Deconstructing Black physics identity: Linking individual and social constructs using the critical physics identity framework

Understanding the ways in which Black folks identify as physicists can provide useful information about the facets of the physics discipline that perpetuate systems of oppression. In prior work, we developed the critical physics identity (CPI) framework to identify the structures and systems that impact the ways that people identify with the physics discipline. In this paper, we apply the CPI to deconstruct the factors that influence physics identity for a sample of undergraduate, graduate, and professional Black physicists. Using the CPI constructs, we classify important internal and external factors that influence how they identify, or not, as a physics person. We find that racialized resources were more influential than physics identity constructs, and document the subcodes of each CPI construct that are discussed most frequently among participants. We note variations between early and later career physicists and between men and women.

This article appears in the following collection:

Figure 1

An updated working model for the critical physics identity framework [20] that depicts how we see the structure of the six constructs based on how they interact. It includes constructs for physics identity (recognition, interest, and competence/performance) and racialized identity (relational resources, material resources, and ideational resources).

Figure 2

CPI constructs for each participant normalized to the total code counts for each individual interview. Constructs come in two types, physics identity (orange shades) and racialized resources (blue shades). The graph shows the large difference between the percentage of physics identity constructs and the racialized identity resource constructs coded for this sample.

Figure 3

Graph of the internal and external ideational codes for each participant, normalized to the total code counts for each individual interview. Shades of green represent internal subcodes and shades of brown represent external subcodes.

Figure 4

Breakdown of internal and external recognition codes for participants based on their career position. The counts are normalized to the total code counts for each individual interview. The blue parts of the bar represent internal recognition percentages, and orange parts of the bar represent the external recognition percentages.

Figure 5

Breakdown of external recognition for men (to the right) and women (to the left) in our sample, normalized to the total code counts for each individual interview. The dark blue bar represents the percentage of negative external recognition, and the light blue represents the percentage of positive recognition.