AAPI Statement

3-24-21

Members of the Anti-racism task force of the Keck Science Department grieve the murders of the eight people, including six women of Asian descent, killed in Atlanta on March 16th. The deaths in Atlanta highlight the systemic anti-Asian racism in our institutions and society at large. Anti-Asian discrimination has a long history in the U.S. in STEM and hate crimes against people of Asian descent have increased by 150% since the start of the pandemic, with almost 4,000 recorded in the past year1. We recognize the unique role that science has played in perpetuating racist and other prejudicial myths regarding Asians and other minoritized groups2,3. As an education program, Keck Science has both a responsibility and a commitment to address the complicity of science in discrimination as well as to achieve equity of experience and outcome for all our students, particularly those in STEM fields.

We, as members of the Anti-racism task force of the Keck Science Department, pledge to practice anti-racism on a systemic level and strive to build a more inclusive and welcoming department for all.

Some of the families of the Atlanta shooting victims have expressed discomfort with their names being publicized so we have excluded them from this statement, however, we wish to honor the lives they lived and mourn the loss of their futures.

Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert

Findley Finseth

Sarah Gilman

Mary Hatcher-Skeers

Cory Kohn

Sadie Otte

Marion Preest

Lars Schmitz

Tessa Solomon-Lane

Nancy Williams

1. Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, Cal State San Bernadino, https://www.csusb.edu/hate-and-extremism-center

2. Castro, A.R., Collins C.S. (2020). Asian American women in STEM in the lab with “White Men Named John”. Science Education 105 (1), 33-61. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21598

3. Chen, G.A., Buell, J.Y. (2017). Of models and myths: Asian(Americans) in STEM and the neoliberal racial project. Race ethnicity and Education 21(5), 607-625. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2017.1377170

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