I am just starting my career as a cancer biologist, but I have always been a Black man in America. This means that I have always inhabited a world that generally disregarded my existence in some form or another. It is June 17th, 2020 and protests have been happening for weeks since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The current state of America may be uneasy for some, but for many Americans, the looming threat of exclusion and violence has been an unwelcome companion since birth. This letter is not about a single person, but the Black academic’s experience of race inside and outside of the academy during a time of social upheaval. I have trained in a variety of institutions, big and small, and all the while acutely aware of the impact of my Blackness on my science. The intent of the following is to provoke the reader to reflect on how we as a nation can move toward radically positive change and not incremental adjustments to the status quo. The views expressed are my own and are the result of years of personal experience observing the anti-Black standard in America.

我刚刚开始从事癌症生物学家的职业，但是我一直是美国的黑人。这意味着我一直生活在一个普遍以某种形式无视我的存在的世界中。这是2020年6月17日，自明尼阿波利斯（George Floyd）在明尼阿波利斯（Minneapolis）被杀以来，抗议活动已经进行了数周。对于某些人来说，目前的美国状态可能会令人不安，但是对于许多美国人而言，自出生以来迫在眉睫的排斥和暴力威胁一直是不受欢迎的伴侣。这封信不是关于一个人的，而是黑人学者在社会剧变时期在学院内外种族的经历。我曾在各种规模的机构中接受过培训，并且始终敏锐地意识到“黑人”对我的科学的影响。以下内容旨在激发读者反思我们作为一个国家如何朝着根本的积极变化而不是对现状进行渐进式调整。所表达的观点是我自己的观点，是多年遵守美国反黑标准的个人经验的结果。