Science makes me feel alive - it allows me to ask questions and investigate our world and species in new and dynamic ways. This is mainly because my relationship with being Black in academia is complex. I have at times struggled with conflicting senses of identity and duty. As a Black scientist, I want to educate communities on how science, academia and health care can be improved through the lens of antiracism.

By delivering clear and inclusive interviews and organizing local rallies, I hope to combat scientific illiteracy, health inequity and systemic under-representation. My aim is to amplify the voices and experiences of Black and Indigenous scientists and others who have been hurt by inherently racist medical and educational systems. In response to both the racial tension in the United States and my deep love for science and education, I started the Decolonizing Science podcast in December 2020. How could I ethically continue to work in lab settings while my mind was infiltrated with images of my people being brutalized in the streets and on social media every day? How could I continue to protest while my research was demanding my time and attention? But even more importantly, how could I have a meaningful relationship with science in a way that made me feel dignified? I felt as though I was at an intersection, grappling with a double consciousness of both of my identities, as a scientist and as a Black woman. It was arduous to reconcile my place in academia and return to the laboratory setting after all I had seen transpire in the streets. The importance of genuine investment in equity at the institutional level became more apparent to me after participating in the Black Lives Matter protests held in response to the murder of George Floyd by police in May 2020. But many of those students eventually come to find that they are being used as a tool to aid in departments’ illusion of equity, which generally serves to benefit the department and individual faculty members, not the students.Īntiracism cannot be diluted to a simple increase in representation of students of colour. Often, departments in research universities recruit students of colour by offering a highly manufactured dream, a guise of equity and inclusion. Ashley Paynter at a Black Lives Matter rally in Seattle, Washington.

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