I'm sure that most of the class, if not everyone, has heard about the ninth-grader Texas who was arrested for bringing a clock to school...and for being brown. Ahmed Mohamed had built a clock and brought it to school to show is engineering teacher and then a different teacher reported him to the principle for having a suspicious item - AKA a bomb. While there are initiatives around the country to encourage minorities, and specifically people of color, to enter into STEM fields, we see people reacting with instantaneous fear and anxiety at the image of a brown student with a box of wires.
This country has been traumatized by September 11, 2001 and we will not forget this pain and anxiety and it has shaped our collective consciousness in irreversible ways; however, this tragedy should not be used as a justification of Islamaphobia and discrimination. Alia Salem of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said, "I think this wouldn't even be a question if his name wasn't Ahmed Mohamed...He is an excited kid who is very bright and wants to share it with his teachers." (http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb/). On the other hand, the Irving Police Chief, Larry Boyd, said that they would not have reacted differently to Ahmed if he had been white, stating, “You can’t take things like that to school.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/us/texas-student-is-under-police-investigation-for-building-a-clock.html). We can choose to take these statements however we would like, however, I am dishearten to find that there might be another reason for the low percentages of minorities in STEM: the fear of seeing minorities with technological power, which acts as a deterrent for students of color who do not want to be labeled terrorists.
Ahmed has been getting an overwhelming amount of support through online social media - every one from President Obama to Mark Zuckerberg. People are showing support for a bright young mind interested in STEM and condemning the actions of the teacher, high school and police. There is an overwhelming call to support young people in their endeavors to create technology and change the world. Ahmed has told the press that he feels the support and is overwhelmed by the positivity. There are some critics who say that this is just another show of "slacktivism" but on the other hand, has the online support not reached Ahmed? Has it not relaunched a conversation about our country's prejudice rooted in trauma? Can Twitter claim more "real world" power than it is given credit for?
I agree that this story is bringing up lots of interesting questions about race, technology, social media activism, etc.
ReplyDeleteOne type of backlash that I saw a lot on social media was jealousy-based/based on self-interest, i.e. people saying "if I (or a white child) built a clock, would I be invited to the White House?" It reminds me of similar critiques of affirmative action where people accuse it of being unfair, special treatment, always forgetting that the "special treatment" was enacted in the first place to counteract a serious, already present inequality.
On the other hand, I just saw on Facebook today that Microsoft had sent Ahmed their whole suite of new products and Ahmed had posted a picture of it with a thumbs up--and implicit endorsement? I don't know if I'm particularly cynical but I immediately thought of that as a great marketing move on Microsoft's part rather than a genuine interest in helping kids get into tech. In this case I can kind of understand people who reacted negatively and said that Microsoft should have put that money towards actually getting more minorities into STEM fields. Would we consider this activism or slacktivism or a business tactic or all of the above?
I also agree with the message behind these articles. I think that the case definitely revealed the school administrator's implicit bias but it is so hard to pin down and say that "this is racist". I would be interested to see if there had been any other cases similar to this one in the school district (given their rules about around 'hoax bombs'). To go off of what Anna said, my cynical side is telling me that the big tech firms had a self-centered motive when endorsing Ahmed. Realistically though, how often does a marketing opportunity like this come up for them? MIT, for example, invited him to their big science competition, thus promoting that competition. These companies all actively support efforts to get more minorities into STEM fields so it ultimately makes sense for them to promote themselves and show their support when the public is watching the story develop. As to people complaining that Microsoft should use that money to help promote minorities getting into STEM fields, I think that this IS them promoting their efforts. Plus that argument is pretty stupid anyways. We are talking about a company worth billions of dollars. Giving away one set of hardware makes absolutely no difference to how much money they put towards other efforts. You could make that argument about hundreds of other business decisions a company like Microsoft makes when spending its money. While I do agree that big tech companies could do more, I really think that our school systems could do a LOT more and make a bigger difference, too. As an aside, NYC is the first city in the US to require that the schools teach computer science. Its supposed to go into effect by 2025 http://www.ischoolguide.com/articles/26394/20150920/bill-de-blasio-city-public-computer-science.htm
Delete