NASA has led hard science employers in diversity metrics since its founding. They hire the best that they can, regardless of their identity. They’ve hired fascists like Von Braun. They’ve hired Hidden Figures like Katherine Johnson. There is a good write-up with facts and figures in the intro to the book version of Hidden Figures. NASA in the 1960s was a moonshot to combat racist hiring practices in STEM in the South. NASA’s strategies for hiring the best from any background worked, and they kept working in spite of inconsistent support from the white house in later decades.
That’s what I used to say. Last few years were rough, and now I’m unemployed largely due to a mismanagement of DEI-like programs that is historically uncharacteristic of NASA. I know that it’s only anecdotal evidence, but as a minority misserved by these programs, I have some sour feelings towards them. I hope that removing them will allow NASA to focus on its previous diversity strategies that worked so well in decades past, including when I was first coming up through the system during the Obama administration.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility are fabulous values that make science and engineering products better. NASA’s wonder and its execution on that wonder changes the world. DEIA values make sure that those changes do the most good and help the most people. DEIA at its best is a strategy of listening.
All that said, I find it hard not to be a little happy at seeing that the latest iteration of these programs are getting rethought, even if it may take four years before anyone is allowed to try rebuilding them. They had become punitive and more interested in exclusion of “wrong thinking” than inclusion of diverse and different viewpoints. No more DEI is a bad thing. No more DEI Police is a good thing.
NASA has led hard science employers in diversity metrics since its founding. They hire the best that they can, regardless of their identity. They’ve hired fascists like Von Braun. They’ve hired Hidden Figures like Katherine Johnson. There is a good write-up with facts and figures in the intro to the book version of Hidden Figures. NASA in the 1960s was a moonshot to combat racist hiring practices in STEM in the South. NASA’s strategies for hiring the best from any background worked, and they kept working in spite of inconsistent support from the white house in later decades.
That’s what I used to say. Last few years were rough, and now I’m unemployed largely due to a mismanagement of DEI-like programs that is historically uncharacteristic of NASA. I know that it’s only anecdotal evidence, but as a minority misserved by these programs, I have some sour feelings towards them. I hope that removing them will allow NASA to focus on its previous diversity strategies that worked so well in decades past, including when I was first coming up through the system during the Obama administration.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility are fabulous values that make science and engineering products better. NASA’s wonder and its execution on that wonder changes the world. DEIA values make sure that those changes do the most good and help the most people. DEIA at its best is a strategy of listening.
All that said, I find it hard not to be a little happy at seeing that the latest iteration of these programs are getting rethought, even if it may take four years before anyone is allowed to try rebuilding them. They had become punitive and more interested in exclusion of “wrong thinking” than inclusion of diverse and different viewpoints. No more DEI is a bad thing. No more DEI Police is a good thing.