“All of the different things that people are bringing with them when you hire them—their values, their identity, their cultural identity, their background, their experiences—those are all valuable. And if you’re inviting diverse people into your STEM workspace, you have to make sure that you’re making it a comfortable and inclusive environment so that they can do the work and make those important contributions. Because if you had the experience that I had, where you’re constantly feeling like you’re less than everybody else, there’s no way that you could do your best work in that type of environment.”
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The work is not over yet – there is still much to be done to address racism in STEM. Sign those petitions, attend those protests, donate to those organizations, and keep speaking up until real change is happening.
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For those interested in better understanding the experience of Black women in STEM, give the article “I’m a Black Female Scientist. On My First Day of Work, a Colleague Threatened to Call the Cops on Me.” a read from Mother Jones. Raven Baxter’s experience is far from rare – Twitter’s #BlackintheIvory tag is still sharing more and more experiences and ways that STEM and academia need to evolve.
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