“Einstein v. Roberts”
“Issues related to race in the United States have created barriers since the nation’s founding, determining which citizens experience benefits, and which deprivations. This problem is not new for physicists. Albert Einstein’s essay “The Negro Question” includes “What…can the man of good will do to combat this deeply rooted prejudice? He must have the courage to set an example by word and deed, and must watch lest his children become influenced by this racial bias.” Einstein described racism as a “disease,” and he recommended principles to end discrimination, aligning with the O. Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision by the Supreme Court in 1954 to desegregate public schools…
In 1969, I entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) expecting to be different from most of the other new undergraduate students. Although often challenging, I found that my difference could be an advantage: Distinctive backgrounds can lead to different approaches to framing problems. If MIT had been legally bound then to admissions based solely on test scores, I would never have been admitted. It would have been a personal loss, but more importantly, unique mathematical and physics ideas created in my career, and tied to my idiosyncratic framing of problems, might never have seen the light of day.”
The author has a long and extremely prestigious career as a physics professor/researcher and is currently one of President Obama’s science advisers. And he has to take time out of that life to (once again) remind the world of his value and the value of his children and his many colleagues of color.
It’s funny, because a version of his career is what I want for myself, but I already feel a little bit exhausted.
This is related to some comments by Justices Scalia (RIP) and Roberts about affirmative action, and particularly the value of black STEM students; I have a lot more to say about it (and links to a few articles about being black in STEM) in the related link:
Related: “Black scientists respond to Scalia’s suggestion that they took ‘less advanced’ classes”
