Representation indeed matters. But here’s the thing about the @Ri_Science Christmas Lectures. Me being Black, which is so bloody obvious and cannot be hidden, and me being the first ever Black lecturer, are obvious news stories...[THREAD] https://twitter.com/andrewr_physics/status/1297193243235495938

...however, I’d like to think I get the chance to positively represent other groups. I grew up in a working-class family to Caribbean immigrants of the Windrush generation. So, hopefully, I can inspire working-class folks too. But that’s not a news story, although it should be...

...and I raise this because I value an intersectional approach to challenging some of the discrimination faced by minorities of various kinds. Trying to divide and conquer, by throwing Black working-class ppl under the bus at the expense of white ppl of the same group, is shit.

I’ve also suffered from depression, something that is regularly stigmatised, especially in academia, in which Only The Strongest Should Survive. We should be talking more openly about mental health problems, inside and outside of The Ivory Tower...

And @helenczerski and @shine_tara are two of vanishingly few women to give Christmas Lectures; that should be very loudly celebrated, for they too are blazing a trail for future generations of scientists.

And they both have amazing, rich histories; they are simply more than women, and they can inspire a much broader group of people with their stories. These are their stories to tell. [END THREAD]