Supporting Black Children Learning STEM
[Music]
in the summer of 2016
i had recently finished studying abroad
in cape town south africa for six months
and i flew to new york city to begin
my first internship
at google
i was 20
nervous
and shy
and upon entering into orientation i
remember looking
for one of my
morehouse
brothers
fast forwarding into
that internship i was
engaging in
an exciting
and remarkable project
i had the opportunity to explore the
perks and amenities of being
a google employee
however the most
memorable opportunity i had was bringing
friends and family into the office
and the first question i would ask them
is what are you in the taste for
because what they did not know that
inside of that building there were over
eight restaurants with top of the line
chefs
who were equipped to prepare healthy
and tasty meals of various cuisines
and that same summer my cousin
mackenzie ridley had just turned 13
and she came to new york city to visit
and so we went to google after dark
we
sat on
one of the balconies that overlooked the
new york city skyline we rode around the
hallways on scooters
we even had a nerf gun fight
and we stopped to recharge that many of
the micro kitchens
we even had church
where she hopped on that drum set
and i grabbed that microphone and i sung
a common phrase and worship song that is
sung in the black church
but i’ll spare my vocal cords for the
time being
however later in life i began to wonder
if mckinsey realized that she was
completely surrounded by still
the chemistry that went into the food
that she ate
the mechanics of the scooter she rode on
the anatomy of dodging
those nerf gun pellets
and even the acoustics of playing
that drum
and so that led me to the research in
which i’m pursuing today is how is it
that we can
expose children
to stem
that is rooted in their culture and is
fun
but more importantly how is it that we
can
excite
and invite black parents and children to
want to do stem
in their own lives
and so when i was at google i was
studying computer science at morehouse
college
i was a gates millennium scholar
yet in that space i questioned my
credibility and belonging
and that’s a serious problem
impostor syndrome in
belonging
so how is it that
we can
excite black children to learn stem
so that one day they’ll be able to
pursue a stem career
and they won’t have to worry about
if they’ll see someone that looks like
them or not
and that is what i’m here to talk about
and so
growing up
in my childhood bedroom i had
glow-in-the-dark
stars on the ceiling
and i remember the telescope that sat by
the window and i had many hot wheels i
was a boy
and so i had many hot wheels
and
i remember when i lost the tooth
the tooth fairy left a kite
under my pillow where my mom and i went
to the park and we flew that kite up
against the wind and we would go to
driving park with my great grandfather
and we would count the cargo that is
being pulled by
the steam engine
and so subliminally i was surrounded by
stem but today i’m seeing its
intentionality
and so
how is it
that we can get more black children who
grew up just around the corner from here
to be excited
about learning stem
and how is it that we can expose and
excite these black children to learn
stem when it’s rooted in their culture
and it’s driven by their curiosity
because
what is stem
it’s science technology engineering and
math but in short curiosity
is simply
what is it that your child sees
what is it that they’re thinking about
what is it that they’re wondering about
and what is it that they’ll know
and so
when
we allow children to be curious
because we know that many children are
curious
they will
they’ll go around the house they might
take apart the vacuum cleaner
they might go around pushing different
buttons around the house
and they might be like me and they might
touch the stove
but when we invite and we expose
children to do activities alongside of
us and we talk to them about and we ask
them questions it opens the door
that welcomes and validates their
curiosity
so
did you know
that we are suffering
uh from a lack of infrastructure that
supports our children’s curiosity
and just in 2011
there were only 29 black students
that took the advanced placement
computer science course
out of 3 000 students nationwide
we can’t even compute the data to see if
black children are capable of taking and
studying computer science because of the
lack of infrastructure
that won’t provide them the opportunity
to take it
and did you know
in columbus city schools
there are
zero
offerings of ap computer science
so even if we gathered all the children
that we knew to go and to take this
course there’s a lack of infrastructure
to even to provide them with the
opportunity
and another threat to
the
that another threat
to children’s curiosity
is the infrastructure that is not in
place
that protects them
so the safety and security of their
curiosity
and so
did you remember
my my cousin mackenzie who i
brought to google and she was exposed to
stem she was surrounded by it
had a great time
well she died
from gun violence
so
imagine not even imagine
what if we invested in infrastructure
like the ap courses and after school
programs and recreational center
programs
and just more robust programming that
would support the curiosity
of our children allowed them to explore
it but in a safe and secure environment
because when one black child dies
that’s a decades worth of intellect gone
and so together
we must invest in this infrastructure
that protects children’s curiosity
their dreams
and even their own lives
so what is it that i want you all to do
today
i want you to become advocates for still
and i’m here to dispel the notion that
you have to have a college degree in
stem in order to talk about it because i
just finished my dissertation study
where i took 15 black parents and
together we
learned how is it that we find stem and
the everyday things that we do
at the beginning of the study ah they
they questioned themselves they didn’t
know how to do it and so there was a low
level of confidence but by the end of
this study
they were sharing activities and this
their general excitement
that they can do it
and that they
can talk about stem in their homes and
so what might that look like well
thanksgiving and the holidays are coming
up and so how about when you’re getting
ready to pull out your grandma’s pound
cake recipe ask your child why is it
that we put only a teaspoon of baking
soda and now a cups worth
uh the the next time you’re watching
that movie black panther
ask them if vibranium is real
or the next time you’re brave enough to
brisk this cold weather and to go out to
the park and there’s a lake
ask them why certain rocks skip better
than others
and if you don’t know the answer to this
these questions
guess what
you can google it
and so
today
we have to be able to provide these
opportunities
for our children to learn stem that is
rooted in their culture and their
curiosity so that one day they don’t
have to question their credibility
and so
this
is what i encourage you all to do
go home
do something stem
because you can find stem in the
everyday like listening to music to
watching movies to cooking to baking
to playing basketball and even playing
uno
and when you do that for your children
you are encouraging them to see that
their everyday scientists engineers
designers and more
that way
when they
grow up instead of
doubting themselves and questioning
their credibility when they are in the
stem profession
they’ll know
that they belong
thank you
[Applause]