Several years ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a local science conference. Because it was free, I took my upper-level chemistry class. There were only three, so there was not an issue of space, reservations or anything.
When we arrived, I was glad to see my students were excited to attend, as this was their first science conference ever! I was excited because they were. Great day to be had all around, I surmised.
During one of the breaks, an elderly gentleman approached me and introduced himself. Of course, I could not recall his name five minutes later, so there is no way I would remember anything about him now except his age, color and the words he said to me after introducing himself: “I thought he would be out playing basketball,” indicating the lone young man who was in my class. The other two were young ladies.
Initially, I found his statement amusing, if for no other reason than the young man in question was, in my opinion, short and painfully thin! He did not look particularly athletic to me and I could not imagine him going for a layup or a three-pointer. Then, the true meaning of this supposedly innocuous assumption hit me: my student is Black; ergo, he should be out playing a sport.
What a leap to make but that is what this man meant. There were other males there, so it could not have been a place where his gender would have come into question. Could it have possibly been his race? After all, I and my three students are part of the vast African diaspora and the questioner definitely was not.
When I relayed this interchange with my students, they reacted with only vague interest. But I informed them that, because this man’s thinking is not unique, they may face such comments or questions as they travel through life.
A former student obtained a great internship in Texas. He was assigned to conduct a sophisticated spectral analysis of a molecule. Because his fellow lab worker had never heard of Florida Memorial University, he assumed that the student could not possibly grasp the instrument’s function or data output. He neglected to consider that some of his professors were Drs. Ayivi Huisso, Thomas Snowden, Telahun Desalegne and me. I would say our unofficial but collective motto is “think or sink.” The young man did not sink. From that internship, he got a first-author paper published. He is now an M.D. and Ph.D.
