Race Talk: Ending the Conspiracy of Silence at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

In May of 2019, the graduate students at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University received a racist mass email from a non-affiliate that outlined various racist arguments for why people of color are inferior to whites. This incidence of overt racism started a campus-wide discussion about the forms of racism that persist at LDEO and the institutional racism that pervades academic institutions and the US. In response, we started a book discussion group focusing on issues of race. The first book that we read together, after which the group was named, was "Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race" by Derald Wing Sue. The goals of the group are: to encourage the predominately white campus community to engage with issues of race; to end the "conspiracy of silence" at LDEO, whereby white people avoid and distract from uncomfortable discussions of race (which Sue calls "Race Talk"), reinforcing white privilege and power; to discuss the ways in which we can become a more inclusive community for people of color; and to find ways in which we can combat racism to become better scientists and educators. Here, we present the progress that has been made involving Race Talk both within and outside the book group. We show that attending the book club has increased the participants' sense of how knowledgeable they are regarding race issues in the US and increased their confidence and ability to talk about race and racism with their colleagues. The book includes specific guidelines for Race Talk discussions in the classroom, which is critical for increasing participation and retention of students of color in the geosciences. Most of the participants are early career, and we are encouraged by evidence that this group is already engaging in productive Race Talk with the broader community. The book discussion format gave participants the tools and opportunities to discuss race with their colleagues, and we highly encourage other academic and scientific institutions to adopt this model. We have made the specific topics covered public, and compiled the resources we found helpful for facilitating these discussions to allow others start "Race Talk" at their institutions. These resources are available at our website: https://diversity.ldeo.columbia.edu/content/race-talk