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This past Thursday, Sophie B. and I co-led a lab meeting discussion about race and racism in academia with our labs (Kotanen, Johnson and Wagner). Prior to the discussion, we were nervous but excited; now, following the discussion, we are sharing all the resources that we have gathered in hopes that it might be useful to others who want to lead a discussion. Note: Sophie and I contributed in equal parts research, writing and presenting, and, after encouragement from our supervisors, sought help from Equity & Diversity Office at UTM. None of the actual open discussion will be posted publicly without consent from the labs. Comments in green are side notes.
We have three main goals for the meeting, and alongside these goals, we have several agenda items.
Before we dive in, we have a disclaimer:
We, the discussion co-leaders, are not leading authority figures on diversity and race.
Diversity, race, and social issues are not our area of research. Although we didn't feel qualified to lead this discussion at first, we felt even more strongly that the discussion had to start.
Our perspective is narrow.
Our three labs are are not racially diverse, and we are largely focusing on race in the context of science.
We are nervous too.
We acknowledge that race is a hard topic to think and talk about.
We encourage you to do further research, attend equity, diversity and inclusion workshops and formal training, and seek professional advice to discuss traumatic events.
We are not professionals, we still have a lot to still learn.
Sophie and I decided to host this multi-lab meeting and discussion on race for several reasons. In May and June, the race-related tragedies and subsequent media coverage in the US and Canada were widely accessible, and we not only felt really upset, but also believed that it was the opportune time to do something. We thought that it would be worthwhile to spend an hour with our labs discussing race and racism. Throughout out research, we learned that being actively anti-racist is a lifelong task that involves, at the very least, talking about how race intersects with different aspects of our lives. Since race largely shapes academic life, we felt that an important first step is to start talking about it within our labs. Discussing race in higher education is important.
A lot of people believe that politics and science should not mix, and that some topics do not belong in scientific articles, journals or even on scientific Twitter. However, we are in the business of collecting data, and here the data doesn't lie. BIPOC people have been oppressed for centuries, have constantly been the victims of racism and police brutality, and are still being targeted in many, if not all, facets of society, including academia. A quote from a Scientific American article, "Silence Is Never Neutral; Neither Is Science", drives home this point:
"The pervasive silence on racism across science institutions is self-reinforcing; it creates a culture where talking about racism is actively discouraged and where Black, Latinx and Indigenous scientists cannot bring their whole selves to their work. It also means science may not even be asking the right questions in the first place."
We fear that we will say something offensive or incorrect, but if we do not try to talk about race, we cannot talk about race, and that will further perpetuate racism.
There are two sections to this goal: an individual activity and a presentation on anti-Black racism in academia. Before we begin, we want to present a quote by Shelly Tochluk from a "Witnessing Whiteness" workshop series that helped us get into a mental space appropriate for the activity: