ABOUT PARTICLES FOR JUSTICE

Particles for Justice is a group of people and every single member whose name appears on any given document serves an essential role in our work. We conceive of ourselves as a consensus-based, non-hierarchical group. We are diverse in ethno-racial and national background, gender identity, and current career status, and we treat each other respectfully and equally. This organizational structure itself is an action against the fundamentally unequal groups, organizations, collaborations, and departments we often find ourselves in.

A note about reporting on our work

We as a group have noted with concern that in reporting stories about the Strike for Black Lives, members of the press have repeatedly reached out to Brian Nord, a Black man, without reaching out to Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a Black woman. In addition, we’ve noticed that credit for the documents tends to go primarily to Brian N. This is misogynoir. Therefore, we want to clarify that Brian N. and Chanda developed the idea of the Strike together and in coordination with Brittany Kamai, Jedidah Isler, and the rest of the Shutdown STEM and Vanguard STEM teams. Those who are familiar with Chanda’s work will immediately recognize her voice in the strike call. Furthermore, Brian N.’s personal letter was added to the website under Chanda’s editorial guidance. The authors of the call for the Strike for Black Lives are listed in alphabetical order after the names of our two Black members, who are also ordered alphabetically.

Particles for Justice is a collective effort and the entire team worked on all aspects of this endeavor. We all contributed language and edits to the statement, and we all stand behind the message. We believe it is important to highlight Brian N. and Chanda’s contributions, but are troubled that when they are highlighted there is a tendency to assume that he is the leader. We are mindful that this site began as a response to sexism in our field. If you’re going to assume there is a leader, why not assume it was a woman? Moreover, many activities were necessary to make the website and the call within it a success. Websites and emails don’t write themselves. We all fit this work in between science meetings, family responsibilities, organizing strike/shutdown events in our communities, and moments of intense grief, leading to over a week of consecutive 12+ hour days for many, if not all, of us.

There is no single leader or single person who is responsible for the Particles for Justice site or any of the activities associated with it. We did it together, even as we paid close attention to the views and needs of the two co-authors who are most impacted by anti-Blackness. Every aspect of our work was collaborative.

In general, as a group, we are concerned by the social forces which produce a need to specify this level of detail about our activities -- a culture in which media observers and our fellow academics cannot acknowledge or accept that a group can work collaboratively and leaderlessly, yet remain effective. This idea runs counter to the present-day reality of large scientific projects. We also want to note that when given the choice to confer credit, academics and members of the media will typically choose to give it to men over women and white women over Black women.

Finally, we appreciate the warm messages we have received from so many of you about our activities. We want to be clear that we can’t and won’t claim ownership over the topics that we have asked the community to address. We encourage everyone to challenge racism, misogyny/sexism, ableism, transphobia, queerphobia, xenophobia, anti-Indigeneity and other dehumanizing biases as you encounter them. This is our shared responsibility.