On “bad apples,” racist emails, and the politics of whack-a-mole
Originally published on Toward Decolonizing Physics
Well, it’s only a few weeks since #ShutDownSTEM and already this bombshell has dropped. I’ll let you read it for yourself if you wish, although it probably suffices to say that an email thread among Yale astronomy professors was leaked to Buzzfeed, and the contents aren’t pretty.
What stood out to me was not the contents of the email chain. Yes, the contents demonstrate profound racial insensitivity, but sadly it doesn’t seem out of place among the banter I have observed among physics departments across the country. The language in this email chain was not an anomaly; rather, it represents the views and expression of a significant plurality (if not secret majority) of white physicists and astrophysicists I have interacted with. It’s just rare that this kind of banter is public enough to get leaked to the media.
What instead struck me from the article was a quote by Prof. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein of the University of New Hampshire, who had previously visited Yale to lead a discussion on diversity issues: “While brazenly racist emails are messed up . . . that department’s biggest problems around racism are not a couple of bad emails but rather are structural.”
Dr. Prescod-Weinstein’s quote illustrates a far deeper problem with physics and astronomy diversity discourse. Every few months, another bombshell drops, often in the form of racist (or sexist) emails or talks by physics or astronomy faculty that are leaked to the media. The “bad apple” who wrote the email or gave the presentation is verbally condemned (but rarely receives any sort of professional repercussions)
But in the words of Black aspiring astronomer Lauren Chambers, who wrote a heartbreaking letter upon her decision to leave astronomy after undergraduate: “This is not a case of a few bad apples – it’s all the apples.”
In other words, racist emails are bad, and they should be widely condemned when they emerge. But the underlying problem is not racist emails, it’s systemic racism built into the structure of physics culture. The senders of racist emails do so because physics culture enables them. And you can’t solve a culture problem by playing what I term “whack-a-mole politics” every time an egregious-enough offense reaches the public eye.
The Politics of Whack-A-Mole
If you’ve ever played the kids’ game “whack-a-mole,” you probably already know what I’m talking about. Whack-a-mole politics occurs when, rather than addressing underlying systemic issues (like departmental racism), departments:
Sit on their hands
Wait to act until something so egregious happens that the negative publicity or immediate consequences are inescapable, then:
Issue a statement — often in the form of a non-apology apology, or pinning the blame entirely on one or two “bad apples” — without committing to any self-examination or structural changes. If particularly egregious, these “bad apples” may face consequences, but the department will not fundamentally change
Rinse and repeat the next time
This entire cycle is based on the premise that racism (and other systemic ills) are almost entirely caused by individual actors. If an individual actor is held accountable, the underlying idea is that by punishing or retraining a couple of racists, then racism will be held in check. The goal of the game is to deflect negative publicity by pointing blame at individual bad apples. If no one is held responsible, a similar logic is actually at play: either there is complete denial that racism exists, or else the culprit is a “good person” who didn’t mean harm.
Contrast this with a functional department. If an individual faculty member commits an egregious act, said employee will of course face consequences and censure from the department as appropriate to prevent further harms and promote healing. However, the department’s primary emphasis is on the cultural problems that allowed racist (or otherwise oppressive) acts to occur or persist. The goal is to prevent problems before they happen by fostering an inclusive culture and climate, not to bounce incident-to-incident and attempt to repair damage.
Beyond Whack-A-Mole
What does it mean to move beyond whack-a-mole politics and toward a culture that promotes healing and self-accountability rather than blame?
As with so much cultural change work in physics, I would argue that the first step is humility, both individually and as a discipline. We must come to accept that racism is not just perpetuated by a handful of bad apples, but that we are all a part of the same system. (There is no use arguing about which apple is rotten when the whole barrel is spoiled!) Once in awhile, something egregious will happen, like the racist emails at Yale. Yet even these incidents must be put in context: How many people have sent or received such emails, only to find them never leaked to the press? How many people have given the tacit message that racism is ok through silence?
For those of us who are used to seeing others as the problem, we must learn to look in ourselves, and to look more broadly at our discipline. It is a tempting trap to believe we can’t be part of the problem, whether because we hold progressive politics, have our own marginalized identities, are visible allies, or “just want to do science.” Likewise, it is easy to deflect scrutiny off our discipline by pointing to the benefits of scientific research or claiming “objectivity,” while looking past our discipline’s own colonialist roots. Instead, we must identify the ways in which we and our departments participate in oppressive systems and work to change them from the inside out.
These racist email scandals have to stop. It is time we stopped pointing fingers, start looking at the problem with wisdom, and commit to changing physics culture so that racist incidents don’t keep recurring.
