Keeping black women on the NASA plantation

by philg

From a Facebook friend regarding Hidden Figures (movie) who works for the government and is still mourning Hillary Clinton’s loss:

It really was an excellent film (and a very insightful interview about the story), and captured much of what I experienced [as a white male?]. It left me very conflicted, however. First, I was awed (and loved) that it so honored the long unsung minority (and female) contributions and that my former employer (NASA) was such an unusual agent of change and inclusion. I very much appreciated the pointed lessons at a time when our country seems to be retreating from these ideals. But at the same time I felt a sense of shame and disgust that so many of the same issues persist to this day, and that too many people who need to receive those messages are either unlikely to even see the film, and even so, are unlikely to recognize the persistent biases that are ongoing even today.

I worked on the NASA plantation as a Fortran programmer on the Pioneer Venus project for $13,000 per year back in 1978 (that’s $47,854 in today’s mini-dollars). My co-workers included women, Indians, Chinese, white males, etc. Other than receiving a paycheck, all of us were “unsung” for our contributions of software for the PDP 11/70 and the IBM 360/95.

I’m not sure why the (white male) author of the above posting thinks he is doing women a favor by encouraging them to become “nameless faceless scientists” (see Bill Burr at about 0:50) at one-fifth the salary of a dermatologist (see “Women in Science” for a comparison of the career trajectories). Maybe this is actually how white men will keep women and, specifically, women of color, down? Encourage them to become quiet nerds in a cubicle farm instead of going into medicine, politics, etc.?

7 thoughts on “Keeping black women on the NASA plantation”

  1. The women who are portrayed in “Hidden Figures” are not either nameless or faceless, nor are they scientists. As for the first part, if Hillary had won the election, they probably would have renamed NASA Langley (a dead white male) Research Center for Katherine Johnson (and they may yet do so – I would not bet against it). If you search for NASA Langley, this is the 1st google result:

    Langley Research Center | NASA
    https://www.nasa.gov/langley
    Maps & Directions · Frequently Asked Questions · Katherine Johnson. Related Topics. All Topics A-Z. TAP. We’re Turning 100! NASA Langley 2016 …

    As for being a scientist, Johnson was hired to be a “computer” – even less of a scientist than a Fortran programmer. She had the mind numbing job of sitting at an adding machine all day and manually populating a spreadsheet with numbers. This work put her one step above a supermarket cashier or a bank teller. By the time that Glenn flew, her job had already been replaced by a computer but Glenn (himself a man of an earlier age) demanded that the computer results be double checked by hand (guess what – they were right). But now she is portrayed as single handedly putting John Glenn in orbit and the contributions of SS-Sturmbannführer/ Baron/ war criminal von Braun are forgotten.

  2. Jackie, “one step above a supermarket cashier or a bank teller.”? Neither of those require even a high school math ability. If the movie portrayal is accurate, Johnson developed formulas needed for the calculations, which a room full of white could not, or did not. Regardless of whether or not that is accurate, your claims as to the difference in difficulty and importance of her job and that of cashiers and tellers is laughable.

  3. “If the movie portrayal is accurate, Johnson developed formulas needed for the calculations, which a room full of white could not, or did not.”

    Johnson was completely unmentioned in all official histories of NASA until the book upon which the movie was based was written a couple of years ago. Absent not because of racism but because she was a very minor player – NASA would have LOVED to have someone like Johnson to hold up. Obama directed NASA to make Muslim outreach its main priority: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/7875584/Barack-Obama-Nasa-must-try-to-make-Muslims-feel-good.html

    Perhaps this is why the recent headlines “Last Man to Walk on Moon Dies” may be more accurate than the headline writers meant..

    The movie script is Hollywood – it has nothing to do with reality, unless you thing that Abbott and Costello really did meet Frankenstein. It’s laughable to think that she was the “hidden” genius who developed the formulas for orbital mechanics. These formulas have been known since the time of Kepler and Newton (two white guys).

  4. Jackie, that’s not true, she has been mentioned decades earlier. And her work was known and mentioned as far back as the 1960s in non-NASA media.

  7. Jackie, that paper looks a little more involved than cashier or teller; not at all inline with your disparaging speculation.

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