{"id":23474,"date":"2020-12-26T00:49:26","date_gmt":"2020-12-26T00:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=23474"},"modified":"2020-12-27T15:04:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T15:04:50","slug":"racial-stereotypes-drive-students-of-color-away-from-stem-but-many-still-persist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/racial-stereotypes-drive-students-of-color-away-from-stem-but-many-still-persist\/","title":{"rendered":"Racial stereotypes drive students of color away from STEM, but many still persist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ebony O. McGee<\/a>, Vanderbilt University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Dominique, a Black electrical engineering doctoral student, found herself in an awkward situation in the lounge of a hotel where she had been attending a conference on science.<\/p>\n

A white man at her table assumed a nearby Black woman was on the hotel cleaning staff, so he asked her to clean their table. The woman did as she was asked, but in the process she informed him that not only was she a scientist attending the same conference as he, but she was also the keynote speaker.<\/p>\n

Rather than apologize for his erroneous assumption, the man cracked a joke.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she cleans so good,\u201d the man told everyone at the table. \u201cCan we say: \u2018Dual career opportunity?\u2019\u201d \u2013 as if an accomplished scientist would need an \u201copportunity\u201d to clean tables.<\/p>\n

All of the white folks at the table stared at Dominique (not her real name), seemingly waiting on her approval of the wisecrack. Caught off guard, Dominique faked a laugh. Her white table mates broke out in laughter, too, but it didn\u2019t seem fake \u2013 it sounded hearty and real.<\/p>\n

This incident is by no means unique. It represents just one of about 300 such stories that I\u2019ve collected over the past decade or so as a researcher<\/a>
\nof structural racism<\/a> in STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and math.<\/p>\n

Through my research, I\u2019ve come to see that \u2013 for Black and Hispanic STEM students \u2013 these instances of being stereotyped are quite common. Consequently, these students experience a sort of racial fatigue. No matter what they do, they cannot shake the perception among certain white colleagues and collaborators that they don\u2019t belong.<\/p>\n

As a result, many talented Black and Hispanic students leave STEM. Research shows that Black and Hispanic students leave the discipline at nearly twice the rate of white students<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no shortage of research that looks at the reasons so many students of color leave the fields of STEM<\/a>. I think that research is worthwhile. But I also believe it\u2019s just as important \u2013 if not more so \u2013 to examine why and how students of color persist in STEM fields despite all the stereotypes and other obstacles they face. But first, let\u2019s take a closer look at how some of these stereotypes play out.<\/p>\n

Suspect from the start<\/h2>\n

Consider, for instance, what happened when \u201cLeon,\u201d a Black doctoral computer science student, had to pick up a visiting professor from the airport. He had spoken to the scholar over the phone on several occasions. The conversations were pleasant and normal.<\/p>\n

Despite having sent a picture of his distinctive-looking SUV, the professor looked around Leon and almost through him at the airport\u2019s pickup area. When Leon approached, she flinched. Leon spoke, so she could hear that he was the person she had become familiar with over the phone. Still, the professor insisted that Leon call his doctoral adviser to verify that he was indeed who he said he was.<\/p>\n

Leon eventually gave her a ride. And although he and the professor were scheduled to perform laboratory research together, she abruptly and unapologetically changed her research goals, which allowed her to work only with white and Asian postdoctoral researchers.<\/p>\n

\"An
STEM students of color are often subjected to microaggressions whether inside or outside the laboratory.<\/span>
\nanyaivanova\/iStock via Getty Images Plus<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Managing stereotypes<\/h2>\n

The kind of stereotyping that confronts Leon and Dominique leads many Black and Hispanic students to resort to what I call stereotype management<\/a> \u2013 which involves taking specific actions to deal with the prejudices and preconceptions they face as a result of their identity.<\/p>\n

I have found that these students rely on stereotype management to cope in a predominantly white campus culture in which they are seen as unqualified, incompetent and undeserving of opportunities. While many Black and Hispanic students find stereotype management necessary, they also find it unnerving.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another aspect to the stereotypes.<\/p>\n

I have also found that the stereotypes often serve as an incentive \u2013 one I also believe is unhealthy \u2013 for Black and Hispanic students to succeed and, occasionally, to become the best at what they do. They want to disprove the notion that they are not worthy of being in STEM fields. I believe this saps tremendous energy and resources that could be used to inspire innovation and creativity and tap into their brilliance.<\/p>\n

Stereotype management is partly performative. It involves such actions as deliberately leaving a high test score on a STEM test on your desk for peers to see.<\/p>\n

While sometimes stereotype management involves putting certain things on display, it can also involve keeping certain things concealed. Students have told me that they have kept hidden their meager upbringings and complicated family dynamics to avoid being stereotyped.<\/p>\n

Some Black students have told me that they kept their own children hidden to avoid playing into stereotypes about single Black moms. From what I have observed, often when STEM professors find out that a student has children, they don\u2019t want to work with that student because they believe the student will have less time to devote to the lab than students who are not parents.<\/p>\n

Also, just as some Black and Hispanic students hide certain aspects of their lives, I have also found \u2013 through prior research \u2013 that they also take steps to play down their own cultural identities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A psychological and physical toll<\/h2>\n

All this contortion leads to inner turmoil and even physical sickness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I know of STEM students of color who have been hospitalized for such conditions as exhaustion. You might wonder if those ailments are merely the result of the demanding nature of the college experience itself. Even if it is, for these students, the college experience is even more demanding because \u2013 as my research has shown \u2013 it involves being stereotyped as if they don\u2019t belong.<\/p>\n

\"A
Black and Hispanic STEM students face psychological tolls navigating spaces where they are seen as not belonging.<\/span>
\nxavierarnau\/E+ via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Removing obstacles<\/h2>\n

I believe that to help students of color flourish the way they ought to in STEM, college and university leaders must do more than just make cosmetic changes to their public facing or just pay lip service to diversity and inclusion.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not enough to have more students of color featured on university websites, magazines, brochures or other recruiting materials. I believe that higher education must pay more attention to how these students actually experience college, their overall well-being, and how their professors and peers view and treat them.<\/p>\n

I also believe more attention should be paid to the reasons that STEM students of color stick with their academic pursuits, rather than looking only at the reasons so many leave.<\/p>\n

Finally, if stereotypes and experiences that make students of color feel they don\u2019t belong are a big part of what\u2019s driving so many away from STEM, that\u2019s a clear indication that STEM culture needs to be made anew.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the white man who unwittingly summoned a scientist and STEM conference keynote speaker to clean his table was correct. Maybe there really are some \u201cdual career opportunities\u201d in STEM to do science and cleaning \u2013 cleaning up STEM of the cultural debris that makes students of color feel they don\u2019t belong.\"The<\/p>\n

Ebony O. McGee<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Education, Diversity and Urban Schooling, Vanderbilt University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ebony O. McGee, Vanderbilt University Dominique, a Black electrical engineering doctoral student, found herself in an awkward situation in the lounge of a hotel where she had been attending a conference on science. A white man at her table assumed a nearby Black woman was on the hotel cleaning staff, so he asked her to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":23475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[2948,4130,6826,8281,2805,8866,1538,9193,4563,2102,1812],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23474"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23485,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23474\/revisions\/23485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}