Time to look in the mirror


12 JUNE 2020 • VOL 368 ISSUE 6496    1 1 6 1S C I E N C E   sciencemag.org

EDITORIAL

T
his is a grave time in American history. Both the 

public health and economic problems of corona-

virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were foreseeable. 

But even more predictable is the racial tension 

gripping the United States in the wake of the 

brutal killing of George Floyd. It is easy to think 

that the problem is isolated to individual racists 

in the community and in the government, and that the 

scientific enterprise is immune to racism. Scientific in-

quiry produces knowledge, and that ultimately leads 

to justice, right? 

Not so fast. The U.S. scientific enterprise is predomi-

nantly white, as are the U.S. institutions that Science’s 

authors are affiliated with. The evidence of systemic 

racism in science permeates this nation. Why are so 

few Science authors from historically black colleges 

and universities? Why are the scien-

tific areas studied more frequently 

by people of color continuously un-

derfunded by the government? Why 

do students who are people of color 

have to remind society that they are 

almost never taught by someone 

who looks like them? Why has the 

United States failed to update its 

ways of teaching science when data 

show that people of color learn bet-

ter with more inclusive methods? 

If there had been more diversity in 

science, would we have the pain-

ful legacy of the Tuskegee syphilis 

study and the shameful nonrecogni-

tion of Henrietta Lacks’s contribu-

tion to science?

Dr. Lisa White, a professor at the University of 

California, Berkeley, and chair of the American Geo-

physical Union’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory 

Committee, pointed out recently that environmental 

racism wouldn’t be such a problem if there were a 

more diverse science professoriate. For example, only 

4% of tenured and tenure track faculty in the top 100 

geoscience departments in the United States are peo-

ple of color.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. de-

scribed this problem in 1963 in his “Letter from a Bir-

mingham Jail”:

“First, I must confess that over the past few years I 

have been gravely disappointed with the white moder-

ate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion 

that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride to-

ward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or 

the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is 

more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers 

a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a 

positive peace which is the presence of justice; who 

constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, 

but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; 

who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable 

for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical 

concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro 

to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’”

The reckoning Dr. King calls for has not happened in 

the intervening 57 years. The failure of the white mod-

erates to heed the call of the Birmingham Jail is just as 

integral to today’s systemic racism as the racist actions 

of some law enforcement. It’s not just abusive police 

that need to be reminded that Black Lives Matter.

It is time for the scientific estab-

lishment to confront this reality and 

to admit its role in perpetuating 

it. The first step is for science and 

scientists to say out loud that they 

have benefited from, and failed to 

acknowledge, white supremacy. And 

then science and scientists finally 

need to listen to, and make space for, 

people of color to lead laboratories 

that publish great science and pro-

duce influential scientists, run insti-

tutions and their scientific units, and 

propel Science and other journals to 

promote structurally underfunded 

scientists and areas of science.

Someone I turn to for wisdom 

and leadership on this issue is Dr. 

Valerie Sheares Ashby, the Dean of the Trinity College 

of Arts and Sciences at Duke University. As an African-

American woman, she claims that she is leading to-

day only because a few people decided to let her into 

this exclusive club—something she says hardly ever 

happens. “How much creativity are we leaving on the 

table,” she asks, “because science repeatedly fails to 

come to terms with our narrowly defined processes 

and our limited ways of determining success?”

As in the past, the scientific community is express-

ing anguish, outrage, and renewed commitment to 

promote equity and inclusion. But when the protests 

wind down and disappear from the headlines, science 

will be at a familiar fork in the road. Let’s have the 

courage to take the right path this time.

–H. Holden Thorp 

Time to look in the mirror

H. Holden Thorp

Editor-in-Chief, 

Science journals. 

hthorp@aaas.org; 

@hholdenthorp

Published online 8 June 2020; 10.1126/science.abd1896

P
H

O
T

O
: 

C
A

M
E

R
O

N
 D

A
V

ID
S

O
N

“…scientists 
finally need 
to listen to, 

and make space 
for, people of 

color to lead…”

Published by AAAS

o
n
 A

p
ril 5

, 2
0
2
1

 
h
ttp

://scie
n
ce

.scie
n
ce

m
a
g
.o

rg
/

D
o
w

n
lo

a
d
e
d
 fro

m
 

http://science.sciencemag.org/


Time to look in the mirror
H. Holden Thorp

originally published online June 8, 2020DOI: 10.1126/science.abd1896
 (6496), 1161.368Science 

ARTICLE TOOLS http://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6496/1161

CONTENT
RELATED http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/369/6505/781.full

PERMISSIONS http://www.sciencemag.org/help/reprints-and-permissions

Terms of ServiceUse of this article is subject to the 

 is a registered trademark of AAAS.ScienceScience, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005. The title 
(print ISSN 0036-8075; online ISSN 1095-9203) is published by the American Association for the Advancement ofScience 

Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works
Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of

o
n
 A

p
ril 5

, 2
0
2
1

 
h
ttp

://scie
n
ce

.scie
n
ce

m
a
g
.o

rg
/

D
o
w

n
lo

a
d
e
d
 fro

m
 

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6496/1161
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/369/6505/781.full
http://www.sciencemag.org/help/reprints-and-permissions
http://www.sciencemag.org/about/terms-service
http://science.sciencemag.org/