Candid Conversations: Black in America – Part II
Part II begins with the group discussing ways that racial biases have played a role in their careers.
Wayne Bynoe, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering:
I was always interested in radios and I went to a school that had an electronics lab. This guy teaching the class has a master’s degree and taught me all kinds of stuff. I decided I wanted to be an engineer. And so, I went to my guidance counselor to get guidance on engineering, and he went out of his way to tell me how hard it was. He told me I might want to take social studies or sociology or something else. He was just looking at my face and telling me I should be doing something else.
Loretta Stephens-Smith, Admissions Assistant:
I had a similar experience with my guidance counselor in high school. She was Black and I told her I wanted to be a doctor. She was just like, “Are you sure you don’t want to be a nurse?” I said, “Doctor, that’s what I want.” I’ll never forget that. She was an older Black lady, but she was trying to bring me back to Earth, telling me my standards were too high.
For Nicole Price, Black History Month in February offers a look at important Black figures in American history, but it only scratches the surface of the rich contributions and legacy that Black people have left on society.
Nicole Price, Vice President, Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:
Growing up in school, we learned about Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner’s revolt and Martin Luther King, Jr. And slavery, of course. That was about it. I’d be left feeling, “Oh, we were slaves, we didn’t do anything else.”
David Simpson, Assistant Professor, Biological Engineering, and Provost Initiatives Coordinator for Inclusive Excellence:
I think Black History Month is important to overcome some of these misconceptions we just talked about. Apparently, there were people out there who didn’t think you could be a doctor or an engineer. I certainly had my share of people pushing back. It’s important for us to let people know that one, those misconceptions are false and two, to empower our youth to know that they can be these things. We clearly shouldn’t limit this to February, but it’s a great time to be intentional about putting these things in place—who is in your discipline, or who is in your field? Role models are important.
Loretta Stephens-Smith:
I think Black excellence expands beyond 28 days. I go into a store and see books from Black authors pushed to the front of the store in February, but where are they otherwise? I had to go searching through an entire store to find Michelle Obama’s Becoming before, but in February it’s pushed to the front. Then, March 1, these things go away again. Let’s keep in going.
Stephens-Smith notes that Black culture can be found in everything from clothing and music to many inventions that are used in everyday life.
Loretta Stephens-Smith:
I think Black History Month brings it to people’s eyes, but I want to see it year-round.
Price hopes that the work of her division and others will create a better understanding of the wide-reaching facets of the Black experience.
Nicole Price:
I think a challenge for many people is they associate Black with the actual color of black, rather than recognizing that Black represents a diaspora of people from Africa through the Caribbean and here to the States. So, while you might look at someone who is an Egyptian or is Moroccan, and they may not be dark complected, they are of the African diaspora. Black is more than a color. It’s an experience and it’s a culture.
Wayne Bynoe:
Africa is big, the second largest continent on Earth. The one with the most arable land. And people talk about it like it’s one country.
Nicole Price:
What you see in the media is a very narrow view of what Africa is.
Loretta Stephens-Smith:
Even what you learn in school. Black people’s history doesn’t begin and end with slavery.
Wayne Bynoe:
Human history starts with Black history.
The murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd thrust injustice toward Black Americans into a much brighter spotlight. But many months removed from the protests that cropped up during the summer of 2020, has that movement had an impact on the relevance of Black History Month?
Wayne Bynoe:
It put what was always going on into the forefront because people have cameras. But [in the case of George Floyd] the officer wasn’t even worried that someone was recoding it. That’s not something you can deny. All the problems related to police brutality in the Black neighborhoods were always there.
David Simpson:
Historically, it’s brought to light systemic bias in general. There were events taking place well before the 1960s, but it wasn’t until the TV showed up and started showing Black people getting hosed down by these fire hoses that people decided to take a second look. [Today] is another version of that set of events where people are beginning to see there are issues that are historical in nature that we need to address.
Loretta Stephens-Smith:
And that’s kind of where we’ve been as a society. We have Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown and Tamir Rice and Michael Penn. When is enough going to be enough? But I think that we as a people are on the cusp where we have had enough, and we need to keep moving and something has to change. But I think until we have a clear vision and a clear way of executing it, things like this are going to unfortunately keep happening.
Nicole Price:
I definitely agree. I would just say that I think the other piece, along with the vision, is that we have to be bold and courageous enough to follow through. It's not going to be easy. There are people who don't want the change or don't want the vision to come to light. And so, there's some immovable people or objects that would have to be moved, once there is a vision.
Read more in Part I.
This multi-part feature is part of a series entitled "Candid Conversations," roundtable discussions hosted by the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in collaboration with the Marketing and Communications Department. Each will focus on a topic connected to diversity, equity and/or inclusion.