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Why are there so few black people in STEM?

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Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#22

Why are there so few white people in pro basketball?

What are you implying?

I read his comment as "inherent racial disparities in ability". For basketball, I doubt you'll find many that disagree.

For STEM, or computer programming and math at least, it's far harder to know. Certainly there are very few black people in tech/math, at least at the higher levels.

Perhaps part of the problem is that empty virtue signaling (like banning the terms "master" and "slave") is easy, but actually doing the work that would really matter is hard. I spent a couple hours helping a black kid polish up for his Google interview (he made it).

That's something, but it will really take serious tutoring and a society wide scale to bridge the gap. And other socioeconomic factors might still prove overwhelming.

And for gods' sake, the whole "girls that code" thing needs to die right now. Can you imagine how a young black man would be affected by that?

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#23
> Research has pointed out that students are more likely to regard teachers of the same race and ethnicity as role models, and due to proximity to them, put more effort into education and have higher college ambitions.

Is this claiming that students in homogeneous societies are at an advantage, because they are more likely to share their teacher's ethnicity?

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#25
I could venture a guess, and its probably why i'll never go from my current job as a diesel mechanic to junior python programmer no matter how badly i want to:

criminal record.

in the US you can discriminate against employees who have any sort of criminal record. I've served jailtime for possession of cannabis, so that automatically rules me out for a lot of white-collar jobs. Black people tend to get the brunt of policing, and hold disproportionately high rates of misdemeanor and felony charges and longer sentences. I got 3 years for my conviction, but i know a black machinist who served 8 and a parole for an almost identical charge.

We call them "correctional facilities" but continue to discriminate in housing and employment for anyone who's been 'corrected' in one...sort of a standing biblical retribution.

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly Native Americans/First Peoples, Pacific Islanders, or individuals who self-identify by ethnicity rather than race on these types of reports.

Also people of Indian descent, for whom it can sometimes be pretty annoying to get dumped into the 'Asian' bucket.

That was my first thought. Probably (maybe wrong, just IME) most 'people from the Western portion of continental Asia' don't see themselves (I suppose we say 'self-identify' now) as 'Asian'.

Similarly to we Britons speaking of 'Europe' and particularly 'Europeans' with the 'continental' implied - and even that phrase not really making sense, not meaning the same as 'mainland'!

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#27
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps some come from the 2nd Largest demographic group, Latinx, (about 16% of the population). As another commenter said, that leaves about 9% who don’t fall into these major groups.

On modern surveys of this sort (for example, the US Census), 'of Hispanic descent' is usually a separate question entirely from the 'White / Black / Asian / etc' one, in a clumsy attempt to capture the overlap of mixed-ethnicity groups.

That would support the hypothesis, if latinx people check ‘other’ and ‘of Hispanic descent’.

Many modern forms just say ‘check any that apply’, so you can check both white and Asian, for example.

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#28

This article says white people are underrepresented in earning science and engineering bachelor degrees. Lol.

When I did my computer engineering undergrad, there were just a handful of US-born white people (or black people) in any of my classes. They were mostly filled with the children of working-class immigrants and foreign students.

edit: we joked that the progression of generations went: immigrant maid/janitor -> engineer/nurse/lab tech -> doctor/lawyer -> artist/unemployed philosopher

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#29
post #25

I could venture a guess, and its probably why i'll never go from my current job as a diesel mechanic to junior python programmer no matter how badly i want to: criminal record. in the US you can discriminate against employees who have any sort of criminal record. I've served jailtime for possession of cannabis, so that automatically rules me out for a lot of white-collar jobs. Black people tend to get the brunt of po…

So your premise is all Black people have criminal records and that is why they aren't in STEM?

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#30
post #7

Who is getting the rest of the undergrad science degrees if Asians, Blacks, and Whites only account for 74% of them?

Possibly Native Americans/First Peoples, Pacific Islanders, or individuals who self-identify by ethnicity rather than race on these types of reports.

Doesn't America have a great deal of mixed-race people (like their prior President)? Or is that not usually treated as a separate category there?
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