DEI programs should be supported, not derided, especially in science fields
Questioning is the beginning of understanding!
Franklin
Omaha World-Herald. Midland's Voices: Iqbal Ahmad, Ph.D.
March 9, 2025
The acronym DEI is a topic of heated debate, with a negative connotation. Whereas, in its full form - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - represents an effort required of an empathetic and civilized society to bring on board all those who have been marginalized and left behind.
Like any social program, it is not perfect, but it is honest and necessary. While we must follow the law, let's look at it from the perspective of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) education, which assures upward social mobility through high paying jobs and is necessary for the country's economic prosperity.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which include 200 former Nobel prize recipients among members, concluded based on historical facts, current data, and lived experience that marginalized racial and ethnic groups face inequities in STEMM higher education and the workforce. For example, Black individuals account for only 9% of STEMM jobs.
Remarkably, their challenges begin as early as in the fourth grade, where they lag behind White and Asian students in reading and math. This is not due to their lack of ability but of a supportive environment, which may be traced back to historical redlining of Black neighborhoods, an example of which is North Omaha.
The 2023 academies' report highlights a 2021 Brown University study, which found that schools located in formerly redlined neighborhoods, regardless of their national location, received almost $2,500 less in funding per student and reported lower math and reading scores than those in the non-redlined neighborhoods.
Add to this the lack of generational wealth, discrimination in employment, and disparity in health care and one can begin to see the barriers, invisible to many of us, that restrict a community from realizing its true potential.
This is a nationwide problem with epicenters in every state, including Nebraska. For example, the poverty rate among Black people in Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area is 21.5% compared to the overall poverty rate of 9.5%, which is reflected in Black household income of less than 60% of their white counterparts, according to United Way of Midland. Disparity in income breeds disparity in education and opportunities.
Even after acquiring the highest STEMM education, their struggle continues. For example, the callback for a faculty position these days requires an applicant having funding as a principal investigator from federal institutions like National Institute of Health (NIH). A recent Yale University study showed that Black people were just 1.8% of all principal investigators on NIH grant projects.
The scientific evidence for the barriers created around marginalized minorities is overwhelming. Honest appraisal of the facts leads to a painful self-reflection, an example of which can be read in the 2020 editorial in the reputed science journal, Cell: "We are the editors of a science journal, committed to publishing and disseminating exciting work across the biological sciences. We are 13 scientists. Not one of us is Black. Underrepresentation of Black scientists goes beyond our team — to our authors, reviewers, and advisory board. And we are not alone."
We must ask ourselves, as the Cell editorial suggests, if we are helping to maintain the status quo through our inertia, thus adversely affecting the lives and livelihoods of marginalized minorities and aspiring scientists among them.
A society grows when every member has an equal opportunity to grow. Such self-reflection is a prelude to finding a determined solution, based on scientific evidence, for providing unfettered access and opportunities to those hemmed in by multiple social barriers from childhood to adult.
This is a virtue of an empathetic society.
Iqbal Ahmad is a professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He studies how stem cells can be used to treat neurodegenerative diseases that cause blindness. His opinions are not that of UNMC