July 12, 2020
Being a young Black woman majoring in Math-CS at a PAI, I have seen the word diversity be claimed all around campus. And yes … it is true. You can find support and communities for almost anything on campus: having a disability, being a minority, being a first-generation student, etc. However, even with all of the given resources, I still struggle with finding a community where we can all relate to what it is like to be a young Black woman with a computer science (CS) major/interest.
I want to talk about something we (Black individuals) have unfortunately probably already experienced, and something that really hit a soft spot for me recently. I won’t get too into the details, but I experienced a moment where I was mistaken for another student who is socially identified as Black by a professional. Although occurrences like this are common, this one, in particular, had a greater effect on me because of the protests occurring that are focused on advocating for the Black lives that are continuously taken away by police officers backed by the US government.
Regardless of the circumstances, this experience made me realize that although there is growing diversity in institutions, industries, schools, etc., there is still a great lack of understanding and self-reflection when it comes to the stereotypes and unconscious biases people have against other races and cultures. Not saying being offensive was the intention of the professional, but it is possible that their unconscious bias led them to think that there could not be more than one Black woman pursuing CS because of the current lack of representation. So, the one they saw at the moment had to be the same one from last time.
An example I can give is my university, University of California-San Diego, claiming to be diverse. In some aspects they are, but they still have flaws in certain areas -- more specifically, areas that affect Black students at UCSD, Black students who are CS majors at UCSD, and Black students who are CS majors at UCSD and also women. Below is a breakdown from UCSD’s Student Profile of the ethnicity demographic in UCSD’s undergraduate population during the 2019-2020 school year:
Asian: 36% (11,095)
White: 19.2% (5,902)
ChicanX/LatinX: 21.1% (6,513)
African American: 2.8% (872)
Native American: 0.4% (119)
I was unable to get every percentage of Black undergraduates who are CS majors, due to the lack of access and the plethora of majors that fall under computer science. However, I was able to retrieve some statistics, given from the head of staff in UCSD’s Jacobs School, on the number of computer science & engineering (CSE) majors: In the academic year 2019-2020 there were 1,933 students enrolled in CSE majors, and fewer than 10 of them were Black women. So, Black undergraduate students who are women make up at least .5 percent of CSE majors, and that is rounding up.
My point in giving these statistics following my story is to prove that if there was more Black representation, encounters as mine would decrease in frequency. I join these organizations where people who look like me are not greatly represented not only because I am interested, but because I care about other young women like me, and have the time and energy to make sure these young Black women feel comfortable when they walk in the door of my organization. It is unfortunate that I have to put so much effort into something that is so clear to see, literally -- that being the lack of Black women in these organizations that support people in tech, but it is what needs to be done for us to progress at least a little bit.
Jaida Day, Communications Director
UC San Diego
