Black Lives Matter

The Society for Women in Marine Science stands in solidarity with protestors and grass-roots organizers across the country who demand an end to police brutality, and that we dismantle white supremacy in order to build a society that is safe and equitable for Black people.

White supremacy and anti-Black violence prevents Black marine scientists from accessing the resources and power needed to fully participate in marine science.

Our mission is to support and uplift women who work in the field of marine science. In order to do this, we need to acknowledge that science is complicit in the culture of white supremacy that resulted in the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, among countless others. White supremacy and anti-Black violence prevents Black marine scientists from accessing the resources and power needed to fully participate in marine science. Institutionalized racism prevents marine science from doing work in the service of all people. Uplifting Black marine scientists' important contributions is central to the SWMS mission. We are actively working to build a safe and just environment for present and future Black marine scientists.

Taking Action

We encourage all SWMS members to engage in anti-racism work, to pull down the systems of oppression, racism, and inequality that exist within ourselves, our workplaces, our communities, academia, and the world at large. We urge non-Black members to find ways to donate money, time, and other resources to causes including Black Lives Matter, Movement 4 Black Lives, Color of Change, bail fund networks, voter registration, and more. 

We also encourage our members to do the hard work closer to home, to listen and learn. There are so many resources available for this work, including Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s’ books and his anti-racist reading list, Black feminist thinkers such as Dr. Angela Davis, and hashtags like #BlackinSTEM and #BlackinNature to find new scientists to follow and collaborate with. 

ShutdownSTEM: June 10th, 2020

Finally, we support the #ShutdownSTEM and #ShutdownAcademia actions for this Wednesday, June 10. We ask non-Black SWMS members to disrupt business as usual, educate themselves, and make a plan for a lifelong commitment to meaningful anti-racist work. We will have a channel in our Slack workspace (open to all members) devoted to conversations about anti-racism work, which will be actively monitored and facilitated by members of the SWMS Steering Committee.

Sincerely,
The SWMS Steering Committee