The SEAS Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging welcomes Dr. Ebony O. McGee as we conclude our Community Read series on her most recent book, Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation.

Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation brings together more than ten years of research on high-achieving, underrepresented racially minoritized (URM) students and faculty in STEM fields. I argue that we actually should be flying in our cars and having a whole lot more in the way of sophisticated technology that improves our lives and without damaging the planet. So, what happened? This book explores the individualistic, ultracompetitive, lily-White (and some tokenized Asians), mostly heterosexual, militaristically grounded, middle- to upper-class, nationalist, able-bodied, biased STEM culture. This is the very STEM culture that has not invented (mass produced) flying cars and has delayed or halted other seemingly out-of-this world innovations. Why? Because underrepresented people of color have been largely been left out or marginalized in the STEM ecosystem, and those that make it through harbor the bruises. What does it mean to be an academically successful STEMer of color when people of color are few in these fields and bear the burden of negative beliefs about their ability and motivations?” I ask: How do some students manage to survive brutal academic climates, and what does it cost? Why do schools continue to recruit URM people into disciplines whose climate regularly drives them away? How does excluding people of color from STEM disciplines limit innovation?