No. Not really. Absolutely not. These were the pointed answers to a pointed question: Would you consider the additive manufacturing (AM) industry a safe and welcoming space for Black people and people of colour?
This question was not part of an in-depth survey, nor does this article rely heavily on statistics. Instead, it brings forth the personal accounts of a select few people who have worked in the industry for several years and were willing to share their experiences. Because, while we could ask this question to every Black person and person of colour in the industry, that even one single person could feel this way about their professional environment is reason enough for a conversation to be had.
During his interview for this feature, Vivek Krishnamurthy paused to caveat that everything he had said and was about to say should be framed in the context that he loves the AM industry – several others expressed similar feelings. He feels very grateful towards AM since it is the place in which he finally realised what he wanted to do with his career. Today, he is the Sr. Business Development Manager at Sakuu, but he has worked in 3D printing for several other leading brands and enjoyed those eight years – for the most part.
“I only want to bring these things to light because I love this industry and I care about it,” Krishnamurthy told TCT. “I want people younger than me to have a better experience.”
Krishnamurthy is a first-generation American, born and raised in the Northeast US. At various points of his personal and professional life he feels he has been made to feel like an outsider. During his time in the AM industry, some peers have refused to attempt to pronounce his surname, asked him where he is ‘really’ from and what his nationality is.
But none of that has shaken his pride in being an American nor distorted his perception of the value that he, and those with similar backgrounds to him, bring to the country he calls home.
“Immigration is the backbone of the Western World,” he said. “It’s what helped push entire economies forward; the dream of having a better life. My father came to the US in the mid-60s with nothing but six dollars in his pocket and a dream. His contributions to science are immeasurable and I am his legacy. That’s what I believe immigration should be associated with in my opinion.”
“We are working on the most cutting-edge technology,” SJ Jones, a metal AM engineer, said in their assessment of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in AM. “We’re probably one of the technologies that are as close to magic as we’re ever going to get. So, when you have that much power, you have a responsibility to all groups and to all people.”
“Having perspectives from different areas of the world helps connect parts of the world that otherwise may not connect,” Krishnamurthy added. “It is my belief that collaboration fosters the exchange of ideas and the formulation of newer and better ones. So, when you add in people coming from diverse backgrounds, there is a multiplier effect.”
The same can be said of people of different genders, race, and socioeconomic backgrounds – anyone who might think differently and bring alternative perspectives. And where better to share the ideas born from that different lived experience than in formal team meetings? Except, this is another setting where people are made to feel like they can’t be their true selves. SJ says they often find themselves holding back on emotion or passion in meetings, so as not to be judged against the ‘angry black woman’ stereotype – a source of much frustration for Lisa Block, the most recent addition to Women in 3D Printing’s Board.
“Meetings are where the passion should be, meetings are where we express the ideas that further the company,” Block said. “But I don’t think we should detract from everyone feeling that they can express their true feelings in a meeting without consequence, and we have not gotten to that place just yet. There is a perception that if a black woman elevates her voice at all, if she does not agree with you, that she’s confrontational, she’s being argumentative. Well, she may just be telling you the truth about something, and you’re not prepared to hear it. That’s a real reality of our time now. We’ve got a whole lot of truth that we’re not prepared to hear, we’re not prepared to deal with. It’s like, I want you to be seen, I want you to feel accepted, but don’t be transparent about your experiences because that says something about me and I’m not ready to deal with me.”
“It’s got to get worse before it gets better,” Jones emphasised, “because people who were doing wrong or people who are creating these toxic spaces are not just going to wake up tomorrow and be like, ‘oh my God, I was toxic, I’m so sorry.’ That’s not going to happen. People will go kicking and screaming into the truth.”
“When we innovate, we do things a specific way until technology proceeds us and says, ‘there’s something better, there’s a bigger way to do this,’ and then we evolve,” Block added. “But humanity has not made that evolution possible. We are so upset that the authority figures in our lives possibly could not have informed us in the correct way that we say to go against them is to go against who I am, and I can’t do that. If I had any problem with race or gender or creed or anything like that, it would be that it’s the only environment in which we’re willing to operate on absolutely archaic technology. It’s the only area of our life we’re willing to stop advancing.”
While changes to the culture won’t happen overnight, and to some extent are out of the control of those speaking passionately about the experiences of Black people and people of colour in industries such as AM, there are efforts that can be made and are being made.
In August, the Greater Than Tech (GTT) initiative set up by Jasmine LeFlore and Dr Brittany Wheeler coordinated a ‘Girl Meets Additive Manufacturing’ programme, which was designed to expose underserved high school students to a blend of engineering and business. During the four-day workshop, the students were taught how to use CAD, learned about the costs associated with AM versus traditional manufacturing, and were tasked with pitching their designs. They also took in presentations from industry experts and participated in a facility tour of a GTT partner organisation.
The intention of GTT’s ‘Girl Meets…’ programmes are to ‘make the uncommon common' by introducing young women of colour to STEM and entrepreneurship, emphasising that careers in these fields are possible. Partnerships with the likes of Collins Aerospace, where there may be future apprenticeship opportunities, will go some way to providing a pathway for students to become engineers and business leaders.
But right now, there isn’t a clear enough route for people of certain backgrounds to make it, and LeFlore has ideas as to why.
“I think a lot of opportunities come into play based on, I’ll say, affinity bias, where if you’re familiar to me and you remind me of myself, I’m more likely to give you an opportunity than someone else,” she said. “This is something that plays out often in the workplace […] and I think if we have more leaders who understand the journey of what it’s like being a woman in STEM or a woman of colour in STEM, so on and so forth, we will be able to have better equitable opportunities because everyone isn’t able to start with the same tools to learn. The more we realise and recognise that, the [more] we will have people get into positions of power and being decision-makers to help others.”
GTT is not alone in contributing to these efforts, with several other organisations working to give young people access to STEM education, specifically targeting underserved communities and occasionally focusing on AM. There are also those like Women in 3D Printing and Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE) which allow underrepresented groups to connect and network, while the annual TIPE Conference platforms a diverse range of speakers in AM. Xometry, meanwhile, has established a scholarship scheme with Howard University, a Historically Black College and University.
Read more:
- What more can the additive manufacturing industry do to ensure diversity & inclusion? And why does it matter?
- Intentional inclusion: How to build a more inclusive and diverse workplace in AM
- The original women in 3D printing
But for all these efforts, there are still barriers to break down from within AM. Left out, excluded, and unwelcome is how Black people and people of colour in this industry often feel. Some can’t help but feel isolated when they walk a trade show floor, others feel marginalised because their parents are immigrants, and there have been instances where people are confronted with surprise when they deliver their words in ‘well-spoken’ English.
Whether it’s outright discrimination, veiled racism or cases of ignorance, there is enough hostility and ostracism to make people – who are sufficiently qualified and care just as much as anyone else about additive – feel like they don’t belong. It is one thing to build the pipeline, but it is another to foster a culture that maintains a diverse range of talent. Some fear AM, like other STEM industries, isn’t doing that well enough.
Detoxifying spaces within AM is the responsibility of each of us occupying a position in the industry. Like any other, this industry’s culture is made up of the thousands of individual attitudes and values each person brings to the table, with simple actions like including colleagues in conversations and not making crude jokes at their expense going a long way to making people feel welcome.
Addressing such behaviour is not a big ask but is of big significance. To varying degrees, everybody working within AM believes the technology has vast potential. But to reach that potential, studies would suggest a need for input from a broad range of perspectives.
“AM, even as a concept, is so beautiful,” Mina Lee, Manager of People and Culture at MakerBot, said. “You’re literally making something by adding layers and layers and layers until it’s this final product. having that diversity and inclusion and having diverse voices should also be in that DNA. You’re layering people’s experiences. You hear all the time about how lack of diversity in test groups leads to very racially complicated things, so you see these gaps that end up making a product in tech that is not inclusive. You decrease the amount of disparity by increasing the levels of diversity and diverse thought and diverse experiences. Having that adds more to the innovation and will only propel us to the future in creating incredibly innovative technologies.”
“A lot of start-ups fail because of the founding team because there’s no dissonance, there’s no diversity of thought, whether that’s background or race, things that make people different,” Makelab CEO Christina Perla analogised. “You see companies go down because every single founder came through the exact same school at the same time. In fact, they were roommates. That can be problematic because you fall into that level of comfort. And comfort can be a killer of a lot of things, including culture. It’s something you always need to stay on top of and be cognisant of, you always need to make an effort towards it. It’s more about the actions you don’t take rather than the actions you do take. The key to a successful future of this industry [is] diversity of thought. We just need it.”
In her role as Manager of People and Culture at MakerBot, it is within Lee’s remit to source talent to come and work with MakerBot. She accepts committing to providing a diverse range of people with the opportunity to work for a technology brand such as MakerBot requires a lot of time and bandwidth, but she does believe there are smart ways to factor in this requirement when recruiting. Lee uses a saved search on LinkedIn which presents alumni from HBCUs and women's universities when she is struggling to find diverse talent on an unfiltered LinkedIn search. Perla, meanwhile, is seeing the value of looking outside of the AM space in MakeLab’s search for a new member of its leadership team. While CVs have come in from fellow 3D printing brands, she is finding a more diverse pool of talent – and potentially thought – in the managers serving tech conglomerates and food and beverage franchises.
Internally at MakerBot, Lee is committed to outlining career pathing and career development for all employees, but the same opportunity needs applying to everyone everywhere. Krishnamurthy, Jones, Block, LeFlore, Lee, and Perla all share a passion to usher in a more diverse cohort and see them thrive with less of the prejudice, exclusion, and discrimination that they know exists. They do so because they care – about people and about this industry.
“We are in an industry where we are constantly looking at our numbers – how we can satisfy investors, how we can make sure we’re profitable, how we can make sure that we’re here to stay,” Block finished. “And the truth of the matter is, I think we’ve been looking at the wrong thing. All the money will come when we care as much about humanity as we care about financial gain.
“At the moment we care about people to the degree that we care about money, we will see additive explode. But we have facilitated environments where, just because people are talented, they don’t have to be appropriate, they don’t have to be inclusive, they don’t have to be kind.”
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