September 19, 2010

Black Computer Scientists in Academe: an Endangered Species?

Black Computer Scientists in Academe: an Endangered Species? 1

Jon Krause for The Chronicle

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close Black Computer Scientists in Academe: an Endangered Species? 1

Jon Krause for The Chronicle

By M. Brian Blake and Juan E. Gilbert

Black people are so underrepresented in computer science that the term "black computer scientist" might be considered an oxymoron.

African-Americans represent about 13 percent of the U.S. population but less than 6 percent of all faculty members at American colleges and universities. In the field of computer science, however, they make up only 1.3 percent of the faculty, according to the Computing Research Association's widely used "Taulbee Survey Report."

Furthermore, while