Fighting for Racial Equity in STEM, Part I

WIS PDX and the Professional Development committee hosted a series of discussions in February focused on Racial Equity in STEM. One of the events was a Lunch and Learn panel discussion held on Feb 25th, 2021, led by a group of local scientists involved in organizations centered around racial equity, inclusiveness, mentoring, and diversity. Here’s a little recap of the topics discussed:Veronica Womack, Ph.D. started the discussion by sharing some of her background in multicultural studies along with a deep understanding of the psychology in identity formation and how she’s currently applying that knowledge to STEM, guiding mentors to structure more inclusive projects and curriculum to empower folks to understand systemic racism and liberate themselves even when faced with oppression.Letisha Wyatt, Ph.D., joined the conversation by introducing herself and sharing her life experience around getting a higher education. She also spoke about how important community-centered initiatives have become for her. Anita Randolph, Ph.D. shared some of her life experiences, from growing up in the South under her grandmother’s social activism influences, to her own struggles while pursuing higher education and how much she felt a need to build a community around racial equity, especially in academia. The moderator kicked off the discussion recognizing the movement around current efforts to dismantle systemic racism. She made the connection of how women, despite having access to science education, still struggle in terms of career retention and that folks of different races must struggle with a similar challenge. Antoinette Foster, Ph.D., the director of Community Transformation at OHSU, joined the conversation going straight to the point on identifying the root cause of the problem in racial equity: “it is fundamental to understand how systemic oppression works and what the drivers are”. She continued, “the underlying issue here is centered around patriarchal systems, white supremacy and colonialism and the oppression these systems generate in our society”. Understanding how they manifest in our lives is key to awareness and growth, including professional lives. The panelists go on to discuss what that looks like in terms of policies, accountability, and commitment to making these changes more concrete. Veronica added on how important it is to be able to integrate this approach of racial equity into the agenda in institutions, rather than having it be marginalized and exclusive. Letisha finished by sharing her experience at OHSU and her involvement with the Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science (AVDS), a group organized by volunteers (primarily students), advocating and leading the efforts to solve internal issues OHSU with practical recommendations to foster racial equity within the institution. She closed off her conclusions by mentioning how retention is indeed their biggest challenge and that inclusiveness efforts are the most effective at fixing that problem. Anita went on to add that this process of implementing better initiatives towards inclusiveness and racial equity in an organization tends to be non-linear, bidirectional and iterative. Antoinette closed off by enforcing the idea that retention and creating a safe space for these communities to thrive in organizations should be the main focus rather than looking only at accessibility. One of the questions that emerged from the chat during this panel discussion was about examples of successful implementation and removal of hierarchy in institutions that the panelists could share with the audience. Anita then shared her knowledge about the Meyerhoff Program and how they have structured their approach over the years to address racial equity in STEM programs. These approaches include providing enough financial support both for students through scholarships and also by hiring qualified staff to provide extensive academic counseling, tutoring, and mentoring support for students. Veronica also pointed out how traditionally black and minority colleges and universities have already been applying these same strategies of providing a more holistic support to their students, while traditionally white schools seem to finally realize how important a more robust program is to address these inequalities in their student body. Latisha went on to recognize that to move forward in these initiatives, institutions need to make way for minorities to hold positions of power and privilege, with the understanding that this is not an easy process and there’s also resistance. Ultimately, when institutions decide to prioritize these initiatives, only then we will see fundamental changes in organizational hierarchies.The conversation then shifted to a more individualized perspective where the audience inquired about the role of individuals/employees and how they can contribute to racial equity initiatives. Antoinette started by saying how “accountability does not come from the top” and how the majority at the bottom need to hold leadership and people in power accountable. Some of the proposed advocacy at the individual level she shared was basically asking the leaders of the organization about what they are doing: organizing in groups, asking questions, asking for data to support their approach and holding them accountable for results, pushing for collaboration with external groups involved in racial equity and ultimately addressing the gaps. Veronica also exemplified other ways to bring awareness and intention into day-to-day tasks or meetings, amplifying the voices of those who cannot be present at leadership decisions, and moving from silence and being complacent into a mindset of immediate action within the institution. Letisha also provided her perspective of bringing awareness into how these racial differences show up in institutions and asking that people start making an honest assessment at the individual level of how “whiteness” affects our perspective and contributes to this systemic racism embedded in our culture.For the audience’s last question, folks wanted to know how to mentor students when they don’t share the same racial oppression. Veronica touched on the subject by saying that sharing the same background and struggles is not a necessity. Mentors should fundamentally try to be aware of their own biases but that connection ultimately happens at the human level. To conclude, I would like to believe that we have reached a level of consciousness where the only way forward is having these conversations that are both difficult and uncomfortable but absolutely necessary to our society. After all, racial equity is not a conversation about how uncomfortable folks like me feel and how afraid of messing up we are. That’s just another reflection of white privilege. This conversation is overdue. I am so grateful that the people who are part of Women in Science have found this organization to be a safe space for groups with less privilege to express themselves and share their advocacy with such grace and power. Author Bio:Ana Ferreira, M.Sc. is a bioinformatician at OHSU working on immunology and genomics research in cancer. She’s a queer mom, originally from Brazil and usually found surfing the cold PNW waves on weekends with her friends. She’s been part of WIS since 2018 but only recently decided to volunteer by helping out with the blog. You can connect with her on LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-howells-ferreira/]