The privilege of moving past

The past weekend brought a flurry of activity in the science blogging community, much of it having to do with the assumption of power and authority (and their abuse) associated with gendered roles.

To recap, an editor at biology-online.org made reference to Dr. Danielle Lee as a “whore” when she refused an offer to make a (unpaid) contribution to their online publication. Dr. Lee, a woman of color, responded to the reference by posting a response on her blog, the Urban Scientist, at SciAm. That post was very quickly deleted by the editors, initially without explanation. Why should Dr. Lee not be allowed to respond (and her response is great) when called a whore? The response from Scientific American as to why they deleted the post was slow in coming and awkward in production.

The story got a lot of attention, however, and one of the people who saw it was Monica Byrne (Wellesley ’03), a writer and playwright. Ms. Byrne, it turns out, has had her own unwanted and unwarranted encounter with the coordinating editor of SciAm’s blogs, Bora Zivkovic. While she had previously described her experience of sexual harassment with Zivkovic without naming him, Dr. Lee’s story prompted her to name him. And sure enough, in the comments to her post, she is not the only one who describes this kind of behavior from Zivkovic (despite his apology which describes the encounter with Ms. Byrne as an isolated incident).

So in the span of a few days the science blogging community witnessed two events unfold, both predicated on the power dynamics that permeate the seemingly open and friendly community of online science bloggers, writers, and professionals. I had no prior connections with any of the people involved in these events, but I am a fellow science blogger and as such I think it is right to reflect on these incidents.

The point I would like to bring up now is the problem with the desire, particularly in this case expressed by those in positions of power, to “move past” these issues. A desire to move past unpleasant (and at times criminal) events like these is not ok. “Moving past” is simply another expression of privilege, the same kind of privilege that makes the actions directed at Dr. Lee and Ms. Byrne far too frequent. A woman subject to repeated acts of harassment because she is a woman cannot “move past” that reality. A person of color regularly subject to the assumption of inferiority cannot “move past” that reality. A person whose sexual orientation does not match your own preference and is therefore discriminated against, legally and illegally, cannot “move past” that reality.

Rather than “move past,” we, especially those of us in power or gifted with the privilege of the “proper” gender, skin color, or set of attractions, should seek to linger. Linger in the moments of doubt and uncertainty we have about our own actions (or inactions) and our own culpability in the past. All of us in that position have certainly had many moments when we have actively or passively assumed a position of power and authority because of who we are and the privilege, benefit of the doubt, and assumption of innocence/correctness granted to us. Spend a little time lingering and you will no doubt uncover things you have done (or not done) that facilitated the bad behavior of those around you. And probably you have done some bad things, too. I have.

I haven’t called anyone a whore. I haven’t improperly propositioned someone I have professional power over. But you don’t have to be that obvious to be a part of the problem. Think about your behavior at conferences. Think about your behavior in faculty meetings. Think about your behavior in the field. Think about what you tolerate in others and what you do yourself. Think about the papers you think are “seminal” and look at the authors. How many of them are women? How many of them are researchers of color? Think about how you treat international collaborators and colleagues. Linger in these questions for awhile and probably, like me, you will feel a lot of things float to the surface that are not “the best version of yourself” if not worse. Linger in that feeling and you will likely realize it sucks. But don’t move past it. If you, if I, want to create a better community, better scientists, and better science, that discomfort associated with the realization of your active use of privilege is one of the keys. It needs to be our guide. And no, don’t expect a cookie for the effort.