Defining Who Scientists, Engineers and Mathematicians

On yesterday, I was at an urban film festival that closed with a series of short films that were a part of a project called "The Black Masculinity Project". As I reflect upon the film and the discussion that took place afterward about how do we define black masculinity and who controls how the image of black males are portrayed in the media. How does this impact how society views black men?

Although, how the media portrays different ethnic groups in society is a never ending discussion and something that we can't control; i will focus on what I can control defining who scientists, engineers and mathematicians are to our children. Many children don't pursue STEM careers because they don't see those careers as something that they can pursue nor have they meet someone who looks like them in those fields. Through media and television, many kids see STEM professionals as geeky, nerdy, weird people and mostly white males. Even if they see or hear about African American scientists, engineers or mathematics, they hear about those that are no longer with us such as Dr. George Washington Carver, Dr. Percy Julian, Garrett Morgan or those that are still alive like Dr. Neil Tyson, a brilliant astrophysicist, who has several Ivy League Degrees. Although,I believe that Dr. Tyson is a brilliant scientist, how many of our kids are interested in astrophysics. Dr. Carver, Dr. Julian and Garrett Morgan were brilliant scientist and engineers, but we still have scientists and engineers that are still alive that are making contributions to society. But how do we introduce them to innovative engineers like Dr. Lonnie Johnson, who invented not only the supersoaker, but is still creating innovative products to enhance our quality of life. We need to introduce them to the scientists and engineers that are working for academic institutions, corporations and government agencies, that aren't geeky, aren't white males and if you didn't ask them, you wouldn't know that they were scientist and engineers.

We define who scientist, engineers and mathematics are by introducing as many STEM professionals to K-12 students as possible. But most importantly, by telling them that if you are good math and science and want to pursue a career in the fields. You create the new definition of who next generation of scientists, engineers and mathematicians will be.