Jonathan Farley has written a shocking account of racism in academic mathematics. Framed as a discussion of barriers to winning the Fields medal for black mathematicians, Farley tells three stories, of an MAA conference in 1951 Tennessee, of David Blackwell and his own career. The stories are shocking because, although I am aware terrible racism happened in the past, I feel like you’d hope these stories would be irrelevant in recent decades.

Read the article: Black mathematicians: the kind of problems they wish didn’t need solving.