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Movement-Building in STEM in the midst of the #BlackLivesMatter 
Movement starting now #AAASmtg featuring @AAAS @IfThenSheCan ambassadors Jasmine Sadler @theSTEAMcollab, @Afro_Herper & @DrEsquivelPhD https://virtual.aaas.org/movement-building-in-stem-in-the-midst-of-the-black-lives-matter-movement
Movement starting now #AAASmtg featuring @AAAS @IfThenSheCan ambassadors Jasmine Sadler @theSTEAMcollab, @Afro_Herper & @DrEsquivelPhD https://virtual.aaas.org/movement-building-in-stem-in-the-midst-of-the-black-lives-matter-movement
. @Afro_Herper & @theSTEAMcollab talking about how many natural scientists & engineers who want to see change don't have academic backgrounds for how to tear down systems of oppression & rebuild in effective ways. #AAASmtg
. @Afro_Herper talking about Black Birder Week, "being able to be within such a group & have that solidarity was a pretty amazing thing to be a part of & it was a relief to know I wasn't alone. Having everyone come together to create such an impactful event? There is power in # s"
. @theSTEAMcollab "Lots of life experiences make me a diverse person. It's not just the color of my skin that makes me diverse" #AAASmtg
"If we're all talking about the same thing - fighting white supremacy & patriarchy - we're living in a gaslight. Having a community to lean on? It's hard to overstate the value of that" - Brian Nord #AAASmtg
"A lot of people right now are still resistant to have difficult conversations especially in academic environments. But it doesn't do anyone a service to not have those conversations. The most compassionate thing is to be honest" Brian Nord #AAASmtg
"You don't know how big a deal it is for you to even be here with us" <-- Jasmine's words to a white professor who showed up to be part of Black aerospace engineers activity & was humble & spoke to them as equals. A baseline for allies but important #AAASmtg
. @Afro_Herper "Honestly, I'm tired of it" - on why she doesn't often engage about diversity b/c of how often her concerns are dismissed. "If I have to have a hard conversation about it then *you* need to do more work & research" #AAASmtg
"As I got older I had those complicated conversations [w/ family] addressing issues of race, gender, sexuality, and colorism. It was hard. But there was trust in that relationship. And love. And that let us sit in that conflict & come over to the other side" @DrEsquivelPhD
Jasmine talking about the pain of difficult conversations: "That makes me have to relive that trauma & I have a photographic memory. I have to go back there & sometimes I'm not emotionally strong to go back there for them. It's not fun & I don't *have* to do it." #AAASmtg
"Folx want us to be Black but they don't want us to be Black. That stuff gets co-opted in a minute & I haven't seen a situation where that doesn't happen" - Brian
"Ah you want my #. But you don't want all of the experiences that come with me being black or a woman" Jasmine
"Ah you want my #. But you don't want all of the experiences that come with me being black or a woman" Jasmine
Q: How to be a good ally?
@Afro_Herper "We don't want to take on your trauma on top of our trauma." Hire Black ppl & let them do what you hired them to do. Open your imagination to what a world without white supremacy looks like. White supremacy harms non-Black ppl too #AAASmtg
@Afro_Herper "We don't want to take on your trauma on top of our trauma." Hire Black ppl & let them do what you hired them to do. Open your imagination to what a world without white supremacy looks like. White supremacy harms non-Black ppl too #AAASmtg
"There are no more time for bandaids. Now we need radical change. Y'all have waited 400 years. The problem is the system & policies in the system. The bandaids are not useful. We need ppl to stop saying change takes time. We're not working on your clock" - Brian Nord #AAASmtg
"Sir, I'm Black everyday" <-- @Afro_Herper on why Black people don't have time to wait for equality and justice and change.
Digital learning & more accessible ways to engage happened overnight. A vaccine was developed in months. @theSTEAMcollab giving evidence that change CAN happen quickly when we care & try. Telling people change takes time is no longer a valid excuse #AAASmtg
"Black people are told to wait. Just sit in that. 400 years have passed & yet they are still telling us to wait." @DrEsquivelPhD #AAASmtg
"Genius is not rare. So fire those people who are preventing you from removing white supremacy from your institution" @Afro_Herper on not being afraid that someone is irreplaceable. You lose more genius by being discriminatory. #AAASmtg
