Education

UBC physics and astronomy department encourages members to join scientists in one-day strike against racism

One of the most famous peer-reviewed journals in the world, Nature, has also joined the #ShutDownSTEM initiative

by Charlie Smith on June 10th, 2020 at 8:07 AM
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      The movement to combat racism against people of African ancestry has gathered the support of thousands of researchers around the world.

      Today, they're going on strike to oppose discrimination in science.

      Among those joining this movement is the UBC department of physics and astronomy.

      In the tweet below, it's encouraging its members to participate.

      UBC Science has also jumped in with a statement endorsing #ShutDownStem.

      "Recent anti-Black, anti-Asian and anti-Indigenous violence and discrimination in communities across North America remind us that we have more work to do in order to stop racism and bias in science," UBC Science dean Meigan Aronson and UBC's associate dean of equity and diversity with UBC Science, Ninan Abraham, wrote. "We denounce violence and the systemic racism that continues to plague our society, and the bias embedded in academic life.

      "We recommit to accelerating our efforts to increase equity and inclusion across all parts of our UBC Science community, including faculty, staff and students."

      Astronomers from many countries are also getting involved in the #ShutDownSTEM and #ShutDownAcademia movement.

      It's even gained the support of the American Astronomical Society.

      One of the most famous peer-reviewed journals in the world, Nature, has also joined the #ShutDownSTEM initiative. (STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.)

      This is what the publication posted on its website:

      "As we wrote earlier this week, Nature stands against all forms of racism. We also recognize that Nature is one of the white institutions that is responsible for bias in research and scholarship, and that we must strive harder to correct those injustices and amplify marginalized voices.

      "During the day, we will therefore be stopping business as usual to focus on what we can do better. This includes the following:

      • We will delay online publication of this week’s issue by one day, to Thursday 11 June.

      • We will almost exclusively work on and publish content about supporting Black people in academia and STEM. The sole exception is content related to the global pandemic of COVID-19.

      • We will meet to discuss and begin planning how we can help eradicate racism from Nature, from academia and from STEM, and help support Black people in academia and STEM.

      • We will spend time listening, reading, reflecting and educating ourselves on racism in STEM and how to address it.

      "Thank you for your support on this day. We hope you will join us."

      Below, you can see some tweets using the hashtags #ShutDownAcademia and #ShutDownSTEM:

       

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