ETIB and Science History

[bethydavis]

On the two readings that were sent via email, I think that they were both good primers for DEI/scientific responsibility topics, though I was left wishing that they could've gone further in detail on how these issues of discrimination manifest concretely (funding and hiring discrepancies, inherited patterns of poverty that reduce access to education and experiential opportunities that then become gatekeepers for higher education and jobs, etc.). I know that to go adequately in depth would take a lot more time and text, and be much less of an easy-to-access primer.

I am reminded again of the issue of invisible labor (may or may not be remembering the correct term), where those who have to face discrimination and disproportional adversity must also take on extra energy and time to teach and convince others that there's even a problem in the first place. In academic environments, where we are all driven by personal motivations and deadlines, publish or perish culture, and other requirements and expectations along with administration that doesn't tend to hire on extra people to make sure all jobs get done, this invisible labor of teaching, acknowledging, and implementing band-aid solutions to DEI issues may be even more heavy.

I know some colleagues for sure who have extremely high expectations and even higher workloads placed on them partly in order to facilitate DEI conversations and work. There is pressure when you are the representative of a people, or a community, that you have to perform impeccably and in accordance with beneficial stereotypes of your community, regardless of how you as an individual feel about it. This can lead to faster burnout, self-fulfilling prophecies of "I knew weren't good in this job", and jealous/negative feelings towards people in those roles. Even if work is fulfilling and necessary, it is still work, and DEI work in particular is, in my experience, more often than not underpaid and under-recognized.