Just deserts
By J.D. Gantz
I was on a long road trip through the western U.S. when my route took me through the Mojave Desert in rural Nevada. And I mean rural Nevada. At one point in the drive, a sign stating “next gas 163 miles” prompted me to turn around and refuel in the unincorporated town of Tonopah, Nevada. Tonopah also happened to be the largest town I had encountered all day, with a population of nearly 2,500 people.
A couple hours after refueling, and well after dark, I acquired a flat tire while between the towns of Rachel (population: 54) and Alamo (population: ~1,000). The acquisition of an inch-long gash in my tire almost certainly had nothing to do with the owl that caused me to pull off the road abruptly in rough terrain to look for it.
Somewhat deflated, I maneuvered my car into a conveniently-located pullout beside a dirt road intersecting the route I was on. Because it was late, I decided to wait until morning to assess the situation and spent the night roadside, sleeping in my car. Morning brought the unpleasant realization that I did not have a spare tire. Instead, my car proffered only an air compressor, which is of limited utility when dealing with a large, owl-induced gash that severely compromised the airtight qualities that I value in my tires. Though it took fifteen or twenty minutes for the next car to come by, the motorist offered to call for help as soon as he found a place with cell phone signal.
Fast forward two hours. The police officer who arrived to help asked me a startling number of questions about why I was there. It was clear that he was suspicious of me, though I did not understand why. Later, while the officer and I were on our way into Alamo to call a tow truck, he explained the situation— the spot I used to pull over and sleep was an access road to the highly-classified facility known as Area 51, which is famous for conspiracy theories tying this location to government testing on aliens and their technology.
This is where the story turns from a lighthearted anecdote about a road-trip mishap to a serious discussion about something much more important.
When the officer arrived to help, I was comfortable and calm, even happy to see him, despite hoping for a tow truck instead. When he pulled in behind my car, I was away from the road chasing lizards around the desert, so I had to walk back over to my car. I approached casually, without any hint of concern. While walking his way, I noticed the officer donning a mask as he got out of his cruiser (we are in the middle of a pandemic, after all). To respond in kind, I reached through the open window of my car and started rifling through my glove box, looking for my mask. The officer, who had been approaching me, stopped abruptly, tensed, and placed his hand on his gun. Quite suddenly, I realized how my actions looked without proper context and, slowly, showed my hands and articulated my intentions to the officer. After that, our encounter went smoothly and he was very helpful, but this moment stuck with me.
I lead a remarkably privileged life.
My privilege as a straight white male is very apparent in this story. I can see a police officer arrive and feel happiness, even relief. I can be so relaxed and comfortable in such an encounter that it is possible to forget about managing how my actions are perceived by the officer.
People have been killed for less.
Similarly, while this officer was questioning me, I was struck by how thorough his line of questioning was and how skeptical he was of everything I said. My privilege allowed me to regard his skepticism with curiosity. I didn’t understand why he was so interested in me, but it didn’t register as a potential threat or problem. In the moment, I was comforted by the fact that I had done nothing illegal, so all I needed to do was answer honestly and everything was going to turn out all right. That confidence was also an expression of my privilege. Many people who have done nothing wrong have real and pressing reasons to worry about their encounters with law enforcement because of the color of their skin and a deep history of police violence against people from marginalized groups.
My privilege has huge implications for my life and contributes greatly to who I am and how I see the world. It allows me to be nonchalant when interacting with law enforcement. It allows me to feel a sense of belonging in a classroom or among my academic peers (impostor syndrome notwithstanding). It has made it easier for me to find mentors, acquire new skills, have life-changing experiences, and to use these skills and experiences to earn a living. You do not need to be full of prejudice and hate to experience white privilege; it is passively bestowed in the present-day U.S., where many people benefit from their privilege without knowing it. Further, acknowledging this privilege as a white person is not akin to saying that my life has been easy; instead, it simply means that my progress has never been hindered by the color of my skin.
People from all backgrounds may face challenges associated with family life, socioeconomic status, access to high quality education, etc. These challenges are not unique to one group; any person may encounter distinctly more hardship to overcome than others from their same race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, etc. I do not mean to diminish those individual challenges or dismiss the people who achieve great things despite their personal hurdles. Those successes require grit, determination, and effort. Instead, I would like us to acknowledge that Black people must overcome those same challenges, which they experience just as acutely, with an added layer of hardship that comes from being Black. If you doubt that latent racism exists in the U.S. today, or that it decreases the accessibility of success, please consider that resumés with Black-sounding names received 50% fewer requests for interviews than identical resumés with racially ambiguous names (Bertrand and Mullainathan, 2004). Or, consider that Black people are 2.7 times more likely to be arrested for drugs than White people, despite using and selling drugs at a similar rate (Rates of Drug Use, 2016). Or, consider that the median financial net worth of Black families in the U.S. is almost 10x lower than the median financial net worth of white families (McIntosh et al., 2020). These injustices are persistent and pervasive in every aspect of our society because our social systems are racist.
Many people face similar disadvantages based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, and physical abilities. The resulting loss of diversity in positions of leadership and in our communities is costly, as science, business, and society all benefit from increased diversity (Richard, 2000; Nielsen et al., 2017). Everyone benefits from more people realizing their potential; our world becomes better and our experiences become richer and more varied when people from all backgrounds have an equitable chance to participate.
This blog is a platform for my colleagues, collaborators, students, and me to share our experiences as scientists. While much of what you see here will focus on biology, it is important to talk about the whole range of experiences we have working as biologists in this world. Thus, among the posts about insects and our adventures studying them, we will also write about our personal paths into science and the challenges we face along the way. I am not the person you should rely on to learn about how racism and prejudice affect people from marginalized groups; I have only ever experienced life from the perspective of a very privileged person. Instead, you should listen to people who are living these challenges and are working to overcome the associated difficulties. To that end, please take the time to meet my friends and colleagues who are sharing their experiences. If someone talks about challenges that do not resonate with you, do not dismiss their experiences as somehow invalid because you have no concept of what that particular struggle feels like. Instead, please take some extra time to appreciate the effort it takes for someone to talk about frustrating and vulnerable parts of their life and consider how your privilege might influence your inability to understand their perspective.
With that in mind, I am excited for you to hear from some of the incredible people I am fortunate to work with!
Citations
Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. (2004). Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination. American Economic Review, 94(4), 991-1013.
Rates of Drug Use and Sales, by Race; Rates of Drug Related Criminal Justice Measures, by Race. (2016, October 21). https://www.hamiltonproject.org/charts/rates_of_drug_use_and_sales_by_race_rates_of_drug_related_criminal_justice
McIntosh, K., Moss, E., Nunn, R., & Shambaugh, J. (2020, February 27). Examining the Black-white wealth gap. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/
Richard, O. C. (2000). Racial diversity, business strategy, and firm performance: A resource-based view. Academy of Management Journal, 43(2), 164-177.
Nielsen, M. W., Alegria, S., Börjeson, L., Etzkowitz, H., Falk-Krzesinski, H. J., Joshi, A., Leahey, E., Smith-Doerr, L., Woolley, A.W., & Schiebinger, L. (2017). Opinion: Gender diversity leads to better science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(8), 1740-1742.