In all the wonder about Obama’s inauguration (which is truly wonderful), I got to thinking about black representation in science. In the UK, it’s pretty poor.
I got interested in this issue after two years of teaching physics in West Africa (Guinea-Bissau, to be precise).I went out as a VSO volunteer; it was only when teaching science that I realised how white it was.
Anyway, a few years ago, I got involved with trying to do something about it. I wrote an article on the under-achievement of African-Caribbean boys in science for the Independent newspaper. I also interviewed a woman called Liz Rasekoala, who was trying to do something about this situation, for New Scientist. That, however, was in 2002 – I can’t find anything current going on in the UK.
There is much more black representation in science in the US – two people that spring immediately to mind are the physicist Clifford Johnson, and Neil de Grasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium. There is a site dedicated to black representation in science here, which can lead you to other sites, if you’re interested. And here's a blog entry from Cosmic Variance on the McNair program, which leads off to interesting things.
I’ve put the text of my interview with Rasekoala up on the site here today. It still makes interesting reading, I think. New Scientist had the guts to headline it “Science’s Racist Shame”, and called the lack of black representation “science’s guilty secret”, which I thought was pretty full-on.
Here’s a little taster:
“In western technological societies maths, science and technology have all been used to allow access to some people and to keep others out. The same tools were used to keep women out of positions of power and authority for centuries.”
Discuss, and enjoy! And I’d really like to know if there’s still any programmes in the UK dedicated to this issue.
Subscribe