---
title: "Black Researchers Are Holding an Academic Strike to Support BLM"
description: "To show solidarity with ongoing Black Lives Matter protests and to draw attention to racism in their workplaces, black academics are organizing a strike."
date: "2020-06-09"
modified: "2020-06-09"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/black-researchers-holding-academic-strike"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "academia"
  - "racism"
  - "science"
  - "strike"
  - "the digest"
---

# Black Researchers Are Holding an Academic Strike to Support BLM

![To show solidarity with ongoing Black Lives Matter protests and to draw attention to racism in their workplaces, black academics are organizing a strike.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/black-researchers-holding-academic-strike-wednesday.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Black Lives Matter\</em\>*

## Pressing Pause

On Wednesday, hundreds of black scientists will hold a strike in solidarity with the [ongoing Black Lives Matter protests](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/photos-cops-not-wearing-masks>) against systemic racism and police violence.

A number of academics [told *Nature News*](<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01705-x>) that they were exhausted and disappointed by racism in academia — so on Wednesday, they'll be pressing pause.

Some are also tweeting examples of discrimination they've faced with the [hashtag #blackintheivory](<https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackintheIvory?src=hashtag_click&f=live>).

https://twitter.com/michelleraji/status/1270387951936180225

## Weighed Down

Some black academics said news about police violence against black people was weighing too heavily for them to go about regular life, *Nature News* reports. And by not showing up for the day, they hope to spur greater action within their institutions and universities.

"I'm not there yet," [tweeted Desmond Upton Patton](<https://twitter.com/DrDesmondPatton/status/1268616076482371584>), a social work professor at Columbia University. "I'm struggling with kindness, forgiveness, empathy. I feel pushed to make decisions, go to meetings, and to 'show up.' I'm just not ready."

https://twitter.com/redmakeda/status/1267194814128287744

## Revised Statements

A common frustration among those planning to protest Wednesday is that their universities and professional groups put out weak-seeming statements supporting their black researchers that didn't match their experiences. For instance, the American Chemical Society [put out a statement](<https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi9t5b3mvHpAhWjY98KHTJbC8cQFjAAegQIAxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.acs.org%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Facsorg%2Fpressroom%2Fnewsreleases%2Facs-statement-on-death-of-george-floyd.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3RupkUSuyTva2dEJMciVRQ>) that didn't include the words "black" or "racism."

"If academia wants to support Black scientists, it won’t take another senseless death and uprising for it to be clear that Black lives matter," [tweeted](<https://twitter.com/lesleynweaver/status/1267630280594067458>) Indiana University in Bloomington cell biologist Lesley Weaver.

https://twitter.com/ChrisDJacksonMD/status/1270385066921922561

**READ MORE:** [Grieving and Frustrated: Black Scientists Call Out Racism in the Wake of Police Killings](<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01705-x>) \[*Nature News*\]

**More on the protests:** *[Experts: Protests Unlikely to Cause Huge Wave of COVID Cases](<https://futurism.com/experts-protests-unlikely-cause-huge-wave-covid-cases>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)