ON MY desk in my home office I have a few items that keep me focused and inspired. I have an autographed photo of myself with Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green, the first Black woman to helm a Star Trek series. Next to that, I have a Barbie Uhura in the box, autographed by Nichelle Nichols, the Black woman who played the first Black Star Trek character, along with an autographed, black-and-white picture of Nichols in costume. I also have a woodcarving of a famous Toni Morrison quote, “The function of freedom is to free someone else.” In other words, I make sure that the visions and ideals of Black women and Afrofuturism – reminders of the privilege and possibility in a life of science for someone like me – are always right in front of me.
It is in this halo of hope that I first started having conversations with colleagues about what came to be known as #ShutDownSTEM and #StrikeforBlackLives. These joint calls for a global day of action on 10 June came from a place of grief, anger, fear and, yes, exhaustion. But they also came from a space-time of dreams. When Brian Nord and Brittany Kamai both separately put forward the idea to me that it was time for science to stop business as usual and do more to support the people risking their lives in the streets to proclaim that Black Lives Matter, I immediately agreed. Nord and I didn’t have to do much to convince our colleagues in a crew of particle physicists and cosmologists known as Particles for Justice (P4J) when we asked them if they wanted to help.
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Five days later, in partnership with a group of astronomers led by Kamai, P4J was publicly calling for 10 June to be unlike any other day in the history of science. On and we posted statements that said, among other things, “We are calling for every member of the community to commit to taking actions that will change the material circumstances of how Black lives are lived — to work toward ending the white supremacy that not only snuffs out Black physicist dreams but destroys whole Black lives.”
We also stressed that we weren’t calling for more workshops or panels on diversity and inclusion, but asking people to focus on community action that would yield real change. The extent to which we were successful varied. There were, of course, the people who responded by holding panels and workshops, and it isn’t clear whether these passive experiences translated into any of them taking action. But I also heard stories like the one about people who urged their institution to remove a dean who believed in eugenics – a devastatingly racist mode of scientific thought that remains influential in academia.
They later succeeded in forcing him from the post. This is the power and possibility of scientists working together for race justice. There is even more power in scientists supporting community organising. Let 2021 be your year to get involved, because when we work together, we win.
Article amended on 21 December 2020
We have clarified the number of statements posted by P4J.
