Originally published at: Animation: NASA roboticist who is a Black woman recounts the moment another engineer assumed she was a secretary | Boing Boing
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The “innovation takes courage” message here is overshadowed a bit by my takeaway from the story that for some people, innovation first requires unnecessarily expending a huge amount of energy dealing with sexism and racism in the workplace…
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My takeaway’s a little different. Courage is needed, yes, but also an open-mindedness to new ideas and ways of thinking. A scientist seeing a black woman walk in and immediately assuming that she’s a secretary without even allowing her to introduce herself is a bad sign towards open-mindedness and new ways of thinking.
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I’m thinking of the scientist who is a black woman, where her attempts to innovate are being constantly side-tracked by having to deal with sexism and racism before she can do anything. It’s fucking exhausting.
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It IS exhausting, and I’ve only had to deal with being a woman who is white. When you have to constantly reinforce your qualifications and reinsert yourself into conversations that should include you…it sucks. In the beginning I tried so hard to be tactful (and to be fair, fragile egos demanded it), but as I’ve aged I’ve stopped giving so much of a crap about hurt feelings and just barge in. But it really wears you down, and sometimes its easier to just sidestep stuff than to keep pushing to be included.
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I would suggest Hidden Figures as further reading material, having read it myself for the first time recently.
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To implement innovation may be an act of courage. To create and to innovate should be an everyday experience, from the largest idea to the minutia of loosening a rusty bolt.
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