A Celebration of Black Science History

Happy Black History Month everyone! As a self-proclaimed Black History nerd, I am so excited to have the platform to talk about it, especially in the context of our field! Before I do that, I do want to give you a bit of background. I started writing out these posts in 2022, in my downtime or moments of inspiration. And without realizing it, the post we had chosen for February happened to be on allyship, a subject I often think is primarily for white folks. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I also realized we would inevitably be doing what irritates me MOST about what ends up happening with celebrating diversity: we make it about white learning. While I think that’s important, there should also be time to genuinely celebrate all of the diversity of our collective joys and celebrations when we can. So luckily our co-founder Meg suggested I talk about Black History Month, and what it means to me because these posts are all about a diverse array of perspectives.

To me, Black History Month is the time to remember how everything I am today, is because of everything someone else experienced before me. It’s acknowledging the collective memory of struggles for civil rights, and the collective joy of building a stronger community to persevere. It’s passing down stories, memories, joys, and tales that history would like to forget or water down. It’s everything from Good Times to Good Trouble. It’s the acknowledgment of unity among people who may not know each other but share a collective experience. It’s a celebration of various subcultures to create a beautiful tapestry of people over multiple generations. Black History Month to me, continues to be the ability to empower and amplify the story of our ancestors and use whatever resources that weren’t available to them to amplify their story and carry their legacy with our collective joy. It’s the empowerment of our own communities, and the ability to empower other oppressed people groups who have also been historically oppressed or underappreciated in history books. I think it’s a reflection on the ability of various groups to organize and become trailblazers for future generations, like the shift in the culture we see today.

2020 brought a year of reflection on the world as we reconciled with Covid-19 and a rise in civil unrest. We sat at home or at our facilities reflecting on how the times have affected us. Some of us marched, some of us had difficult conversations, and some found ourselves reprioritizing our thoughts and goals. Many groups rose in resistance to the racial discrimination that was at an all-time high after years of tension. Events like Black Birders Week came from incidents that happened to Chris Cooper in New York, a Black bird watcher who was discriminated against because he held a woman accountable for walking her dog off-leash in a park. Black scientists began to come together on platforms like Twitter and Instagram to create hashtags on just how much Black Joy exists in Nature and the Natural Sciences field. Out of shared grief and anger at the mistreatment of Black people’s dignity and humanity. But out of that pain, so much communal joy was introduced to the world.

Now there were multiple organizations rising from the ideas of Black creators to show there are so many incredible and underrepresented people in this field. It kicked open the doors of communication between so many communities, and in a time when we felt isolated, we created a sense of community. I started following Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), which led me to find MIAZS through the annual POSea conference. I’m so glad I’ve found a community of people who are there for me and allow me to use my voice in my own way. Through these communities, I’ve found vital venting partners, and mentors to help give me perspective, and a new way to discover opportunities with a community that would understand my unique concerns. I can’t tell you how invaluable it is to have that level of support behind me, especially when previously I felt like I was advocating for myself on my own. It felt like there was some sort of clandestine journey people went on in this field to somehow succeed without needing to work 4 jobs to make ends meet. Maybe that still exists, but to relieve the pressure of isolation is a wonderful gift. So for Black History Month, I want to highlight a few Black-focused organizations and people in this field that I find admirable and want to amplify for Black History Month. Let me know in the Slack channel if you have other folks that deserve to be added or acknowledged!

• Outdoor Afro (@outdoorafro) is a group dedicated to protecting Black joy outside. It has created a cohort of volunteer leaders across North America that creates safe and fun experiences for Black people in nature. I have only attended one of their events so far which was a phenomenal Juneteenth Beach trip, but I do plan on enjoying more fun in the future!

  
  

• Rue Mapp (@ruemapp) is the founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro and is the author of Nature Swagger. She is dedicated to showing Black folks in natural spaces and creating important connections and leadership opportunities for Black people.

  
  

• Black Girls Trekkin (@blackgirlstrekkin) is a nonprofit organization that amplifies Black women’s experiences with hiking. They share photos and content of different places their community members have met.

  
  

• MISS-Minorities in Shark Sciences (@miss_elasmo) is the group I originally found through a good friend of mine, Carlee Jackson @therealcarlee_b, who is one of the co-founders. It’s a group dedicated to creating opportunities for women, trans, non-binary, and folks of color who are interested in the shark science field. They provide scholarships, and corporate sponsorships, and partner with many facilities to help fund folks for shark tagging and research trips. Their co-founders are also excellent and entertaining folks to follow to teach about shark conservation. You may enjoy following the four MISS founders Carlee Jackson @therealcarlee_b, Jaida Elcock @sofishtication_, Amani Webber- Schultz @curly_biologist, and Jasmin Graham @elasmo_gal.

  
  

• BWEEMS- Black Women in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Sciences @official_bweems is another helpful organization that has helped me connect with other Black women in the sciences field. I got a chance to attend their first in-person conference in January which allowed the first 100 folks who signed up to have accommodations covered for going to the conference. It was one of the most uplifting and empowering professional experiences I’ve had in my life to make connections with so many other phenomenal Black women. It encouraged me to work towards my passions and goals unapologetically.

  
  

• BIMS- @blackinmarinescience is another Marine-focused organization dedicated to creating meaningful relationships between Black marine scientists and inspiring the next generation of scientists. Dr. Tiara Moore @curly_scientist is a self-proclaimed lit Ecologist who founded Black in Marine Science. I enjoyed joining their BIMS week this year, an online conference where many scientists gathered to advise on navigating being a Black scientist in this field. You can still see a lot of the recordings on their YouTube channel @Black in Marine Science.

  
  

• Corina Newsome (@hood_naturalist) is a Black Birder from Philly who is dedicated to getting Black and Brown folks involved in citizen science projects and learning about nature. She is one of the co-organizers of Black Birders Week. I was first inspired by some of her panels at the Association of Zoos and Aquarium (AZA) conference in 2020, where she made the mic-dropping point of how our field cares about rich biodiversity, but rarely cares about diversity in our own facilities.

  
  

• #BlackBirdersWeek was a movement started in response to the events of Memorial Day Weekend 2020 when the world watched as Chris Cooper was discriminated against for asking a woman to leash her dog in a park where he was bird-watching. This week featured so much Black joy of people who go out and enjoy watching, photographing, and identifying birds.

  
  

• Field Inclusive (@fieldinclusive) is a nonprofit that supports marginalized folks who work outdoors in Field Biology. I enjoy their weekly Instagram posts on Monday Mythbusters where they create discussions of common myths with field biologists. Their mission includes creating grants for fieldwork in natural sciences and creating best practices for field biologists with the safety protocols that include the challenges that come with being a minority biologist. They recently hosted their own Field Inclusive week where they hosted webinars from a variety of speakers to talk on topics such as disabilities in fieldwork, science communication, mental health in nature, and field safety topics. I learned a lot of new and fascinating info and would encourage everyone to subscribe to their Youtube channel and watch their content.

  
  

• Minorities in Aquaculture (@mia_npo) is a nonprofit that focuses on educating minority women on the benefits of aquaculture. They are also dedicated to teaching about Black Maritime History and its intersectionality with the Chesapeake Bay. Imani Black (@imaniiiblackkk) is the founder of MIA and an aquaculture enthusiast. My personal interests aren’t in aquaculture but as the descendant of oystermen and women on the Chesapeake Bay, I was really glad to find out about someone from my home state dedicated to bringing together Black folks around the Chesapeake Bay, and teaching about the Black folks in maritime history.

  
  

• Admiral Vince Leggett wrote the book The Chesapeake Bay through Ebony Eyes to raise awareness of the heritage of Black folks and its integration with the Chesapeake Bay. I learned his story through following Imani Black and Minorities in Aquaculture and their commitment to highlighting Black charter captains and influential Black folks on the Chesapeake Bay.

  
  

• Dr. Samuel Ramsey (@drsammygrams) is an inspiring queer entomologist and Nat Geo Explorer who advocates for the role bugs play in food insecurity around the world. I was ecstatic to find him on Instagram because I don’t often find other Black folks who enjoy bugs the way that I do!

  
  

• Jordan Veasley (@junglejordan23) is who folks think of when they think of Black Zookeepers, he is a digital content creator that tells about the realities of being a zookeeper in an educational and entertaining manner. He has created various content about the important work zookeepers and zoos do, across multiple platforms. I remember earlier in my zoo career being told about Jordan by some guests at the zoo I was working. I remember being proud of the reach his platform had to enable all folks to get a good behind-the-scenes look at the incredible work done at a zoo.

Many of the people and organizations I follow on Instagram or otherwise are tailored to my interests, but there are so many wonderful Black folks in the Sciences as content creators. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them on our Slack member channel! I’ve also been suggested by some other phenomenal folks that I have less interaction with but I’ve heard are wonderful sources as well. Check them out below!

Hip hop Science show

• @afroherper- science communicator and herpetology expert

• Black In Geoscience

• Black Butterfly Man @Jpcharisma

• National Association of Black Geoscientists

• @Blackinnpsweek- Celebrating Black experiences in National Parks

• @nhernature- nature therapy for Black Women

If you made it this far in the blog, I truly appreciate your time and attention. Maybe some of you are still wondering, okay ‘why Black History Month?’. Maybe you are too afraid to ask it out loud. Maybe you don’t know the original history of how Black History Month was started. Maybe you don’t see its importance today. I can’t force your mindset, but I will tell you this; when Dr. Carter G. Woodson started Negro History week, it was to reaffirm the collective experiences of generations of Black folks in America. I personally don’t think it’s any different today. We have policymakers and leaders in government saying our history ‘significantly lacks educational value’. Our shared experiences, the things that affected not just my ancestors, but my grandparents, and my parents, and the things that still affect me today, somehow lack educational value. When there is deliberate erasure of your history, you have no way to arm yourself and your loved ones for the present and future. It’s another method of modern-day assimilation and colonialism that can and will go right over your nose without your notice. The massive deliberate erasure of many cultures from the educational system is a way of affirming only certain lives and certain histories matter.

Learning a wide breadth of your culture’s history, and others’ cultural history can only humble you to learn and respect others’ identities. It teaches us about the trial and triumphs of humanity, of how we all experience life differently. Celebrating, grieving, and just being aware of history gives you tools to process the context of life today. Sometimes when I read history I see patterns today, I find ways to respond or feel empowered in my responses to calling out white supremacy when I see it. Honestly, sometimes when I read history, I feel the freedom to grieve collectively. That I still am fighting the same fights we already have. It also acknowledges that the isolation of my pain, my experience, is an illusion, that there is a collective history of people struggling with and for me. Sometimes when I read about brilliant Black folks before me, I’m encouraged, ‘if they could do it with fewer resources, then so can I’. Maybe that bit of history is really just the spark of hope I need to continue the good fight when it feels hopeless.

Celebrating Black History frees me to remember who I am and where I come from in a world that refuses to see it. Celebrating Black History is a way to process and acknowledge the human experience. It’s a way to put the tapestry of history together. It’s a way to be proud and to acknowledge the full spectrum of emotion that comes with your identity, and your cultural identity. So, this Black History Month, I invite you to take a seat at the feet of some incredible people and celebrate their stories with me.

Stay stunning,

Shannon

Shannon Farmer is a MIAZS Member and Conservation Outreach Coordinator.