STEAM Spark - Think STEAM Careers, Podcast with Dr. Olufade
STEAM Spark: Think STEAM Careers Podcast with Dr. Olufade. Welcome to STEAM Sparks: The Think STEAM Career Podcast, hosted by Dr. Ayo Olufade. Our mission is to raise awareness about the importance of pursuing college and careers in STEAM fields and the positive impact they can have on BIPOC communities.
Dr. Ayo's journey, fueled by his passion for STEAM education, lies at the heart of this podcast. His experiences and meaningful conversations with guests from STEM and STEAM backgrounds inspire us to highlight the significance of STEM education and careers as sources of empowerment. We aim to better position the next generation for success.
By sharing personal stories and experiences, we hope to inspire and encourage our audience to consider STEAM careers. We are committed to promoting diversity and representation of BIPOC communities in the STEM field, breaking stereotypes, and fostering an inclusive environment where everyone's unique perspective is valued.
Join us as we explore the endless possibilities and opportunities in STEAM fields. With your participation and support, let's work together to shape a brighter future for all.
#ThinkSTEAMCareers #BeInspired #BeAnInspiration
It is time to innovate!
Dr. Ayo Olufade, Host STEAM Sparks: Think STEAM Careers Podcast with Dr. Olufade
STEAM Spark - Think STEAM Careers, Podcast with Dr. Olufade
From Cultural Memory to STEAM Innovation
Prepare to rethink what you know about civil rights, cultural memory, and STEAM as we engage with Dr. Imhotep, a passionate memory consultant, in a powerful exploration of empowering African-descended communities. Discover how reimagining terms like "minority" can transform self-perception and unite the global majority. Dr. Imhotep helps us navigate the cyclical struggles for civil and human rights, revealing how media narratives shape perceptions and emphasizing the need for self-representation to authentically capture African histories and experiences.
Our conversation proceeded to the connections between African Americans and the African continent, highlighting the shared legacy that can drive collaboration and growth. Learn how bridging cultural gaps and fostering cultural competence can transform consumer mindsets into thriving partnerships. We celebrate African-American pioneers in STEAM like Dorothy Johnson Vaughan and Ernest D. Just, advocating for educational systems that honor their legacies. Together, we can inspire innovation and self-awareness, breaking systemic barriers and cultivating inclusive environments in STEAM fields. Join us as we explore these transformative ideas and seek to empower a new generation through cultural history.
Today we want to continue our conversation. This is part two of our series on bridging civil rights, cultural memory and STEAM. This is a conversation on empowering minority community. We're honored today to have Dr M Hotep. Dr M Hotep is a memory consultant. We're honored to have him today. We want to pick his brain in terms of our rich history here in the United States and in Africa and the impact that African ancestors have had on innovation throughout the world.
Speaker 1:Most of my life I studied information about people that look like us, be they here in the diaspora or on the mainland of the continent of Africa, and I love our deep history. A lot of people don't understand that slavery is white history and a period that was a backstep for us in our history. It's not our focal point, and here in the United States quite frequently we use the term minority and I don't mean any disrespect to you, but I don't use those terms because we're the majority of the global population and we're not minorities. We might be a lower number in this country, but on the global stand, if you look at the global population, people of European descent only represent 9% of the global population. It's more people that look like you and I who are the majority of the global population and not the minority, because when they use the term minority, they mean that they're more than and you're less than and we're never less than anyone that is really powerful.
Speaker 2:I've not thought about it that way, so probably I need to take that out of my vocabulary tones when I refer to our people I think.
Speaker 1:take for instance, united states is 300 million people. United States is 300 million people. Okay, yes, sir, 300 million people. Nigeria by itself has almost 200 million people. Right now, that one country on the continent of Africa's population is two thirds of this nation, and not counting the other 53 countries. So to call us minorities, that's making us to think lower instead of who we are above.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, I need to innovate. I guess it's not really intentional. Maybe I need to be a bit deliberate in my thoughts and how I articulate my thoughts, because when I say minorities, I'm always thinking in terms of the combination of not only the blacks, but I'm thinking about the Hispanic, the Asians, the other minorities. I want to be inclusive in that, but again my mind sometimes also I'm a Black person.
Speaker 1:We all got our own old vantage points of view, yeah the issue of Black people.
Speaker 2:It's really forefront in my mind at the same time. So while I'm trying to advocate or bring awareness to our concern, especially as it pertains to STEAM and innovation, I also want to make sure I include the other minorities. But I need to be a little bit deliberate in how.
Speaker 1:I would say the other majorities.
Speaker 2:The other majorities. Ok, thank you so much for that education. So today I really want to continue. I know you are deeply committed to civil and human right. You have made it part of your cornerstone of what you do. How does that shape your approach as a cultural memory specialist?
Speaker 1:Your history, okay, your experiences, because I've seen a lot of things in my 64 years, but I'm not an old, extra old individual. In my 64 years of living in the United States, use restrooms or stop in and into a hotel or go into restaurants to where we can, how long as you have the money you can today, but at one time it wasn't that way. And to see from that time to where we are today like history being cyclical and just comes in cycles and there's a term or time or period where it may be mild and a little melancholy to a degree. But this nation, by its nature from its beginning, was created on war and been constantly at war from its very creation. So that's and that's what a lot of big governments really make money off of war. They disperse their military industrial complex and deliver weapons all over the planet and it's big business. And that's why right now we're in a time of war and a bunch of multinational corporations are making money hand over fist over there.
Speaker 1:Knowing that I had an individual the other day trying to tell me about the Holocaust, I said which one? Because most of the time when they say that, they make you think only about what happened in Germany during World War II and when the Holocaust had been going on for quite some time. People never take into account what happened in Southwest Africa, present-day Namibia, what the Germans did to the people of Namibia, and it was outright atrocities that occurred there. There's a need to remember that and know that, because when an individual or a group of people have a particular proclivity to do that, you should be able to understand what you're getting yourself into and the need to be cautious in dealing with the people and the environment you're coping with.
Speaker 2:You mentioned what is happening, in which one? I'm not sure you said which one?
Speaker 1:Yeah, which one? Let me on the side Congo. Where Sudan, where you don't hear very little news on the major networks in the US about anything in Sudan or Congo.
Speaker 2:Most national media no they don't do that because that's somewhere where post of the United Nations actually condemning the appalling attack on people of Sudan around the Darfur area. You know of rape, targeted attacks, sexual violence, mass killing, targeted attacks, sexual violence, mass killing. And I read something today whereby quote somebody was talking about we want all your children to be Arab babies. It's really despicable that the type of displacement and genocide and violence that is perpetrated towards people in Africa and another part of Africa is not being talked about as much. But I'm very happy that the United Nations actually it seems like they're making some concerted efforts to actually bring it, to put it on the spot, to put some spotlight on that. So, which is which goes back to what you're really talking about, but it would be nice to hear more of that in the news cycle right.
Speaker 1:The thing is, I feel like we should have our own news cycle instead of looking at for someone else to do it for us, and that that's what's imperative is that we tell our own story and we provide our own narratives instead of the narratives that someone else wants us to hear, and that's innovative and revolutionary for us to do it that way ourselves.
Speaker 1:I remember, as a youth ebony Magazine and Sepia Magazine had and another magazine it was called Africa Confidential and it gave me insight on a lot of the political issues and what was going on on the continent of Africa Back in the late 70s, early 80s.
Speaker 1:I remember reading articles from what was going on and with different political issues and different nations there on the continent, and it opened my eyes to what neocolonialism does and how it continues to affect what's going on the continent today.
Speaker 1:Because we need to like when I was speaking for the Nigerian 64th celebration 64-year celebration here in Des Moines last month back in October, my message was focused on the Africans of the diaspora interconnecting back with our brothers and sisters abroad so we could create positive, secure collaborations to help develop back home and help this one particular population here, who is basically a consumer population to become no longer consumers but producers, and that would change the dynamic of what's going on in the global market and would help to develop, help to redevelop the underdevelopment that had occurred there on the continent of Africa, and let people develop their own nation, their own way and not be forced by any outside interests.
Speaker 1:That would be utopian. And because we got to do something to help feed the people on the continent, because a lot of people are not malnutrition but undernutrient individuals and a lot of starvation going on too. Because looking at the genocide going on in Sudan, it's hard because of what happened in the, with Ukraine and the wheat coming out of Ukraine. Now people in Sudan are hurting and plus a war. So it's been a continual thing ever since the colonialists got their hands on the continent.
Speaker 2:You mentioned the interconnection between our community here in the United States and our community in Africa. Do you think, are we ready?
Speaker 1:Ready or not? Here we come.
Speaker 1:Do you think? Are we ready? Ready or not? Here we come.
Speaker 1:I worked this past three years at Drake University with the Washington Mandela Fellows black men and women from the continent of Africa who came here to look at what's going on here in the US and see if they could pick up on different ideas and technology and take it back home what they learned here to the continent of Africa so they can do what they can to develop their businesses and increase their businesses back on the continent.
Speaker 1:And I have contacts right now with individuals from Senegal, from Cameroon, from Congo, from Ethiopia, from Kinafaso, just because of relationships that were created by meeting these young men and women who were business professionals on the continent of Africa. There's a way we can connect and there's a way that we can create businesses back home on the continent of Africa and right here it can be done. It's just people having the mindset to reach out to one another because, especially with the people of the diaspora, some of us I can't just speak and call any group of people monolithic, but we are sometimes we're afraid to talk to each other- and that has actually been my experience and part of also my experience that I have seen is many African-Americans don't see any stake in Africa whatsoever, any stake in Africa whatsoever.
Speaker 2:One of the things, even right now, even among the celebrities, they don't even like being called African-American. They said I'm American, which is true.
Speaker 1:No, I'm an African in America.
Speaker 2:No, but many, many my brothers are African-Americans.
Speaker 1:I'm an African-American, that is true, so what?
Speaker 2:do you say to some African-Americans who really do not see the benefit of interrelationship or connection with Africa whatsoever? Because I get the point that you're making Africa whatsoever, because I get the point that you're making because look at, here in the United States, there's so much wealth and capacity here in the United States among our people In Africa. The same Africa is not really cool. Africa is very wealthy, there are a lot of wealthy people, there's a lot of ability to make things happen, but it's not really happening because of different reasons. And I wonder if we can argue that part of the issue is resources. But there is money, there is capital. So is it possible that these two communities can get together, as we've talked about last time, whereby Africans can pay to bring in solutions from the United States? So if that is true, what's the issue?
Speaker 1:The issue is just you remember the late Elhash Malik El-Shabazz, malcolm X.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember yes.
Speaker 1:He made a statement, one bold statement. He said who taught you to hate yourself? Yeah, and there's a lot of people of African descent here in America hate themselves and hate their connection to the continent because they taught black people in America to dislike where we come from, where we came from, our origin. In other words, dr John Henry Clark said it like this. He said they laughed at you because the clothes you wore and you took them off and put on their clothes. They laughed at your name and they changed your name to the name that they wanted. He said they even laughed at your God and you changed your God, and once we did. That's why we as a group of people here in the diaspora have issues with our own selves.
Speaker 2:So, then, how do we best foster a stronger community?
Speaker 1:through cultural competence and using some of the civil rights initiatives to make our community better and in order for us to love ourselves and for us to be able to see that there is potential, there is potential establishing connection between those that are here in the United States and those that are in Africa or in other, those that are in the diaspora, but, like I said, it's the opening of the mind and have an opportunity to interact with one another, attempting to, in other words, to withhold your own biases before you meet an individual. Okay, because people come up with particular biases and say, oh, nigerians are like this and oh, black people, negroes like this, and they get you focused in that and you don't meet the individual. You need to meet the individual, the person that you're talking to in front of your face, and know who they are and communicate with them, and then you'll find out the difference. And I I remember when I was at uh, doing some undergrad at texas Southern University, a bunch of the African-Americans there I grew up in Houston Texas a bunch of the African-Americans would say, man, every time we see you, I was hanging out with them Africans. Why are you hanging out with them? Africans? Hell, I already know all of y'all, y'all from my neighborhood. I know what the hell. I know what the hell. I want to be my brothers and sisters on this side of the ocean that ask about what's it like. It depends on the individual's mind, because my mind was open to see and learn about somebody that I read about and never met before. Learn about their culture, learn about what and vice versa.
Speaker 1:I remember one young man when I was in school at Texas Southern. His name was from Soweto, no, johannesburg, south Africa, and he I remember one time we were the grads and we were riding the metro bus and we were going to a neighborhood and he said they're in Houston. And he said man, that reminds me of Soweto, because all the houses were like shanty, shanty houses. He said that reminds me of Soweto. I said what's the difference? Seaport? He said we just got more black people than you have.
Speaker 2:That's a good way to connect all of this to STEAM African-American and gender representation in STEAM. I know your intercultural memories and history, but I'm curious how our representation is very, very low, especially now that AI has really revolutionized our industry here in the United States and it's going to make a lot of millionaires. We know that, but our representation is really low. It seems like we're behind the eight ball. So how do you see how cultural memory and history playing a role in encouraging more African-American representation in the STEM field?
Speaker 1:We can first and foremost start with somebody named Pythagoras, who was supposed to come up with the theorem a mathematical theorem that he learned while he was in in africa.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, and that that clarifies things, that that the individuals through the frankfurt school of thought, the teaching, the educational system is miseducating by not telling the truth. Okay, okay. First and foremost, they say Hippocrates the father of medicine when Imhotep was 2,000 years before Hippocrates was born. Even Hippocrates himself, when he went to to Kemet to ancient Egypt to learn the art of medicine, he called himself the son of Imhotep. So how are you going to be the son of somebody that you're claiming to be the father of medicine while you're learning from his work so automatically? That changes the mindset. Most Black kids here in the US who have an understanding of their African background and their African history do better in school than kids that don't. And when they come to understand that math and science and chemistry and technology started on the continent of Africa, that should change the mindset If it's taught at an early age.
Speaker 1:You have all types of multi-geniuses born right around us and some of them slip through the gaps because they're not nurtured appropriately. We see a bunch of multi-geniuses like Ernest D Just. He was a biologist. He was also the professor of biology at Howard University in the early 1900s, 1910, 1911. He was labeled as one of the top bottle scientists on the planet, but they wouldn't give him some type of award because he was black, some academic award man, and he was the top guy on the planet. Then you look again, here's another guy, charles drew. Come, yeah, right there at howard university again, yes, their blood plasma, yes, come on. So that's over and over again. We see those that that that excelled and went above and beyond, because in the words of charles drew, he made this comment. He said x. The excellence of performance transcends artificial barriers created by men. So if you can perform at a rate above others, it don't make no difference who you are, because you are the expert.
Speaker 2:That's profound. Everything you're saying I get it, I really do, but I assume that everybody gets it too. But then, if we assume that everybody gets it, especially in our community that getting connected with our history, remembering those that have done very well as role models, teaching our children and exposing them to all these great people, great mind in our community, that should be able to help us inspire and encourage more of our children going into STEAM and pursuing that career but that's not what we see and pursuing that career but that's not what we see. What are some of the unique challenges that both African-American and women when it comes to STEAM, education and career, and how can we go about addressing it.
Speaker 1:You remember Dorothy Johnson, right?
Speaker 2:Oh yes, Hidden figure, the one that the movie Hidden Figure was made after her and three other wonderful, brilliant minds. How can I ever forget? How can I ever?
Speaker 1:William Waldron Shefflin Claytor got his PhD in mathematics at Penn in 1929. And he wrote his dissertation was entitled Opinion Continuum was not embedded in a spherical surface and it showed. It was a mathematic equation that showed like how you could mathematically equate dimensions when you go into different dimensions. Okay, and she was a student of my uncle when she was at I think it was West Virginia State University and she used also that particular theorem from that dissertation to help send astronauts off this planet.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Black people genius. That's what M Hotef was a multi-genius. There's all different kinds of things that can be done if we let them know at an early age that they can, and they can go above and beyond.
Speaker 2:So do you think that is the challenge with our community? We are not exposing our children.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. It's needful for us to have our own institutions where we have our own curriculums and to develop young engineers and scientists and everything else under the sun and scientists and everything else under the sun. But we have to create our own curriculums and let them know math is math, science is science. It's not going to change. But then the need for knowing who you are is most important. If you know who you are, if you come to understand that in the ancient Kemet, inside, inside the pyramids, they had electricity running through the light bulbs inside the pyramid and a lot of people were like what you tripping, you lost your mind. You can go inside the temples and look up in the ceilings of the temples and see uh, spacecraft, okay, airplanes, helicoptersplanes, helicopters already painted on the walls there thousands of years ago.
Speaker 2:Maybe there needs to be an initiative. For example, we know we have the African American Museum here in Washington DC. I don't know if there is any initiative in place that actually amplify what you're saying, so that when people visit, at least they will be able to see the verifiable evidence that basically demonstrate that people Our ancestors actually have contributed a lot into science, into technology, into engineering, mathematics and arts.
Speaker 1:When it comes to educating our children. The first thing we got to teach our children is that slavery is white. History Slavery is how we survive is Black history.
Speaker 1:Okay, they want us to focus and stay focused on white domination and slavery Instead of looking at my ancestors. I come from Benin. Yeah, I might be connected to the Oba and the royal bloodline, one of the great grandsons that got smashed away who knows, you know. So I'm saying, when we look at it that way, we have to bring it that way to them. Most of my life here in this country it's always been about black people doing things to pacify and make other people feel good. Don't hurt nobody's feelings, but I'm not that way. It's too late in the game for me. I gotta tell them the way I see it, and what it is, is racism tied up in into the very fabric of this society. While we're going through this particular process, we're dealing with white supremacy, racism.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I also get what you were saying earlier, that I guess you're implying that actually it depends, actually it begins with us, with our people. So if that is the case, why is that? It's pretty obvious. Why are we still having trouble? It seemed to me like it should be easy.
Speaker 1:It's just going through the process of developing and organizing particular plans that we need, and not just a plan for the next five years, but the next 50, next 100 years, just the way other groups of people do, next hundred years. Just the way other groups of people do. They create plans or go through steering committees to find out the best practices and then let us come together and then implement them after we find out what's the best way for us to approach this. I'm just giving some ideas of my own and how I feel from my experience, and it might hurt somebody's feelings and it might not, but I don't care.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I understand, Given your background in cultural competency. How can educational institutions work to create more inclusive environment for minorities and women in steam?
Speaker 1:to be open up and absolutely transparent and being on board from the c-suite on down about making some drastic changes because what's been working right now is not working. What they've been utilizing is not working. So it's a need for some serious cultural competency training, because the HR department is the buffer between employment for anybody in this society Human resources. They're right there in the way and many come in with their own biases and even though they look at things through using AI and computers, shooting CVs and resumes through their system and they look for particular names or addresses and know that's not the right kind of name or that's the wrong neighborhood, we don't want that type of person over here. So there's a lot of implicit as well as explicit biases and confirmation bias that's going on in HR departments and that's why you see very few of the diaspora and other ethnic groups not numbered as high as these others, because the society was created for them and other ethnic groups not numbered as high as these others because the society was created for them and not for others.
Speaker 2:How can understanding historical contribution of African-American women to science and technology help inspire the next generation of Black girls and young women in STEAM?
Speaker 1:Like you're saying, becoming aware and seeing. Okay, because we had. For the past 10 years. I worked with a couple of nonprofits here in Des Moines, iowa, okay, and they had black men in white coats. It was a program for black men in the medical field and black females that was in the medical field and having weekly meetings with these groups of people to understand, talk to these young people and let them understand that they were knuckleheads in the seventh and eighth grade as well, but they weren't just all super science. But now they learn and they listen and they focus. And because they're focused, now they're medical doctors and they're from neighborhoods, just like some of the neighborhoods that they label the worst neighborhoods in the country. But they went to school and now they're medical doctors. The kids got to see it.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I grew up in my neighborhood. I saw medical doctors that looked like me. I saw dentists that looked like me. I saw pharmacists that looked like me. I saw winos that looked like me. I saw the furniture store, the gas station, the grocery store, men that looked like me and it showed me that I can be what I want to be, but you got to put it in front of them, so they can see it.
Speaker 2:Excellent, that is. I really want to appreciate your time today and I know this is our second episode and the episode is focused on the intersection of cultural memory and history and STEAM. Is there a final takeaway, something that you want to say to parents, youth educators, policymakers that can help in regards to using cultural memories and history to inspire and to encourage more women, black women, black young men, to pursue STEAM education or degrees and also careers?
Speaker 1:I think it's imperative that parents let their little boys and girls know at an early age that they can do and achieve above and beyond, and it's absolutely necessary for them to, because the way this society is and looking at how technology is constantly changing individuals. I'm 64 years old and I'm using computerized software for, like AI software, I'm using different types of research software, and if I didn't study or look to see how to operate, I would not be able to. I wouldn't have been able to complete the dissertation I had to complete to get the PhD. It would have been extremely difficult, but because I learned how to utilize some computerized software, it made it easier for me to provide me with an answer for the questions that I needed to answer. So that's that's what I'm here to tell you.
Speaker 1:It's best to keep up with the technology, and even more than keeping up with the technology, you have the mind to create new technology, and that's what it's about. We're creating new technology or creating new ideas on how to operate certain type of software, certain type of program. Whatever you fix and whatever you're creating with your scientific mind. I remember I had an idea in my youth that I never pursued and to this day. It still hurts me because I was thinking about back in the 1980s. I was thinking about wind turbines with pyramid shaped solar panels on it that back in 1980, okay, and being having something out in the desert where you're right out there and doing it. But those ideas are achievable once you have the scientific know-how. Achievable. Once you have the scientific know-how, you can go on and pursue it. And that's what we need to let our children know that they don't have to play football, they don't have to play basketball or baseball. You don't have to be an athlete to make money and be professional. You can go and take your behind to the library and open up some books and learn and live a wonderful life, a level of life where you should have access, not just learning to work for somebody else, but learning to create your own businesses, learning to develop your own whatever's on your mind, because too often the educational system has individuals thinking that the main purpose of education is to obtain a degree and then go to work for somebody.
Speaker 1:But the thing is we need to be able to create your own. That's true. Dr carter g woodson stated in the miseducation of the negro in 1933. He said if, if blacks. If the negro? He said, if the negro was truly educated, he wouldn't have to come to somebody and ask them for a job. You should be able to create your own I I remember, knowing his history and when he was attempting to publish that book in 1933, nobody wanted to do it. And you know what. He created his own publishing company and published it.
Speaker 2:This is the kind of paradigm shift that the community really need to have. Yes, yes, they're going to put barricades in your way that the community really need to have.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, they're going to put barricades in your way. Here's barriers, here's barriers. No, I create my own. I have the know-how. If I don't, I can study and find out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, pleasure having you. Dr M Huttick, thank you for gracing us, talking to us today about cultural memory, cultural the history of our people, and how it is important as a form of empowerment so that we can do great things. Audience, parents, teachers. I want to thank you so much today for taking the time to watch and to listen to us on STEAM SPAC, I think, steam Career Podcast. Please try to subscribe to this channel. Thank you so much Again. This is Dr Olufade. Have a have a wonderful day. Everyone. Talk to you later. Bye.
