This week’s projects varied. I did not have a computer at the beginning of the week, but eventually I got one that was okay to use. While I personally did not do any huge projects, I did learn a lot about myself and others this week. This week was based around the idea of racism in the STEM field.
Monday: On Monday, since I didn’t have a computer, I joined the meeting with Noah and Indiana over my phone. We talked about our situations at the time. I told them my situation with having a computer, and we came up with an idea. Originally, I was supposed to practice using Python, a coding software. We decided that I should continue my literature review until I find a computer to use for coding.
Tuesday: Fortunately, my mother works at the hospital in Cortez, so she was able to grab me a temporary computer. I had attempted to download Python and other software, but that failed. Because it was a hospital computer, I needed an administrator passcode and ID. I updated Noah on my situation, and we agreed for me to continue my literature review on retrofitting commercial buildings. Besides that, we had a whole group meeting, with Professor Amy Landis. Prof. Landis checked in with us and how we were doing. After going around, she explained an event at Mines that was happening on Wednesday. The event is called #ShutDownSTEM day. It’s dedicated to recognizing racism in the STEM field, and how it really isn’t recognized or known. She recommended that we do some research on how People Of Color (POC) do face racism in the STEM field, specifically our field.
Wednesday: Since our day was dedicated to educating ourselves, I took the time to research the tragedy of the commons. The tragedy of the commons is a situation in which there is a shared resource that everyone has access to, but some individuals abuse their power and take more than they need. For example, let’s take International waters. No one owns those waters, so everyone is free to fish. If some individuals overfish, then other individuals are at a disadvantage, because there are no fish to catch. The tragedy of this situation is that the founder of this situation was a racist. To be a racist, then share this ‘environmental problem’ and detest it is hypocritical. This ‘environmental problem’ is also a huge economic and social problem. Many POC are left at a disadvantage because privileged people overuse or abuse their power and rights to certain things. They abuse their power of having easier access to bring down people who don’t have easy access. Think of any situation between a white individual and a person of color, the white individual would most likely get better treatment or easier access.
Thursday: I had a meeting with Indiana and Noah the next morning. We went over what we learned and how it affects us. Indiana had focused her research on more of an international view point. Many people don’t realize that racism and colorism is in all countries and places. Noah focused his day on how hard it is for POC to have access to ‘energy saving’ buildings. A lot of factors play into it. For one, to retrofit your house costs a lot of money. If one is already at an economic disadvantage, adding more and more onto your bill is not helpful to that individual. After our discussion, Noah and I had a conversation on what I should do, since I completed my literature review. Fortunately, we had found a website where I could practice JavaScript coding. JavaScript is different than Python, but all coding is important. So I got on the website and got to work.
Friday: We had a meeting with our mentors in the morning. We didn’t have much to go over, because we had a later meeting with the whole group. The meeting with our mentors was basically just a check up and what we were looking forward to doing that weekend. When 1:00 pm approached, it was time for our group meeting. At our group meeting we went over what we learned on #ShutDownSTEM day. I had learned a lot, because each individual in the group came from a different field, so they all had something interesting to say. One thing that stuck with me is how processed food and low income communities tie into minorities’ lives. It is sort of a loop. People that have a low income buy processed foods, because they are cheaper. Buying the processed food pays the huge companies who mass produce corn and soy. Those companies have to pay the government. The government contributes greatly to racism and keeping people of color ‘poor’. It’s a way to keep the poor poor.
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