The vile history of racial injustice in America has unveiled itself once more through the stories of police brutality and protests currently flooding the news and social media. As an African American woman and PhD student, this is something that has an impact on my life in many ways. I know that a change is gonna come, but for underrepresented students in the geosciences it hasn’t in 40 years.
I have a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Engineering, a Master’s of Science in Environment & Resources, and I currently conduct research in Atmospheric Science while working towards a PhD in Freshwater & Marine Science in Wisconsin. As you can probably guess, getting to this point hasn’t exactly been a breeze. On my way to getting here, people would try to dissuade me from pursuing a higher degree. In fact some of my former mentors appeared shell-shocked or angry when I told them the good news that I was going to grad school! These were the people who I thought would be most excited to see me progressing in my education. It was like they were rooting for me, but only so long as I stayed where they expected me to be.
As a person of color in academia you won’t always experience up-front racism. Instead, you’ll get the “are you lost?” while in your own work building from white researchers who think you don’t belong. Or you’ll get the dreaded “I don’t think I can sign off on that” from a mentor who chose to be less involved in your project when it’s the very last day of the semester, and you need to get credits for your work or even a signature on a defense warrant. You’ll find out there was an informal gathering at the bar every other week that everyone except you knew about. A coworker will insinuate you only got an award because you’re [insert minority group here]. Stories like these are plenty for Black people in academia.
Let’s take a look at who gets doctorate degrees in the three main geoscience subdisciplines, which are (1) Atmospheric Science and Meteorology (2) Geological and Earth Sciences and (3) Ocean/Marine Sciences. If you lump all underrepresented students into a singular category (American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx), it might look as though the number of doctorates going to those students took a massive leap from 2000 – 2015. Although Hispanic and Latinx students have had improved representation since 1990, much of this is because the group now makes up a more substantial percentage of the US population (157% larger). The inequity of PhD’s going to people of color still stands, with representation of underrepresented students seeing little change in the last 40 years, as highlighted in the article “No progress on diversity in 40 years” linked below.
“In 2016, only 6% of geoscience doctorates awarded to US citizens and permanent
residents went to students from underrepresented minorities, a group who made up 31% of the US population that year.” – Bernard & Cooperdock, in Nature Geoscience
It is important to highlight the lack of intersectionality in the geosciences as well. Intersectionality is the idea that some people are impacted by more than one discriminating factor – such as a PhD candidate who is both black and a woman like myself. Finding a black woman in the geosciences in exceptionally difficult. Between 1973 and 2016, less than 100 doctorates were awarded to Black women in all three geoscience subdisciplines put together.
Once the doctorate is earned, the struggle for inequality continues as black faculty are denied tenure or discriminated against by colleagues. You can read Black people’s stories by searching for the #BlackintheIvory hashtag online.
#BlackintheIvory My first day of work someone from the chemistry department physically blocked me from getting my mail in the faculty mailroom. Threatened to call the police because they thought I was a student trying to steal mail. Didn’t believe my faculty ID was real.
— Raven the Science Maven (@ravenscimaven) June 8, 2020
As American singer Sam Cooke serenaded amidst the Civil Rights Movement, it’s been a long time comin, but I know a change is gonna come. I hope this blog post was eye-opening for you and motivates you to be the change. For a list of Black civil rights causes to donate to, click here: https://linktr.ee/dragher
As always, Thanks for reading.
definearth 
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