Black, Brown, Bruised
How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation
Ebony Omotola McGee, Foreword by David Omotoso Stovall
paper, 208 Pages
Pub. Date: October 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1-68253-535-6
Price: $32.00
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cloth, 208 Pages
Pub. Date: October 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1-68253-536-3
Price: $60.00
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Drawing on narratives from hundreds of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals, Ebony Omotola McGee examines the experiences of underrepresented racially minoritized students and faculty members who have succeeded in STEM. Based on this extensive research, McGee advocates for structural and institutional changes to address racial discrimination, stereotyping, and hostile environments in an effort to make the field more inclusive.
Black, Brown, Bruised reveals the challenges that underrepresented racially minoritized students confront in order to succeed in these exclusive, usually all-White, academic and professional realms. The book provides searing accounts of racism inscribed on campus, in the lab, and on the job, and portrays learning and work environments as arenas rife with racial stereotyping, conscious and unconscious bias, and micro-aggressions. As a result, many students experience the effects of a racial battle fatigue—physical and mental exhaustion borne of their hostile learning and work environments—leading them to abandon STEM fields entirely.
McGee offers policies and practices that must be implemented to ensure that STEM education and employment become more inclusive including internships, mentoring opportunities, and curricular offerings. Such structural changes are imperative if we are to reverse the negative effects of racialized STEM and unlock the potential of all students to drive technological innovation and power the economy.
Praise
Black, Brown, Bruised tells the whole story. Most scholarship on STEM access narrowly focuses on test performances, as if the result were without a cause. Dr. McGee’s brilliant narrative weaves together research on psychology, education, learning sciences and science to warn us of the critical mistake STEM makes by remaining an exclusionary space. This brilliant, timely, and visionary book takes a one-of-a-kind exploration into the intersectional forces that impede the progress of STEM.
— Bryan A. Brown, professor of teacher education, Stanford University
In this ground-breaking book, McGee takes up the issue of race and STEM from a decidedly critical stance, and in doing so, she calls into question the assumptions and goals of STEM education, and the white supremacist ideology underlying it. In a theoretically brilliant way, she crafts a new future for STEM—one that links widening STEM opportunity to increased innovation, and better ways of being responsible global citizens.
— Na'ilah Suad Nasir, president, Spencer Foundation
Ebony Omotola McGee is positioning herself to be one of the towering voices in STEM education research in the United States. Based on years of considerable research, she pinpoints the many challenges, pitfalls, and, more importantly, successes of Black and Brown students and faculty in predominately white STEM domains. Black, Brown, Bruised is certainly destined to be a classic for researchers, administrators, and educators who are interested in broadening participation in STEM.
— James L. Moore III, vice provost for Diversity and Inclusion and chief diversity officer, The Ohio State University
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About the Author
Ebony Omotola McGee is associate professor of diversity and STEM education at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.