Nowadays, science seems to be all political science. That is to say, it’s all political.
This is true for Physics Education. Hence, Seattle Pacific University Professors Amy Robertson and W. Tali Hairston are attempting to purge the pedagogy — of whiteness.
The academic duo has put together “Observing Whiteness in Introductory Physics: a Case Study.”
The writers promise to “articulate analytic markers for whiteness, and use the markers to…analyze whiteness as it shows up in an introductory physics classroom interaction.”
Horrifically, whiteness is currently “shaping degree-granting (and all of the processes and practices therein) in physics.”
A mere few years ago, we weren’t nearly so societally aware of the plague of the pale.
However, there have been great successes in overcoming our ignorance:
Report: Red State Spends Millions so Disabled Preschoolers Can ‘Deconstruct Whiteness’
School District Hosts Year-Long Anti-Whiteness Training to Fight ‘Curricular Violence’ in Math
‘Antiracist’ Mental Health Association Fights the Empathy-Strangling ‘Ghost’ of Whiteness
Major University Professor Fights Math’s ‘Harbor for Whiteness’
Extremely White College Professor Fights the Lie — and ‘Disease’ — of Whiteness
Major University Trains Its Faculty in ‘Confronting Systemic Whiteness’
Forensic Anthropologists Say ‘Cloaked’ Whiteness Soils Science
Geology is perhaps the most outrageous scientific example. Experts claim black people won’t dare enter the discipline because they’re afraid to hold hammers.
This article is from Nature Communications
Geosciences should be accessible. But, communities must also recognize that BIPOCs and other marginalized scientists are sometimes not safe in geosciences spaces. 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, which can lead to the death of Black individuals, entirely because of racial profiling and an unjustified fear of Black people.
Back to physics, Amy and W. Tali aim to “provide instructors and researchers with a tool for identifying whiteness.”
It’s all about CRT:
Critical Race Theory identifies racism as a scourge of U.S. society. It covers all aspects of life, including employment and schooling. This is evident in differential prisoner rates, infection rates and deaths in COVID era, as well as police brutality. This is also evident in physics. For example, the American Physical Society reports that whereas almost 16% of the U.S. population aged 20–24 years is Black, only 3% of bachelor’s degrees in physics and 1.8% of doctorate degrees are awarded to Black students. This is in contrast to about 73% of the U.S. population aged 20–24 being white, and 72% and 75%, respectively, of bachelor’s and doctorate degrees being awarded to white students. Critical Race Theory would cite this as evidence that white supremacy, or the “systemic maintenance of the dominant position that produces [w]hite privilege,” is shaping degree granting (and all of the processes and practices therein) in physics.
And…CWT?
In the tradition of Critical Whiteness Studies, our goal in this study has been to “make whiteness visible,” and particularly to make clearer the “ordinariness” of whiteness in introductory physics classrooms.
During analysis, they overlook individual acts of racism against whites. Racist would be to do so.
[T]he individuals-as-racist story fuels whiteness by treating each incidence of racialized harm as an exception, recusing white people from addressing structural harm.
Bottom line — they’re opening doors to new possibilities:
Alongside our discussion, which imagines new possibilities for physics teaching and learning, we hope our work contributes to Critical Whiteness Studies’ goal of dismantling whiteness.
Along the way, Amy and W. Tali are dotting their woke I’s and crossing their woke T’s. In fact, they refuse to use the term “colorblind”:
We use the language of race evasiveness, rather than color blindness, because color blindness, as a term, “conflates lack of eyesight with lack of knowing” and is thus “inherent[ly] ableis[t].”
As for physics, it’s come a long way since Isaac Newton. Priorities are being improved. Who cares about what an apple does when America’s fruit is white supremacy.
We will hopefully be able to return one day to actual science. Also math. History. However, until whiteness is eradicated it seems that old-school academics continue to clash with higher priority things. Wokeness wins, and that’s simple physics.
-ALEX
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