I'm kind of an Afro-pessimist about black folks in science. What I've learned from the recent successes of women in breaking down barriers is nothing will happen if you don't have a critical mass of people. Black folks are spread thin. Programs often only let one or two in. 🧵👇
There aren't enough black folks in most scientific fields to build our own community, to demand respect for our norms, values and interests, and to create an organic self-sustaining pipeline of black scholars that exists outside of majority white institutional power.
One analogy I've used before is this. Imagine you're switching from fossil fuels to sustainable energy. Do you think that this could happen without a massive investment in providing subsidies for new businesses and building up the sustainable fuel infrastructure?
There obviously needs to be some attempt to mitigate the absolutely massive head start that the fossil fuel market has over the market for the alternatives. It requires an acknowledgement that one might have to operate at a loss for multiple years or even decades.
Why would it be any different when trying to increase the number of black students coming from an educational pipeline? We seem to think it will all just magically happen with a minimal cost effort. I fear that perspective is deeply misguided.
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