Anti-Racism
PSA: DON'T SHOOT the MESSENGER
Mathematics is an intimately human endeavor, this is a simple truth, which often hides in plain sight. Moreover there is a persistent hegemony in our profession that the austere, intrinsically rational, nature of mathematics, renders participation in it free from any extrinisc biases. Ultimately, mathematics is propogated via conversation, connection, and community. So, if mathematicians are alright then mathematics will be alright. If mathematicians are racist, or elitist then mathematics is going to be racist or elitist. --- It is not at all surprising that the mathematics community contains this cf. [Letters To The Editor: Responses to "A Word ... Abigail Thompson ], in a world as unsteady on its feet as:
this cf. [Christian Soldiers: The Lynching And Torture Of Blacks in the Jim Crow South Weren’t Just Acts of Racism. They Were Religious Rituals]
this cf. [Polarization, Democracy, and Political Violence In The United States: What The Research Says]
My anti-Racism (& DEI) efforts in mathematics are rooted in relationship. --- I emphasize that anti-Racism (& DEI) efforts benefit everyone in the mathematics community. And this fact pairs nicely with another, just as simple and plain: we owe no allegiance to exclusionary forces (racism, elitism, or sexism) in mathematics. Changing the present living-breathing state of the mathematics community will require our words and actions aligning to the crucial (however uncomfortable) purpose of the rehabilitation of our current homeostasis.
My words and my actions will not:
Indulge self-complacent or self-serving folks' sense of superiority, nor be a mechanism to assuage racial guilt, nor be a harbor absolving willful obliviousness: [cf. Racism Is Terrible. Blackness Is Not.]
Try to change folks' minds about racism; this much of anti-Racism work is over, as elegant argument and example given by forerunners of math and racial justice can be called upon in aboundence: [cf. Toni Morrison] [cf. James Baldwin] [cf. Albert Einstein.]
My words and my actions will:
Name and confront forces of hatred and bigotry in mathematics.
Build coalition and organize inclusive structures with folks who desire to make manifest a thriving mathematics community characterized by bona fide belonging and wellness.
The necessary beginning of anti-Racism (&DEI) work in mathematics (A.D. 2024) is to expose broadly and train inclusively. We must remain steadfast in this work. I share some successful anti-Racism (&DEI) projects that I have proudly been a part of or am joyfully currently still working on.
The MAD WebPages, 2015--16 [Mathematicians of the African Diaspora Website]
I co-chaired the NAM committee to update and revitalize the MAD Pages. Originally created by Professor Scott Williams, this website is a living breathing testimony of lives (narrative) of Black mathematicians. Our charge was completed and recommendations were made that have since been implemented, but the website did not launch (for various reasons) until 2020.
In the summer of 2018, I was approached by members of the AMS Notices Editorial Board and asked to write a 1500 word piece on the MAD webpages for the Feb. 2019 edition of the Notices. -- My article was never published by the AMS Notices, I was told the Editor in Chief "had a different vision" of the piece.
I share what I wrote here, [MAD Pages article for the AMS Notices: green to red light]
opposite: my mentor Ralph B. Turner, Ph. D. and I, in the Howard University Museum for my Edward A. Bouchet Honor Society induction ceremony, circa 2009.
I share a related [Talk for NAM 50th anniversary Special Session, 2019.]
PUNDiT, 2021 [Practicum for Undergraduates in Number Theory: PUNDiT @ IPAM]
I co-organized PUNDiT at IPAM for Los Angeles based underrepresented undergraduate math majors, and gave a sequence of talks illustrating glimpses of the beautiful connection between number theory and hyperbolic geometry.
MATH & RACIAL JUSTICE, 2021 [Math & Racial Justice Workshop @ MSRI]
I was a co-organizer of the MSRI Workshop on Math & Racial Justice. This effort was sparked as a response to the murder of George Floyd and the social unrest (global) that followed. But it was born of firmly established bonafide relationship with other Black mathematicians and the Deputy Director of MSRI.
That the stakes were so high, the issues so pressing, and the stage so large, I am distinctly proud of the indelible impressions my efforts and involvement had on this project.
I led a 2 week immersive research project at the University of Michigan for beginning graduate students. MREG is an NSF funded program which seeks to promote diversity equity and inclusion in graduate training in mathematics.
ADJOINT, 2019--present [African Diaspora Joint Math Workshop @ SL Math]
Exp(ML)^2 @BC, 2023--present [Experimental Mathematics & Machine Learning Laboratory @ Boston College]
Final MML Cover-2.pdfI am a co-Founder and co-Director of the Experimental Mathematics & Machine Learning Laboratory @ Boston College.
I am continuing to develop the training and outreach capacity of Exp(ML)^2 @BC.