# Blacks in the hard sciences: Any basis for this?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-in-the-hard-sciences-any-basis-for-this/198158>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 28, 2003, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-in-the-hard-sciences-any-basis-for-this/198158 "2003-08-28T09:51:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-in-the-hard-sciences-any-basis-for-this/198158/21 "2003-08-29T02:39:49Z")

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I have to say in about 15+ years hanging out in a university biology department and a science museum in a very racially diverse area, I’ve known a grand total of ONE black organismic biologist, a friend who got his bachelor’s and master’s in marine biology ( I lost touch with afterwards, so I don’t know if he continued on from there ). Querying my current roommate, he can’t think of all that many either ( we just looked at a mass photo he took of about 2/3 of the 177 attendees at the recent American Arachnological Society meetings and there was not a one who was identifiably black ).

- Tamerlane

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-in-the-hard-sciences-any-basis-for-this/198158/22 "2003-08-29T03:35:12Z")

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Okay, so my dad’s losing it. ☹ All I know is, his colleague had a disproportionate number of A-As in his physics course.

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**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-in-the-hard-sciences-any-basis-for-this/198158/23 "2003-08-29T04:10:07Z")

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Beating a dead horse: I’ve worked on degrees/minors/certificates in computer science, English literature, psychology, biology, and linguistics at a large Midwestern university, and damned if I know where all of the black students on campus are going. I can only think of two that I was in classes with, in all my five years at university. They’re definitely not in biology.

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blacks-in-the-hard-sciences-any-basis-for-this/198158/24 "2003-08-29T04:25:59Z")

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Well, okay. Look, this wouldn’t be the first time either of my parents cooked up some fantastical theory to explain an odd occurence. You should have heard his discourse, back in the '80s, about “hidden messages” in heavy metal music.

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