Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA

Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA — page 1
INTRODUCTION Black girls and femmes love math We love the intricacy and geometry of our braids cornrows curls and coils We like playing with building blocks calculating how to make structures that will stay up and look good Not too long ago ancestors such as Harriet Tubman studied the location of the Drinking Gourd constellation the Big Dipper to lead black slaves to freedom Math and astronomy have always been part of our story Far too often American society has not known how to make room for this interest and ability in math as black girls and femmes grow into adulthood Stories are told about whether we are smart enough whether math is for us whether we need to focus on homemaking or clothing as if we have to choose between being fashion mavens and mathematicians For this reason many have turned away from any kind of love for mathematics I was lucky to be encouraged at an early age and allowed to play with my blocks until I was ten at which point I began a journey that would lead me to the heart of the universe As a particle physicist who uses math to describe the universe when it was less than a second old math is my everything This dance of loving numbers and representations of numbers has helped me make a life for myself and taken me around the world from my birthplace in Los Angeles California to New York Germany South Korea and Taiwan But I did not get here purely through love of mathematics There were black women who came before me in the field of space science They were part of a group of computers human calculators who did computations before machines could do them This was a job women were uniquely allowed to do in science even