Message from the Associate Director:

This past week, I participated in a national #Strike4BlackLives to support the Black Lives Matter movement and condemn institutional racism in academia and science. Based on my twitter feed, it looks like many of our C-DEBI community members did as well. In Woods Hole, a small town with a big scientific impact, we organized a protest march and asked community members to stop business as usual to reflect on anti-black racism in America, recognize ways academia perpetuates harmful narratives, and plan ways to stop injustice. Beyond the march, I also spent time reading about hiring bias in academia, looking at statistics for our academic programs at WHOI, and listening to stories from local Black community members on their experiences here. On Twitter, I saw C-DEBI community members making donations, writing Wikipedia pages for Black scientists and “lab values” statements for their groups, reaching out to their local societies for support and resources, and developing many other future plans for confronting racism in STEM.

I encourage all of the C-DEBI community to support efforts against racism in the scientific community and society at large. While there are many resources and potential actions, this one day movement provided an excellent start for those eager to participate and educate themselves.

Learn more about #Strike4BlackLives / #ShutDownSTEM:

National coverage of the events:

And from my neck of the woods:

Julie Huber,
C-DEBI Associate Director

Menu