Ally Diana 61459 Critical Response Group 01

Racial Disparity in STEM: How Microaggression Affects Work Opportunities and the
Diversification of Computer Science

Racism is a repulsive manifestation of the disparity in diversity that is evident in most sectors. It is
prejudice based on racial supremacy, in its simplest definition. With a considerably growing number of
minorities pursuing their education in tertiary education and thus preparing to enter the workforce,
would they encounter issues with employment? If they are hired, how would they be received in the
workplace? Additionally, how would diversity in the workplace improves the working environment and
by extension, the product of their work? Could a social hierarchy based on race influence employment
and the working environment? How would a person’s circumstances and earlier education affect
workplace racial disparity? According to Smith (2016) in an article for Science, he reported his
experiences of being seen as inferior and feeling alienated in a foreign continent despite his prodigious
credentials, confessing that he only felt welcomed among his fellow researchers from Africa. This
implies that microaggression towards historically marginalised communities is still prevalent in the
present day. With a brief look at the Science, Technology, Engineering (hereafter referred to as STEM)
and Maths field in general and later, a narrowed focus on the computer science industry, I will state my
agreement with the article that employment discrimination is motivated by racism by focusing on names
and ethnic ancestry.

Names are found to influence employment. Eaton et al. (2019) studied how applications for postdoctoral
positions were reviewed by 251 faculty members who were uninformed on the true nature of the study.
The names were manipulated to reflect gender, ethnic and racial origins (Eaton et al., 2019). Based on
one of eight identical curriculum vitae, the participants were then asked to evaluate the likeability,
employability and capability. Their study found that in both the physics and biology faculties, applicants
with names reflecting Caucasian or Asian origins were more favoured than applicants with Afrocentric
or Latino names (Eaton et al., 2019). In response, a recent study records that “subgroup of folks, it is a
hit for their gender and also their race,” (Langin, 2019, para. 6). Dickens (2010, as cited in Langin,
2019). notes that students who read the findings of the study may question how racial microaggression
will affect their academic advancement and career progression. The effect ethnic-sounding names seem
to correlate with racial stereotypes and favour historically superior races. Hence, employment
discrimination is shown to be motivated by names with cultural origin.

In STEM, racial disparity is noted to increase starting from early education and into career progression.
The computer science field, in particular, illustrates this racial inequality this quite well despite being
an industry that would benefit from diverse experiences and cultural viewpoints. Goode et al. (2012)
note that the cause behind the prominent homogeneity in computer science is primarily due to

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Ally Diana 61459 Critical Response Group 01

underprivileged students being denied opportunities to learn it. There are so many misconceptions about
minorities having lower probability of pursuing a career in computer science. An online article entitled
“Perceptions of reasons” (2016) found that the participants mostly believed that it is due to the lack of
role models in the Computer Science while other factors also include the lack of exposure to the subject,
lack of encouragement from their own community, and lack of opportunities to learn it. Goode et al.
(2012) addressed these issues and concluded that psychological forces such as gatekeeping behaviour
from the educators and structural forces such as limited access to technology are the primary causes for
the decrease in a diverse pool of learns and consequently, employees (Goode et al., 2012). Computer
science, being a field which revolves around technology, appear to be a costly choice of education for
those who are lacking financially. This fact greatly affects minorities as they are likely to be paid salaries
either below or barely above the poverty line (Cooper, 2018). A combination of financial strain and
costly technology are deadly for marginalised communities, and as an effect, prevents greater exposure
to computer science, resulting in the lack of people of colour in the working environment.

In conclusion, the belief that racism influences labour market opportunities and career progression is
reasonably true. The cherry-picking of applicants based on racial identity affect career progression due
to ingrained association of racial stereotypes with the applicants. Racial gatekeeping and income have
shown to affect the diversification of computer science from early education, leaving the racial gap
much larger as more students are unable to pursue a career in the aforementioned field. It is hoped that
affirmative action be taken to increase labour opportunities to marginalised communities and improve
the diversification of world viewpoints in computer science, and one such example is to enable or have
professionals participate in programmes that train those in marginalised communities in skills that may
spark their interest in STEM and develop such skills without having to overcome limitations that may
put them at risk.

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References

Cooper, D. (018). Workers of color are far more likely to be paid poverty-level wages than white
workers.https://www.epi.org/blog/workers-of-color-are-far-more-likely-to-be-paid-poverty-
level-wages-than-white-workers/

Eaton, A. A., Saunders, J. F., Jacobson, R. K., & West, K. (2019). How gender and race stereotypes
impact the advancement of scholars in STEM: Professors’ biased evaluations of Physics and
Biology post-doctoral candidates. Sex Roles, 82, 127-141.

Goode, J., Chapman, G., & Margolis, J. (2012). Beyond curriculum: The exploring Computer Science
Program [PDF]. ACM. http://www.exploringcs.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Goode-
FinalInroadsJune12.pdf

Langin, K. (2019). Racial and gender biases plague postdoc hiring.

https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2019/06/racial-and-gender-biases-plague-postdoc-hiring

Perceptions of reasons for underrepresentation of certain racial and ethnic minorities in Computer
Science. (2016). Diversity gaps in Computer Science: Exploring the underrepresentation of
girls, blacks and Hispanics. https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/diversity-gaps-in-
computer-science-report.pdf

Smith, E. (2016). Doing science while black. Science, 3(7), 1586-1596. doi:
10.1126/science.353.6307.1586