What can your CSWA do for you??

Members of 500 Women Scientists pass Trump International Hotel
on Pennsylvania Ave in D.C. (Robinson Meyer / The Atlantic)

This is a week of calls to action. If you have not taken action to advocate for science, to advocate for women, to advocate for people of color, to advocate for LGBTQIA people, to advocate for astronomers with disabilities, to safeguard the standing of the United States in the World, to protect your children's future... it's time you get it together. It's time you advocate for yourself. It's time to ask us to advocate for you.

I am writing to ask how the CSWA can serve you in this new year. In the same vein as Jessica's post on Monday, I request your direct comments**, your input, on how the CSWA can advocate for you, what action we should take, what action we have not yet taken that might benefit you. We are a resource to the astronomical community, to women in this community, and we hope to become a better resource to minoritized astronomers in the coming years.

Confronting My Own Racism

I am a white woman, and I have spent most of my life not thinking about race. Not in a "we live in a post-racial America" type of way, but just that on an everyday level it didn't really come up that much. Of course when something overtly racist happened, I would notice and be upset by it. I knew that people of color (POC) are underrepresented in STEM, I thought this was a bad thing, and I wanted to increase the number of underrepresented minorities (URM) in Astronomy and Physics. But overall, race and racism was an occasional thought that would briefly come to my mind, and then quickly leave.

Source: Washington Post