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Tomorrow, @repeatedroots and I are giving a workshop on epistemic plurality, antiracism, and anticolonialism for the @TppMit Research to Policy Engagement Program. Anyone is welcome! For a primer on what to expect, see below: 1/ 
Aditi and I have noticed and discussed how many/most institutional discussions about antiracism and anticolonialism touch upon similar things: institutional representation of BIPOC, and the notion of "access" for BIPOC--for example. 2/
Discussions in the nuclear field, for example, are often about increasing the # of women and BIPOC in nuclear institutions-non profits, government, academia, etc. The implied goal here is actually *assimilationist*, not antiracist, if it is the only goal of these interventions 3/
What is implied in these discussions is that we can solve racial inequity by simply putting more diverse people in institutions--even if we change absolutely *nothing* about the way these institutions work, define research and knowledge, make policy, and consider stakeholders. 4/
Is it an antiracist or anticolonialist solution to have more BIPOC working in the nuclear weapons complex as missileers? To have more BIPOC working in nuclear waste management to shuffle the burden of waste onto under resourced, marginalized predominantly POC communities? 5/
(Spoiler, the answer is no.) 6/
The aforementioned interventions are assimilationist: they aim to "add more voices" to the table, without changing the purpose, structure, or definition of the table itself. Antiracist, anticolonialist interventions acknowledge that the table itself-as is-creates inequity. 7/
To add seats to the table, we're essentially adding categories of people who are "allowed" to sit at the proverbial table (which has been the arc of history generally), but there are still categories we will (by definition) leave out. STEM and policy have a problem with this. 8/
A true antiracist, anticolonialist mindset interrogates the very table itself: the process of knowledge- and expertise- making (epistemology), the norms around deciding what a "field" (e.g. nuclear engineering) is and is not, and the purpose for a very field's existence. 9/
Most institutions don't do this part. In STEM we are particularly, WOEFULLY, and ABYSMALLY failing at this. And this is a crucial reason why DEI efforts fail. Some of examples of what failing to do this looks like or sounds like in institutions and departments: 10/
(1) Uplifting BIPOC scholars who's work is in line with the already existing aims of a given field, but devaluing scholars who's work expands or challenges the norms of a field as "DEI work", or as "too niche" or "low impact" (Hello, academia is all about niche!) 11/
(2) Thinking it's antiracist to have more BIPOC scholars to teach and learn in a "history of nuclear weapons" course, without adding content about the racist, colonialist aims and mechanisms of nuclear programs, or the legacy of harm to POC by nuclear weapons programs 
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(3) Educating more BIPOC doctors--say OBGYNs- without challenging or even discussing the history of that field, how it relied on dehumanization and non-consent from BIPOC women to even *develop*, and how gendered and racial stereotypes about women impact the field today. 13/
(4) Being unwilling to discuss or uplift issues that impact BIPOC and under resourced groups specifically--e.g. in the workplace, academia, etc--and being unwilling to add those issues to the canons of academia, mainstream organizations, expertise, and prestige. 14/
What's missing from these conversations are two things: a a willingness to interrogate (1) the epistemology of a field, and (2) the salient norms of society that were present at the time of a given field's creation and development 15/
Or put another way: who was allowed at the proverbial table when this field developed, and what did we collectively say and think about those who were *not* allowed at the table at that time? (spoiler, we probably dehumanized and dismissed them!) 16/
Tomorrow, @repeatedroots and I plan to delve into this w/discipline specific examples & tools for how to combat this phenomenon. For those who are willing and trying to make real antiracist, anticolonialist changes in their fields (as opposed to assimilationist ones)--come! 17/
Register here and we hope to see you there! https://tpp.mit.edu/event/research-to-policy-engagement-structural-racism-and-accountability-in-the-nuclear-science-community/ 18/end
