Torres: Let Go of Your STEM Superiority Complex
Associate Professor Peter Von Sivers (Dept. of History) lectures at a workshop entitled “The Arab Spring: Roots and Repurcussions in the Middle East. The workshop was co-hosted by the Middle East Center and the Tanner Humanities Center. (Photo via The Daily Utah Chronicle Archive)
May 15, 2022
The ever-present STEM versus Humanities and Liberal Arts debate makes for a less-than-memorable college experience for many. Although both STEM and non-STEM disciplines will prove essential in the workforce, STEM receives an exorbitant amount of funding.
The Biden-Harris administration recently dedicated a budget of $1.38 billion to STEM education in 2023. But considering that STEM made up only 23% of the United States labor force in 2019, disproportionate funding sends an inauspicious message about the perceived value of other occupations.
STEM has also historically excluded marginalized communities. The American Education Research Association observes that “STEM education and occupations were designed to attract White men who were heterosexual, able-bodied, Christian or atheist, and middle-class or above.”
A culture that values STEM above all other educational disciplines and occupations maintains institutional racism, perpetuates misogyny and devalues working-class labor.
Institutional Racism
Despite its reputation as objective, the roots of STEM lie in racism. Discriminatory standards and practices persist as we fight to dismantle the violent ideologies that remain printed in our textbooks. This isn’t to say that non-STEM fields aren’t racist — early philosophers like Aristotle famously supported slavery, saying the enslaved did “not have the intellectual capabilities to rule themselves.”
But these fields criticize and contradict the discriminatory beliefs of their figures. Fields like gender studies can recognize Betty Friedan for her impact on reproductive rights and “The Feminine Mystique,” while still criticizing her racism, homophobia and trans-exclusive radical feminism.
Art and writing serve as tools for racial equity as they praise those who challenge the status quo. Non-STEM fields aren’t given billions by the federal government or targeted for military use.
Holding STEM fields above others creates a culture of exclusion that keeps marginalized workers from accessing high-paying fields. The emphasis on academia and STEM creates a standard known as the Achievement Gap which creates, “an association between students of color and poor achievement, which may feed racist stereotypes about these students and their communities.”
The false implication that survival in STEM is based on intelligence ignores the impact of ethnic and racial discrimination in higher education. Weaponizing meritocracy against those who succeed in STEM, specifically the Model Minority Myth, not only harms the Asian American community but encourages discrimination towards other ethnic and racial minoritized groups. People of color, especially Black students in non-STEM fields, report lower degrees of discrimination, with Black women reporting higher levels of academic satisfaction.
When we place fields that maintain racism on a pedestal, we simultaneously allow the persistence of other forms of discrimination.
Perpetuating Misogyny
In 2019, females received around 62% of degrees awarded in Liberal Arts and Humanities. This data excludes trans experiences, but it establishes that women make up the majority of non-STEM majors.
When women do make it into STEM, they have to fight against misogyny. Still, women make up 34% of STEM occupations in the U.S. despite making up more than 46.7% of the workforce.. They remain undervalued in STEM.
By belittling the importance of non-STEM occupations, we belittle the significance of women’s education and labor. Labor isn’t limited to paid careers, with women carrying out more than two and a half times more unpaid domestic labor than men. The ambitions and labor of women are essential to the function of the U.S. economy and households. We harm ourselves by devaluing non-STEM fields and subsequently, devaluing women.
Devaluing Working-Class Labor
STEM occupations make up less than a fourth of the U.S. labor force while the jobs’ inflated values leave behind the working class. STEM fields provide some of the highest-paying jobs in the U.S. labor force. But working-class jobs, consisting of laborers without college degrees, barely make a living wage. Workers of color make up an increasing sector of the working class, specifically Black and Latine workers.
Devaluing working-class labor undermines the skills of workers and bars them from higher wages and better benefits. Working-class jobs don’t receive the same perks that STEM jobs do. While tech employees get free food and paid parental leave in addition to high salaries, working-class employees struggle against union-busting to access livable wages. And with the cost of college rising, it gets harder for the working class to get the education necessary to obtain STEM jobs and benefits.
My family and I have been working-class our entire lives, and this only recently changed. As someone with a STEM career, liberal arts connections and background in the working class myself, I’ve witnessed the effects of the STEM superiority complex of my tech peers. I urge everyone to recognize the worth of other fields. In order to make real progress, we must stop assuming the superiority of a discipline that actively contributes to systemic oppression.
Steve • May 17, 2022 at 4:10 pm
I hope this message finds you well,
Aristotle’s quote is out of context, like much of this article.
Aristotle was a philosopher, and a founder of a philosophical ideology now known as Stoicism, not a politician. His quote had nothing to do with race but the discipline required to free the self from one’s masters. This could be debtors, vice’s, or anything that makes an individual a weaker version of themselves. He emphasizes the importance of an independently sovereign, disciplined, self-critical, open mind.
African American slavery has sadly become a core defining attribute of America’s identity to her people, not just a horrific historical event that we have learned from. America is still the best Humanity has to offer, but for how long?
It should be noted that no modern Western Civilization practices slavery in this capacity. However, China, India, and many African nations still openly enslave their brothers and sisters. This by no means gives America a pass, but let’s move on please, we have more growing to do, rather than picking at long mended scars.
He was right in saying that the enslaved do not have the intellectual capacity to rule themselves, slavery is a result of circumstances and comes in many forms.
Consider that pre-abolition of “traditional slavery” in America, “free men” were working in oil fields for just enough to continue living, living hand to mouth under more dangerous conditions than many in the fields of plantations. They were slaves to their masters, and arrived there of their own free will, albeit, a sum of decisions that led to their unfortunate circumstances. However, it could be argued that they never had the opportunity to rise above their station, or that they never had the opportunity to learn the skills to rise above their station to learn an intellectual trade.
Africans being sold by their brothers and sisters in Africa to the highest bidder, might find themselves in a similar situation, a doomed victim of their circumstances. Africans were not just selling them to “dead white men” in America, but all over the world.
Please consider not seeing color for a moment, just people, in horrible circumstances.
There is no room for racism, or anti-racism in the STEM fields as they are the basis for scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical development for humanity as a species. It is equally, if not more importance for the Humanities, because the sole purpose of the Humanities is to teach people HOW to think, rather than WHAT to think.
If we cannot even discern the simplest of facts, then we are lost. Lived experiences are certainly important, but facts should always remain supreme.
The STEM fields should always have the smartest people working in them. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same educational opportunities, but with technologies like YouTube, that is rapidly changing. There is no reason for anyone who wants to learn something to be blocked from that opportunity in modern American society. Because the Universities are lost in this group think ideology, legitimate employers are looking for proven talent, and certifications rather than degrees. Race should NEVER be taken into account when hiring into these fields. We need the best, not certain shades of epidermis.
I’m sure you’ll recognize this quote, it’s one of my favorites:
“Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two make four. If that is allowed, all else follows.” -G. Orwell
Respectfully,
Steve
John Hedberg • May 16, 2022 at 1:03 pm
Trigger warning: the following could contain HUMOR!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fclA1hETGC0&list=TLPQMTYwNTIwMjKfCF2uG6KKrQ&index=4
John Hedberg • May 16, 2022 at 12:04 pm
My Gosh, Gaby, your head is really up your a** about privilege, racism, superiority, bigotry, unfairness, and supposed justice that means nothing more than retribution for your feelings that you refuse to take responsibility for. Has it never occurred to you that the way you look at life and other people may be the biggest drawback when it comes to life satisfaction? EVERYONE is evidently out to get YOU! So sad! Must be horrifying… lol
Was life ever fair? Has there ever been a race or group of people who weren’t enslaved, deprived, marginalized, or abused anywhere in history? We all go through it. Who the f*** do you think you are to judge everybody else, and say our pain and suffering don’t matter, when you’re so privileged that you can hold onto and express the most ignorant points of view imaginable, and all of us are willing to hold our noses and listen? To me, and no doubt to many, you practically define privilege: nothing is good enough for you, everyone else is to blame for your worst feelings, and there’s never anything to be grateful for. There’s a term for that: “spoiled brat”.
I’m sure you’re a nice person, and you have great gifts to share. If you ever want to learn anything worthwhile, it might be time to put aside your own privilege and start considering that we’re all equal, we all fight oppression, and your own hatreds and bigotries are no less harmful and atrocious than the ones you (frequently and falsely) attribute to literally everyone else around you.
Adults don’t need pacifiers. 🙂
I know you’ve got better than this to give.
Best Regards,
J Hedberg
Hedberg John • May 17, 2022 at 11:19 am
My Gosh, John, your head is really up your a** about pride, stubbornness, arrogance, and disrespect that means nothing more than retribution for your feelings that you refuse to take responsibility for. Has it never occurred to you that the way you look at life and other people may be the biggest drawback when it comes to life? Why you are always judging others instead of trying to learn to understand different ideas? EVERYONE is evidently out to get YOU! So sad! Must be horrifying… 😩
Life is never fair. Yet, it is OBVIOUS that some people suffer more from the unfairness compared to other people. Under current circumstances, the best way to improve their lives will be speaking up, even though it might be meaningless.
Who the f*** do you think you are to judge everybody else, and say their pain and suffering don’t matter, when you’re so privileged that you can just sit on your couch and express the most ignorant points of view imaginable, and all of us are willing to hold our noses and listen? Why are you so mad? Is it because you are the PRIVILEGED at this moment and think you can make fun of others’ lives and ideas?
I’m sure you’re a nice person. If you ever want to learn anything worthwhile, it might be time to put aside your own privilege and start considering that we’re all equal, we all fight oppression, and your own stubbornness and arrogance are no less harmful and atrocious than the ones you (frequently and falsely) attribute to literally everyone else around you.
Adults know how to respect others. 😩
I know you got better than this to give.
Best Regards,
Hedberg J
John Hedberg • May 18, 2022 at 8:52 am
And yet you couldn’t even admit to your own thoughts under your own name. What a believer! Your best way to improve your life, in your eyes, is to take a hot liquid dump onto the heads of everyone else around you. Way to go! lol That’s taking responsibility for your own open failures while you shower the rest of us with intolerance, inhumanity, and disinclusiveness. How terribly hard for you!
Grow up, take responsibility for your own worst feelings, treat others as if they really are equal (we all are), and maybe stop and think before laying all your dumb sh** onto innocent other people, the human beings you continue to dehumanize in your never-ending quest to deflect your responsibility for the fact that life is rarely fair for anyone, and so all the more do we need courage, compassion, tolerance, respect, and taking responsibility for ourselves so that others aren’t overwhelmed with unearned stench, the stench you’re so kind to let out and wipe onto anyone you see or imagine. Enough of your putrid, derogatory labels as you whine and complain while other people work and cooperate. Get a job! Do something, instead of just taking daily anonymous tantrums on innocent folks no worse than yourself. Oh, and before you respond? Think seriously about the fact that you’re probably the worst oppressor you know, so stop! If you can’t or won’t stop your own bullsh**, you’ve got no right or reason to call anyone else out for what you refuse to stop in yourself, the hatred in yourself you can overcome with genuine love. It’s not easy, and no one is at all perfect at doing it, but most adults try. (Did I mention “grow up”?)
If you need another public diaper change, you know where to come!
Cheers! 👍😄
J Hedberg
Hedberg John • May 19, 2022 at 3:56 pm
Oh John, my dearest brother! Haven’t you realized what I’ve commented were not my ideas, but YOUR ideas? Didn’t you notice what you’ve said also applies to YOU! Hehe! 😩
Your best way to improve your life, in your eyes, is to take a hot liquid dump onto the heads of everyone else around you. Way to go, lol! That’s taking responsibility for your own open failures while you shower the rest of us with intolerance, inhumanity, and disinclusiveness. How terribly hard for you!
Grow up, take responsibility for your own worst feelings, treat others as how you want to be treated, and maybe stop and think before laying all your dumb sh** onto innocent other people. Why do other people have to think in the way you think? Who do you think you are? Life is never fair. However, through the reflection and fighting, we can build this world a better place for everyone. So go do something, instead of just taking daily anonymous tantrums on innocent folks no worse than yourself!
Oh, and before you respond? Think seriously about the fact that you’re probably the worst oppressor you know, so stop! If you can’t or won’t stop your own bullsh**, you’ve gotten no right or reason to call anyone else out for what you refuse to stop in yourself, the hatred in yourself you can overcome with genuine love.
It’s not easy, and no one is at all perfect at doing it, but most adults try.
Unless, my dearest brother, John, you decide to keep pretending to be asleep! In that case, no one could save you from drowning in your own dreams… 🥲
Cheers!😘
Hedberg J
John Hedberg • May 22, 2022 at 10:16 pm
I noticed you decided to add your own thoughts under my name, which makes you a liar who tries to hide and attribute your own thoughts to other people who might not notice. Since that defines a lot of the writing in this piece (attributing your own worst feelings and painting them onto other people who are completely innocent, whereas you are actually guilty), I can only think that you don’t care about honesty, fairness, or the rights and feeling of other people, but rather worship at the alter of your own supposed virtue, which most people here aren’t buying, since you’re too much of a coward to use your own words or even your own name.
What happens when people start to notice that you’re the source of all the hatred and ugly behavior you like to paint onto innocent people? The clock is ticking.
Take Care, my Lying Finger-pointing Fraud-buddy!
All the Best,
J Hedberg
Marinz • May 15, 2022 at 3:45 pm
The roots of STEM are racist? Proof?