My #BlackInDataJourney began when a stats “teacher” drew a histogram of X’s on the board after our first exam to discuss our grades. He raved about the people on the far right, said the people in the middle were OK, & laughed at the sole X on the far left. I was that X.

1/

In office hours he, also dept. chair, suggested that if I spent less time advocating for students that maybe I would pass statistics. I realized then that stats “education” was being used for gatekeeping and to intimidate/silence students. I failed the class. AND IT WAS ON!

2/

I wasn’t sure what to do since I had failed & had to re-take stats again as an undergrad. I was an MA student now and wanted to pursue a PhD. The idea that some people were “math people” was celebrated by many in my dept. I was discouraged yet determined.

3/

I then attended the @SREBDocSch Institutes for Teaching & Mentoring, the largest annual gathering of Black scholars. One of the sessions was focused on “therapy” for people afraid of statistics. I was assured there are no “math people” just bad math “teachers” & was bolstered
4/

I re-took stats with an adjunct professor who actually knows how to teach, passed with an A, and he told me about @StatsCamp, which I attended with funding from http://SMEP.org  and the SUNY LSAMP program—since I was in the Bridges to Doctorate program.

5/

#StatsCamp totally changed my life! I was treated with respect by people who write the stats textbooks. Although the courses were advanced I could follow because NO CONCEPT was assumed to be understood, starting with “variable.” We were TAUGHT! I keep attending for years.

6/

My first semester as a PhD student I was funded on a teaching line & volunteered to teach undergrad stats. Each first class I’d draw that distribution on the board & say that I was here to be the stats teacher for everyone who was told the lie that there are “math people.”

7/

I’ll NEVER forget the reactions of SO MANY Black & brown students to my mere presence in the classroom...& the tears, & anxiety attacks...& eventually the email from one Black student saying my class was the FIRST “A” she had ever gotten in her life . Unbelievable!

8/

I taught for another semester with the same results. Those students petitioned the department to have me follow them as a professor into higher level stats/methods classes. I was for it! Then I was nominated by the dept. chair & won a Quantitative Reasoning Fellowship

9/

I declined the fellowship due to a better funding offer, but in the process interviewed for a placement in a small community college in Manhattan with an innovative approach to teaching struggling “non math people” stats and quantitative reasoning. It stuck with me!

10/

5 years later, during a leave of absence, I applied for and taught a year of stats/quantitative reasoning at that community college. EVERY student in the building was minoritized in some way. Same results! They passed. Those students petitioned to get me hired full time.

11/

I’m on a break from teaching while I complete my PhD. My experiences as a student/teacher have built an INFERNO in me regarding stats “education” and the MYTH of “math people.” We are ALL math people. Terrible “educational” experiences make us believe we are not.

12/

I was THRILLED to work early on with the @BlkInData team because it’s up to US to change how stats,methods, data, etc are used—against us, to make us feel less-than, for gatekeeping, & as fuel for racist pseudoscience. It is clear we are HERE & international and STRONG

end/