It is the responsibility of those of us in privileged positions to act to end anti-Black racism in STEM and in our communities. The burden of change has too-often rested on the shoulders of our (very few) Black community members in academia.
What's Happening
We invite you to join a drop-in call to action on Zoom, 9:30-11 am, Wednesday, June 10, 2020 (please contact a member of the Astronomy or Physics departments or email us to get zoom info). We will discuss readings and actions centered on the #strike4blacklives #shutdownSTEM #shutdownacademia movement, initiated by our colleagues in particle physics (Particles for Justice: https://www.particlesforjustice.org/; ShutDownSTEM: https://www.shutdownstem.com/). This movement is calling for a day of rest for Black academics, and for non-Black academics to educate themselves on and act against anti-Black racism. To those of us who don’t see the racism in our academic community, we urge you to check out #BlackintheIvory on Twitter and listen to the Black voices that have been ignored for too long.
Many individuals and organizations are participating in and organizing events centered on Wednesday’s #strike4blacklives #shutdownSTEM #shutdownacademia, including AAAS (https://www.aaas.org/news/aaas-ceo-statement-shutdownstem-and-black-lives-matter) and arXiv (https://arxiv.org/).
Preparation
The Zoom meeting is informal, but we will have moderators from within our departments to help out if need be. Do you have a book or article you want to talk about or recommend? Do you want a recommendation on what to watch or listen to? Are there actions you want to advertise or solicit collaborators for? Do you want to act, but don’t know how? Do you want to brainstorm actionable items for our specific physics/astronomy context? Do you want to share ideas on how to contribute to the significant and sustained anti-racism effort we need? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes”, consider joining the call.
Rules
Because many people may not be used to or comfortable discussing issues around race, we ask everyone to follow ground rules for the meeting (modified from ones used in the Cal-Bridge program):
- We ask that you show respect to others and listen to what they have to say. Please pay attention to the power dynamics of the situation, along race, gender, career-stage, and other privilege lines.
- Please read about the Oops/Ouch method of responding to the hard situations when you feel like you might have said something hurtful, or if someone says something hurtful to you (https://www.diversityinclusioncenter.com/archives/ouch_files/Archives/Ouch_Vol5No1.html). Grant yourself and others grace in navigating difficult conversations.
We look forward to a productive and powerful discussion, and to the activities emerging from the discussion!
