Black voices in physics: Charles McGruder and Chima McGruder

This interview is part of PT‘s “Black voices in physics” series of Q&As with Black physicists.

“I am at the top of my game right now. I have a plush life,” says Charles McGruder, an astrophysicist who holds an endowed chair at Western Kentucky University. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Caltech in the 1960s and then went to Germany to do his PhD in astronomy. After that, he traveled around Africa and eventually spent more than a decade teaching physics in Nigeria before coming back to the US in 1989. His son Chima McGruder is now in his fourth year of graduate school in physics at Harvard University. Chima’s focus is on the atmospheres of large gaseous exoplanets.

PT: How has being Black affected your pursuit of physics?

CHARLES MCGRUDER: My life is a response to American racism. The greatest prejudice against Blacks is in relation to intelligence. For people growing up in my age, it was assumed that Blacks are inferior, especially intellectually. I picked that up as a child and vowed to fight it. That’s why I went into physics.

CHIMA MCGRUDER: As an undergraduate, the other STEM students were majority white men. That gave me a sense of alienation. It’s discouraging. And there have been instances where somebody said I got into the program because I am Black.

The social affirmation bar is lower for me. People have lower expectations of me. I get that vibe from peers. But I’ve been lucky about advisers; their expectations are as they should be, based off merit. The Harvard astronomy community is pretty good.

PT: Charles, was your experience as a Black physicist in Germany different from what it was in the US?

CHARLES: It’s a whole different ball game. Germany has a racially charged history, but modern Germany is different. My life there was comfortable. I enjoyed it. I thought about staying, but before I went there I had decided to go to Africa.

When I left America, I didn’t think I would ever go back. Today in the US it’s good for me, for the upper middle class. But it has not changed for the better for those living in the projects.

PT: Do you think the Black Lives Matter movement will make a difference?

CHARLES: It depends on the outcome of this election. If Trump wins, the Black Lives Matter movement may fizzle. If Biden wins, I think we will move in a good direction.

PT: What will help increase representation of Black people in physics?

CHARLES: The National Society of Black Physicists is a very important factor because its meetings offer a rare environment where African American students who are interested in physics get to be in the majority for days on end, and that means a lot. You meet top physicists who are Black, and that is fantastic.

I didn’t meet another Black physicist until I was in my 30s. It was in Africa, and he was African. I want to help change the situation for the next generation.

CHIMA: Increase diversity. Encourage a more supportive atmosphere and discourage bullshit; discourage the arrogant, competitive conversations.