New anti-racist movements on social media are upending the status quo for diversity and inclusion in academia

Last Wednesday, nearly six thousand academics participated formally in a strike for Black lives, which tracked on Twitter with the hashtags #STRIKE4BLACKLIVES, #STRIKEFORBLACKLIVES, #SHUTDOWNACADEMIA and #SHUTDOWNSTEM. Participants stopped their academic work for the day in order to take action in support of ending anti-Black racism, such as by joining a protest, self-educating, and strategizing with colleagues about combating systemic racism in their institutions.

The action was led in part by the Particles for Justice, an international group of physicists that formed in 2018 to address sexism within academia. The group first came together in response to a talk delivered at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland by the Italian particle theorist Alessandro Strumi, who argued that women are underrepresented in physics because they are less capable. The Particles for Justice members denounced and refuted Strumia's arguments in a statement that was signed by hundreds of scientists. Since then, the consensus-based, non-hierarchical group has maintained an active association through online forums.

Following the homicide of George Floyd, the group began discussing how they might support the fight against systemic racism in academia and quickly agreed on the concept of the strike. "It wouldn't make sense for us to just stand in solidarity when we have so many problems with anti-Black racism in our field. We need to do more than that," said Dr. Graham White (PhD), a postdoctoral research associate at TRIUMF in Vancouver and a member of Particles for Justice, speaking with Research Money.

"At that time, there were a lot of these statements from different institutes, organizations and scientific platforms, but in a sense, they were quite hollow. They weren't introspective. It arose out of that feeling that there's so much we should still do, and why is there no recognition of that?" said Dr. Djuna Croon (PhD), also a postdoctoral research associate at TRIUMF.

Working in consort with VanguardSTEM, a monthly web-series featuring conversations between women of color in STEM, and the organizers of #SHUTDOWNSTEM, the strike was developed, promoted and launched within just nine days of its conception.

Particles for Justice published a call to action, which states that “as physicists, we believe an academic strike is urgently needed: to hit pause, to give Black academics a break and to give others an opportunity to reflect on their own complicity in anti-Black racism in academia and their local and global communities.”

Several prominent science journals joined in the action, including Nature, whose editors acknowledged in a statement, “We also recognize that Nature is one of the white institutions that is responsible for bias in research and scholarship, and that we must strive harder to correct those injustices and amplify marginalized voices.” Research Money suspended our usual publication of the Innovation This Week e-bulletin in order to participate.

Racism in the Ivory Tower

The #STRIKEFORBLACKLIVES coincided with the emergence of another galvanizing hashtag on Twitter, #BLACKINTHEIVORY. While conversing recently about their experiences with anti-Black racism in higher education, American academics Joy Melody Woods and Dr. Shardé M. Davis (PhD) — a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, and an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut — introduced the hashtag just over two weeks ago. Since then, it has garnered tens of thousands of tweets by Black academics describing their experiences with anti-Black racism in academia.

When I told my medical school appointed advisor that I was in my second term of being our medical school class president- "It's so hard being a white male in medicine now that they are giving away our leadership spots to people like you" #BlackintheIvory

— Maria Uloko MD (@MariaUloko) June 8, 2020

#BlackintheIvory I was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer in my masters program. I took a summer class to try and stay on track, had a double mastectomy and was on lots of pain meds, I requested an extension on an assignment and was told that I should have planned better

— Ericka Hart (She/ They) (@iHartEricka) June 8, 2020

"Oh you got NSERC! That's great man! I guess they must be easier for black people to get?"

Having someone casually say this to me after getting a PhD NSERC was crushing

"Come on you know I'm just joking" was the inevitable response when I called them on it#BlackintheIvory

— Peter Soroye (@PeterSoroye) June 8, 2020

#BlackintheIvory is being Schrodinger's minority: Simultaneously "taking all the jobs" while still being incredibly underrepresented across the STEM fields.

— Shane Campbell-Staton, Ph.D. (@SCampbellstaton) June 10, 2020

#BlackInTheIvory is knowing you could share your story, but you remember you are working really hard for tenure and do not want any backlash. So you click the hashtag, read the stories, silence yourself, and promise that you’ll come back to this in 3 years (protected & promoted).

— Joshua Childs (@jaycee43public) June 9, 2020

Taking meaningful action

In their call to action, the Particles for Justice are clear that they don’t want more ”diversity and inclusion talks and seminars”; rather, they are ”calling for every member of the community to commit to taking actions that will change the material circumstances of how Black lives are lived -- to work toward ending the white supremacy that not only snuffs out Black physicist dreams but destroys whole Black lives.”

"Tokenism creates the worst of all possible worlds," says White. "There are incentives for individuals and institutions to broadcast their support of diversity... but you get this perverse situation where it looks like so much is being done and there's real progress, and [even though] there's actually so little being done, it can cause more pushback." That is, loud support for diversity without meaningful follow-through exacerbates racist opposition from white academics who feel disadvantaged by diverse hiring practices, without actually gaining ground for Black, Indigenous and people of color in academia — all consequences, few real benefits.

Diversity and inclusion efforts can have the opposite effect in another sense too, by imposing a "Minority Tax" on underrepresented communities to continually serve on recruitment pamphlets, panels and diversity committees, and thereby carry the burden of changing their institution's systemic issues.

you ever just... completely snap on your dean at the suggestion of joining another committee...? just me?#BlackInTheIvory pic.twitter.com/QFGYVUoc4a

— Lissa Reed (@AlissandraReed) June 12, 2020

"Actually engaging with diversity and inclusion in a way that I think would work costs a lot more effort than what is happening now," says Croon. "It's also something that can't be done at one time. It's a continuous effort." That effort should focus not just on diverse hiring but on retention as well.

“Committing to increasing diversity” by bringing in more Black students, faculty, and staff does nothing if you’re not dismantling white supremacy and building the structures of support to *retain* those folks once they arrive on your campus #BlackintheIvory

— Ana Rosado (@CarminRosado) June 14, 2020

The #SHUTDOWNSTEM thread included suggestions by Black academics about ways that individuals and institutions can do more to combat systemic racism. One way to avoid tokenism and to take meaningful action is to amplify Black voices.

Cite black scientists. Invite us to talk about our science. Don't make us the face of your inclusion and diversity committees. Don't ask us to build solutions. Learn to say our names correctly. Give us credit. Support our mental health. #ShutDownSTEM #StrikeforBlackLives

— Sandra Boitumelo Phoma (@Sandra_Phoma) June 10, 2020

For more information about moving from performative to genuine support for Black, Indigenous and people of color in academia, Particles for Justice and ShutDownSTEM have provided lists of resources, here and here.

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