Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation

by Ebony Omotola McGee, David Omotoso Stovall (Foreword by)

Overview

2022 PROSE Award Finalist

Drawing on narratives from hundreds of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals, Ebony Omotola McGee examines the experiences of underrepresented racially minoritized students and faculty members who have succeeded in STEM. Based on this extensive research, McGee advocates for structural and institutional changes to address racial discrimination, stereotyping, and hostile environments in an effort to make the field more inclusive.

Black, Brown, Bruised reveals the challenges that underrepresented racially minoritized students confront in order to succeed in these exclusive, usually all-White, academic and professional realms. The book provides searing accounts of racism inscribed on campus, in the lab, and on the job, and portrays learning and work environments as arenas rife with racial stereotyping, conscious and unconscious bias, and micro-aggressions. As a result, many students experience the effects of a racial battle fatigue—physical and mental exhaustion borne of their hostile learning and work environments—leading them to abandon STEM fields entirely.

McGee offers policies and practices that must be implemented to ensure that STEM education and employment become more inclusive including internships, mentoring opportunities, and curricular offerings. Such structural changes are imperative if we are to reverse the negative effects of racialized STEM and unlock the potential of all students to drive technological innovation and power the economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682535356
Publisher:	Harvard Education Press
Publication date:	10/20/2020
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	593,583
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

As an associate professor of diversity and STEM education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, I investigate what it means to be racially marginalized while minoritized in the context of learning and achieving in STEM higher education and in the STEM professions. I study in particular the racialized experiences and racial stereotypes that adversely affect the education and career trajectories of underrepresented groups of color. This involves exploring the social, material, and health costs of academic achievement and problematizing traditional forms of success in higher education, with an unapologetic focus on Black folk in these places and spaces. My National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant investigates how marginalization undercuts success in STEM through psychological stress, interrupted STEM career trajectories, impostor phenomenon, and other debilitating race-related trauma for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx doctoral students.

Education is my second career; I left a career in electrical engineering to earn a PhD in mathematics education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Chicago, and a NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University. I cofounded the Explorations in Diversifying Engineering Faculty Initiative or EDEFI (pronounced “edify,” https://blackengineeringphd.org/ ). I also cofounded the Institute in Critical Quantitative and Mixed Methodologies Training for Underrepresented Scholars (ICQCM), which aims to be a go-to resource for the development of quantitative and mixed-methods skillsets that challenge simplistic quantifications of race and marginalization (http://criticalscholars4quantresearch.org/). ICQCM receives support from the NSF, the Spencer Foundation, and the W. T. Grant Foundation.

My research has been featured in prominent media outlets, including The Atlantic, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education, NPR’s Codeswitch, The Hechinger Report, Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, US News & World Report, Inside Higher Education, Tennessean, and The UK Voice Online.

Table of Contents

Foreword David Omotoso Stovall xi

Introduction: The URM Student Experience in STEM 1

1 Will White Supremacy End America's STEM Supremacy? 19

The Costs of Excluding People of Color from STEM Education

This Problem Is Greater and Graver Than Skin Deep

Scientists Agree That More Diversity Is Needed

URM Intellectual STEM Thought: They've Been There All Along

A Note on Research Methodologies

2 The Plight of the Underrepresented in STEM Higher Education and the Workforce 33

Spotlight on Engineering: Just How Underrepresented Are URMs?

Major Burners to the Broad Participation of URM Students in STEM

The Burdens of Tokenism, Color Blindness, and Resilience

The Interplay of Color Blindness, Resilience, and Structural and Institutional Racism

The Financial Fallout from Structural Racism

Eugenics: The Pseudoscience That Refuses to Die

Looking Toward HBCUs for Guidance in Reversing Structural Racism in STEM

Faculty Overwhelmed by Service Work, Voluntary and Imposed

3 The Stress of Success for the Underrepresented and Minoritized in STEM 53

How Stereotyping Works

The Power of Stereotypes: Whatever Doesn't Kill You Gives You Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms

Managing Stereotypes

Building Strong STEM Identities: Two Case Studies

4 Why Justice-Oriented STEM Is the Key to Getting and Keeping Students of Color in STEM and-Oh Yeah, Saving Our Planet Too! 75

The Equity Ethic as a Motivator for Marginalized Students

Roots of the Equity Ethic: A Common History of Suffering

URM Students' Compassion and Their Focus on Practical Solutions

Family, Fictive Kinship, and Community

Discomfort with Supporting US Economic Domination

Testing the Strength of Motivation

How to Attract and Retain Underrepresented People in STEM Fields

5 Evaluating Efforts to Broaden STEM Participation 95

Effective Educational Approaches for Undenepresented Students in STEM

Programs That Work for STEM Students of Color

Guiding Principles of URM Student Programs

Why Is Mentoring Important?

A Caution about Mentoring Programming

Mentoring for the Underrepresented and Minoritized

Clearing the Pathway to Diversified STEM Excellence

6 Next Steps for STEM Leadership: Practical Suggestions for Structural Change 115

The Power of the University

Conclusion

Afterword: Who Am I to Be Writing a Book Like This? 137

Notes 155

Acknowledgments 181

About the Author 183

Index 185

Editorial Reviews

"Overall, the book is impressively expansive in its discussion of theories and empirical evidence that address the macro-level structure of systemic racism, as well as the micro-level daily experiences of URM students in STEM fields, while also providing clear directions for making improvements across the spectrum." —Teachers College Record


"Black, Brown, Bruised highlights the plights and detrimental stresses that minority groups have to face on a daily basis that others might not be aware of. Although McGee’s case studies and stories focus on a US context, I think her insights are equally useful for people elsewhere, particularly those who might not realise what prejudices minority groups encounter everywhere. I would say that even people not working in Stem may gain a lot of insight by reading McGee’s work; it definitely does bring fuel to the fire in the push for equity." —Chemistry World

 


"Black, Brown, and Bruised challenges STEM educators—and not only them—to deal openly and honestly with the racism that currently dominates all too many of STEM programs. McGee’s volume certainly fills a space that needed to be filled with the book’s role as an internal critique of the limits and effects of these programs and as a suggestive guide to changes that would make a difference. This book has been published at exactly the right time." —Educational Policy
 

From the Publisher