Growing up in Hampton, the face of science was brown like mine.
Interpretation
Margot Lee Shetterly reflects on her experience of seeing diverse representation in the field of science during her upbringing.
In this quote, Margot Lee Shetterly emphasizes the importance of representation in the sciences, particularly for people of color. Growing up in Hampton, she was surrounded by scientists who looked like her, which played a crucial role in shaping her identity and encouraging her aspirations in a field where diversity has often been lacking. This statement affirms that seeing oneself represented can inspire individuals to pursue careers in fields they may have thought were inaccessible to them.
In practice
In a speech addressing young students, this quote can inspire them to pursue careers in STEM fields.
A lot of times, we talk about black people as if being black is all they are. They get up, go to work... and are as complex and interesting and variable as any other group of people. We don't often capture that or write about it.
I feel like, in a lot of ways, 'Hidden Figures' is the book that I wrote and have been waiting to read since I learned to read.
For too long, history has imposed a binary condition on its black citizens: either nameless or renowned, menial or exceptional, passive recipients of the forces of history or superheroes who acquire mythic status not just because of their deeds but because of their scarcity.
Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century.
But in most cases even the possibility that the correlations reflect shared genes is taboo.
Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility... It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission.
Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. String theory does so again because a point particle is replaced by a string, which is more spread out.
[Mathematics] is security. Certainty. Truth. Beauty. Insight. Structure. Architecture. I see mathematics, the part of human knowledge that I call mathematics, as one thing - one great, glorious thing. Whether it is differential topology, or functional analysis, or homological algebra, it is all one thing. ... They are intimately interconnected, they are all facets of the same thing. That interconnection, that architecture, is secure truth and is beauty. That's what mathematics is to me.
We went to the Moon as technicians; we returned as humanitarians.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.