Science & Anti-racism. Part 3.
If you’re still reading, great. This post will be short so please stick with it. But... the process after reading the post will definitely not be short, as you’re probably already aware. Deconstructing racism is a big job because so much of our World is built around upholding it. Be prepared to try, get it wrong, learn more, and try again.
So if many things about science and its history are racist, and if by being a part of ‘science’ without recognising and addressing its racism, you are complicit in upholding that racism, I guess that means we actually need to DO something. What would that look like?
So what can I do as a scientist / science communicator?
Have difficult conversations with your colleagues / labmates
Science will only change as a result of those working in it and outside it challenging each other (and science itself) to become more aware and more critical of it as a structure that reinforces inequality. So having difficult conversations is really important; both to open yourself up to critique from others, and to share your own awareness that science is problematic.
These conversations could take many different forms, depending on how woke the people that you work with are. Maybe for now, the maximum they will be able to absorb is a reflection on the fact that science is majoritively made up of white men. Sowing this seed can make way for more critical conversations later that explore the idea that if we recognise that the people who conduct the science aren’t representative, then the resulting science isn’t neutral, and therefore action needs to be taken to rectify this. Or maybe you don’t even need to start the conversations, maybe they are already happening, and you just need to engage in them, or show your support (in front of other workmates) to those that are doing the work of leading the conversation.
Centre the voices of People of Colour, but don’t outsource the work to them
Black and Minority Ethnic people need to be centred in conversations about racism and white supremacy. But centering voices is different to leaving the hard, and emotionally exhausting work entirely to People of Colour. If you are white and you feel that you don’t know enough about racism; rather than ask a Person of Colour to explain it to you, or expect them to take on the role of running a diversity workshop within your organisation (side note that this has happened to People of Colour I know and definitely does not fall into their job description) or to write your organisations’ new Inclusion policy, spend some time learning from the plethora of resources that already exist to educate yourself. It is emotionally exhausting for People of Colour to have to educate white people about racism. If you are white, there are many resources available online and in written / video format. You do not need to ask or challenge or play ‘devil’s advocate’ in conversations with People of Colour in order to learn, and you do not need them to go to the great personal cost of teaching you. Instead, do the learning before you engage.
Once you’ve started the never-ending learning process, this links quite clearly to the point above - don’t leave it entirely to the People of Colour in your organisation to talk up about racism. Educating yourself is useful so that you can actively contribute to challenging others in your workplace, supporting Black and Minority Ethnic colleagues, and thus help to relieve the emotional burden of those conversations on them.
Think about your audience (or the people who visit/read about your lab/work) - how diverse are they? If the answer is not at all, then think why that might be.
In the last post, I mentioned that lots of us in science / science engagement / communication care about making “science for everyone”, and as part of that we care about bringing science to a diverse audience. But maybe we don’t always think that critically about why our audience isn’t currently diverse.
Could it be because our programmes are exclusive or irrelevant?
Maybe the reason they are exclusive (even when we don’t want them to be) is because the people who work to put them together are dominant members of society and lack the understanding of what makes a meaningful programme for diverse audiences?
Or maybe it’s because the institution itself is unwelcoming to People of Colour (due to its history/politics/employees) and doesn’t do anything beyond running free events to remove these barriers?
The chances are, if your audience isn’t diverse then something about your organisation needs to change. Your audience is unlikely to change without some internal work or reflection.
Don’t hold grandiose sentiments that you are fighting racism ‘for’ anyone else.
As the Aboriginal Activists Group in Queensland said in the 1970s, and quoted by Renni Eddo Lodge in her podcast About Race, “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together”.
This is by no means everything, just a few thoughts. Critique is welcome, thank you for reading this series of blog posts. The following links might also be helpful: