longer in a pandemic, I hope that the trend is broken, that we do have concrete change to better support Black members of our community by that time. Yet no matter the progress, I am confident that more will need to be done. As a result, my final hope is that future readers, perhaps even next year’s interns, might see this as a reminder of this time, and the potential they have to continue that work.
A physics pun feels inappropriate for this post given the content and circumstances, so to readers present and future: stay curious, stay thoughtful, and stay active.
-Paul
Paul McKinley