Diversity is fundamental for excellence. There are multitudinous studies showing that more diverse groups perform better than non-diverse ones on a range of challenging tasks, because the differing views presented can synergistically yield creative leaps. Yet, there remain hidden barriers for minority groups that are stitched into the fabric of the academic institution, and cannot be seen unless one is willing to truly engage and work to see and/or feel them. Maintaining these barriers is only hindering scientific progress; they exist for purely historic and ego driven reasons. To truly create an equitable environment and culture, the current system needs to be evaluated and broken in places to remove traditions attempting to force all people to fit a single mold, one that clearly does not fit the majority of people on this planet. The exclusionary form of this mold is subconsciously intentional. Thus, simply saying one doesn’t see it is just as harmful as consciously enforcing it. Dismantling a comfortable system is never easy. It is the work I undertake on a daily basis. These barriers include (but are certainly not limited to): the concept of the academic pipeline, insistence on hierarchy, lack of appropriate mentoring for minority groups, lack of visibility for minority groups, constant microaggressions, constant invalidations, the meritocracy myth, the plethora of excuses to mask blatant racism (ie, they didn’t work hard enough), etc., etc., etc.
Please feel free to discuss any of this with me at any time, but do not expect your comfort to be coddled in the process.
To learn more about structural racism, Andrea recommends:
In my journey, I have read many books and articles on the topic of structural/institutionalized racism, and had countless discussions on the topic. To learn more, I recommend the following books depending on your familiarity with the subject.
> If you are brand new to discussions of institutionalized systemic barriers, I recommend starting with White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo. It eases one into the topic in the context of what is happening in present day. Her recent book, Nice Racism, is also a good follow-up.
> Next, I recommend The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. This begins to put what is discussed in White Fragility into deeper historical context, and with painstaking detail, describes how this is hurting everyone, not just people of color. It provides strong motivation to see and break the hierarchy for everyone’s survival.
> For people of color, I also recommend The Rage of a Privileged Class, by Ellis Cose. The book has been around for quite a while (1994), but I found validating for my own frustration–so you at least know for sure you’re not the only one with these weird, simultaneous feelings of success and disappointment.
> Next, I recommend Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson, and on the same level, The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones. (Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns is amazing too.) These are hard reads, which is why I wouldn’t start with them if you haven’t had some exposure and discussion on the topic. But in beautiful prose (or essays in the case of The 1619 Project) these books demonstrate just how deep the roots of hierarchy run, and provide roadmaps on how far we’ll need to go to get the roots keeping the hierarchies in place out of the ground.
But this, of course, is only the beginning.
Andrea L McQuate 