The shelves are full of public and private reports 1 – 3 that deal with the importance, in the US, of attracting more minorities to science and that propose a wide variety of solutions for achieving that goal. Countless conferences have been held and speeches made. But rhetoric and reality are vastly different, and despite substantial investments by a number of federal research agencies, shockingly little progress has been made. For example, an analysis conducted at our request by the American Institute of Physics showed that in the 31 academic years from 1973 to 2003,only 21 African Americans, 56 Hispanic Americans, and 11 Native Americans earned doctoral degrees in astronomy.
We believe the lack of significant progress to date arises at least in part from common myths that appear to underlie discussions about why certain racial and ethnic groups are underrepresented in the sciences. Although nobody likes to admit it,...
