White people just can’t help themselves.
A harsh truth that White people need to accept is that we often commit microaggressions against colored people without realizing it.
Here’s a personal example I can share: a close friend of mine recently invited his Black friend, a neurosurgeon, over for a game of chess. When the chessboard was ready, the Black man said, “So, shall I be black and you white?”
Without thinking, the White friend responded with, “yeah, obviously.”
An excruciating silence seized the room. Realizing what he had said, the friend shouted, “wait, I didn’t mea-”
But the Black man had already left the room, a solitary tear giving sparkle to an otherwise sunken face.
Everyone sheds tears. But only colored people understand the tears of racism.
And guess what? That friend is a Swedish male who works for Migrationsverket, the Swedish immigration agency responsible for housing Somalis and other fine gentlemen around Sweden. He’s about as anti-racist as they come.
Yet, due to his subconscious microaggression, he is now responsible for the suicide of a pioneering surgeon of color.
So, you can imagine my joy when I learned that a brave university professor has received a large grant – $229,061, to be exact – to shed light on this little-known but important subject.
Oftentimes, researchers must use radically different measures to break new ground in higher education.
This “high risk-high payoff” approach to supporting new, exploratory work will allow Mary Atwater, a professor in the mathematics and science education department in the College of Education, to develop a potentially transformative venue for reducing racial microaggression, or the subtle, indirect or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group, in science education.
Awarded by the National Science Foundation, Atwater’s $229,061 Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research will examine new ways to broaden participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM fields for science education faculty of African or Latino ancestry.
“There has been little research in this area in science education,” said Atwater, who is currently the Sachs Distinguished Lecturer in residence at Teachers College, Columbia University. “In fact, there is very little microaggression research that has been done in which the participants are people of European-American descent.”
Mary Atwater: Living proof of hybrid vigor.
Frankly, it’s about time academics reclaimed their courage and stood up for left-wing ideals, as Mary Atwater has done. Right-wing pressure groups, often headed by European-Americans like George Soros, have controlled academia for such a long time that I didn’t think things would ever turn around.
The times are truly changing, folks.
Who knows? Perhaps 10 years from now, the hateful books that all schoolchildren are forced to read as part of the curriculum – Negroes in Negroland, On the Jews and Their Lies, White Power – will be replaced by books that promote racial equality, social justice and other concepts that our Founding Fathers held in high regard.
Let’s hope that the appalling way our children are taught math will change, too.