The writers of the letter remind the racial proportions, which, in their opinion, need to be corrected:
In 2001-02. of the 675 lifetime professors at the university, there were 18 blacks, 18 Hispanics and 0 American Indian, so 5% are colored teachers. Twenty years later, in 2019-2020, among the 814 professors, there were 30 blacks, 31 Hispanics and 0 from the indigenous population. Now it is 7%. The numbers are even worse in the STEM sector (science, technology, engineering and mathematics - science, technology, engineering, mathematics). This is not progress by any standard; according to the US Census Bureau, blacks and Hispanics make up 32% of the total US population.
The American Physical Society (which has 55,000 members) has closed its office as a sign of its commitment to ending "systemic racism." Nature magazine published an article "How to Create an Anti-racist Laboratory." The University of Michigan forced its vice president, physicist Stephen Hsu, to resign, whose crime was to study the connections between human genetics and cognitive abilities. Linguistic students signed a petition demanding the expulsion of psychologist Stephen Pinker from the American Linguistic Society for criticizing an article in the New York Times in one of his tweets.
Forbes magazine is concerned about a decrease in the number of African Americans pursuing a bachelor's degree in physics.
In physics, the percentage of black Americans pursuing a bachelor's degree has plummeted over the same period, even as the percentage of Hispanics nearly quadrupled. Today, across all STEM fields, black American representation is lowest in physics and astronomy: ~ 3% in physics (up from over 5% in 1999) and ~ 2% in astronomy. As part of a first-of-its-kind study, the American Institute of Physics developed a national task force to raise the level of representation of black Americans in physics and astronomy.
In 2001-02. of the 675 lifetime professors at the university, there were 18 blacks, 18 Hispanics and 0 American Indian, so 5% are colored teachers. Twenty years later, in 2019-2020, among the 814 professors, there were 30 blacks, 31 Hispanics and 0 from the indigenous population. Now it is 7%. The numbers are even worse in the STEM sector (science, technology, engineering and mathematics - science, technology, engineering, mathematics). This is not progress by any standard; according to the US Census Bureau, blacks and Hispanics make up 32% of the total US population.
The American Physical Society (which has 55,000 members) has closed its office as a sign of its commitment to ending "systemic racism." Nature magazine published an article "How to Create an Anti-racist Laboratory." The University of Michigan forced its vice president, physicist Stephen Hsu, to resign, whose crime was to study the connections between human genetics and cognitive abilities. Linguistic students signed a petition demanding the expulsion of psychologist Stephen Pinker from the American Linguistic Society for criticizing an article in the New York Times in one of his tweets.
Forbes magazine is concerned about a decrease in the number of African Americans pursuing a bachelor's degree in physics.
In physics, the percentage of black Americans pursuing a bachelor's degree has plummeted over the same period, even as the percentage of Hispanics nearly quadrupled. Today, across all STEM fields, black American representation is lowest in physics and astronomy: ~ 3% in physics (up from over 5% in 1999) and ~ 2% in astronomy. As part of a first-of-its-kind study, the American Institute of Physics developed a national task force to raise the level of representation of black Americans in physics and astronomy.