MIT debaters clash over whether STEM is ‘systemically racist’

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are either exclusive fields difficult for people of color to break into or opportunities available to all Americans regardless of skin color, according to a panel of scholars who recently debated the proposition that STEM is systemically racist.

Panelists Chad Womack of the United Negro College Fund and Jaret Riddick, senior fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University, argued for the proposition that STEM is systemically racist at the debate, held Nov. 2 at MIT.

Biologist Luana Maroja of Williams College and Erec Smith of York College of Pennsylvania and co-founder of Free Black Thought argued against it during the debate, hosted by the MIT chapter of the Adam Smith Society and the MIT Free Speech Alliance.