I think that last SER panel was great. It was needed. And, I wished that there was more thought & analysis about how the goal post is not the same for POC/is constantly shifting. It's less about "who is right for the position?" when my "ethnic" name doesn't get me considered.

It's less about "just applying for jobs" when I have to consider that I may be the "only" at an institution and the tokenism ( https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/11/what-is-faculty-diversity-worth-to-a-university/508334/) . It's less about "finding good mentors" when faculty members believe you to be academically inferior ( http://advising.utk.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2017/09/Colorblind-Mentoring-JDHE-12-2015.pdf)

Obviously the panel was about sharing *personal* stories. One can only speak from one's lived experiences. And some experiences are universal and will aways be helpful. However, the personal is political. Whose personal is more political? ( https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039 )

Especially as instutions commit to engaging in anti-racist work, I'd like to see more integration of thinking through an equity and anti-racist framework in all of the work that we do. Not just work we specifically label "DEI".

I'd like to end with the fact that critique is not censure in case anyone misreads my musings. In conversation with Nikki Giovanni, James Baldwin said "if I love you, I can't lie to you." Though I am borrowing Baldwin's words out of context, they ring true here.

If I didn't care about SER, epi and this community of academics, myself and other students who look like me, I wouldn't bother with these threads.