A Dear Colleague Letter to White Women Scientists/Academics, from a Black Woman Scientist/Academic

aka. Come in and sit down, I have something I’ve been meaning to tell you

So.....
(long pause, deep breath)
I love your energy and willingness to work and be available to mentor and assist jr Black Women STEM scholars.
I love how you aren’t afraid to show & speak up & out for them. That’s amazing use of your privilege

Here’s the thing, tho...sometimes when you show up and offer support, as cheerleaders, sponsors &/or mentors - in your whiteness - you obscure the oftentimes harder lessons some Black Women jr scholars need to attend to

Esoteric lessons about networks, connections, navigating/working under white gaze. Your whiteness can often be like weedy grass that’s hard to walk through- meaning you can say what needs to be said or you feel you can’t.

Your whiteness can also have a halo affect - meaning that your cheers can have a disproportionate effect on jr scholars. Boosting confidence is important, but the substance still matters too. It’s a HARD balance for anyone/everyone. Positional privilege makes it harder.

Whether intentional or not, sometimes your participation can have a wedge effect on in group dynamics.

I’ve been witnessing an emerging communicative interaction between middle & senior career WW/Enby & very jr career BW/Enby in STEM

as hard as I know you work on these things, & the fact that we are peers - we actually know each other, have the hard convos, etc.

how is it that we aren’t talking about the ways in which you mentor jr BW in STEM?

And specifically to you as a WW with relatively close BW/Enby colleagues...Im curious to know why We aren’t your “Discursive Reference points” when deeply engaging jr BW in STEM.

Are you mentoring BW in isolation from other BW or Enby STEM professionals?

Your mentorship & support are crucial. Your willingness to spend your cache on your mentees behalf is needed.
However, no one mentor can guide through everything. Just as you’d intro a student to subject matter expert for research input

It’s important you also guide your BW Mentees to the appropriate subject matter experts for navigating STEM and academia systems and careers, too.

They are listening to you. So, I’m asking you to listen to us.