An actionable anti-racism plan for geoscience organizations

Abstract

Geoscience organizations shape the discipline. They influence attitudes and expectations, set standards, and provide benefits to their members. Today, racism and discrimination limit the participation of, and promote hostility towards, members of minoritized groups within these critical geoscience spaces. This is particularly harmful for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in geoscience and is further exacerbated along other axes of marginalization, including disability status and gender identity. Here we present a twenty-point anti-racism plan that organizations can implement to build an inclusive, equitable and accessible geoscience community. Enacting it will combat racism, discrimination, and the harassment of all members.

Safety and Belonging in the Field: A Checklist for Educators

“…Field teaching is highly valued in GEES disciplines (Mogk and Goodwin, 2012;Petcovic et al, 2014) and has demonstrable positive outcomes for learning (e.g., Elkins and Elkins, 2018), but also presents a number of barriers to safe participation and engagement, particularly for individuals whose identities have been historically excluded from the discipline (Giles et al, 2020;Pickrell, 2020). Ensuring the physical safety of every participant requires special consideration of a number of identities, backgrounds, and protected characteristics (Demery and Pipkin, 2020), including gender identity/expression and sexuality (Clancy et al, 2014;Black, 2019;Olcott and Downen, 2020;Jackson, 2021), race and ethnicity (Hughes, 2016;Anadu et al, 2020;Chaudhary and Berhe, 2020;Viglione, 2020;Ali et al, 2021), disability, neurodiversity, and mental ill health (Gilley et al, 2015;John and Khan, 2018;Tucker and Horton, 2018;Batty, 2020) and the intersection of these characteristics (Scarlett, 2021). The safety of each and every participant is the responsibility of fieldwork staff and particularly the field leader, who have "unparalleled power to mitigate harm in environments they oversee" (Cooperdock et al, 2021, p.1).…”

“…This is a particular challenge for GEES disciplines in certain parts of the Global North 1 , which are, for example, disproportionately white (Bromery, 1972;Bernard and Cooperdock, 2018;Dowey et al, 2021), and where fieldwork environments can be especially hostile to "individuals who do not conform to the stereotype of the able-bodied, white, cis-gender male rugged field scientist" 2 (Marín-Spiotta et al, 2020, p.121). Further, the financial costs associated with fieldwork present income/class barriers to participation (Giles et al, 2020;Abeyta et al, 2021;Ali et al, 2021). For residential fieldwork, a typical component of GEES education, individual autonomy is reduced compared with normal day-to-day routines.…”

“…• If participants will be working in small groups, supply each individual with a printed official letter of support (Chaudhary and Berhe, 2020;Demery and Pipkin, 2020), with justifications from a field leader about why they are in a field location, information about hotel and travel bookings, with university branding and contact information, and ideally with a translation in the local language. If this seems unnecessary, keep in mind that people of colour, especially Black people, may not be given the benefit of the doubt by members of the public or by the police (Bowden and Buie, 2021); "Holding objects (e.g., a rock hammer) has been viewed as 'suspicious' and continues to be used as a reason to call the police on Black people" (Ali et al, 2021).…”

Chronicling the Journey of the Society for the Advancement in Biology Education Research (SABER) in its Effort to Become Antiracist: From Acknowledgement to Action

“…Most scientific professional societies have a history of racial exclusion and continue to grapple with issues of inclusion and diversity within the membership (Cech and Waidzunas, 2019;ASM Diversity, 2020;Lee et al, 2020;Segarra et al, 2020b;Ali et al, 2021;Carter et al, 2021); the ubiquity of this problem illustrates its systemic nature. Steps to address racial inequity are specifically important for professional societies because these societies ought to provide a platform for individuals from minoritized backgrounds to share their research and build a network for their continued professional success (Morris and Washington, 2017;Segarra et al, 2017;Lee et al, 2020;Segarra et al, 2020b;Harris et al, 2021;Madzima and MacIntosh, 2021).…”

Reply on CC1

“…) This field emphasis has been used for many years to recruit students to the discipline that have an affinity for, and appreciation of, the outdoor environment. An ongoing challenge in geoscience disciplines is to increase access and inclusion for all students (Bernard and Cooperdock, 2018;Ali et al, 2021; among many others,) yet field-based learning experiences can present a significant barrier to those efforts (e.g. Clancy et al, 2014;Giles et al, 2020.…”