Unacceptable behavior

When Anne wrote her post about the problematic way that people with power too often silence women and people of color, she ended it with a declaration “The way we treat women and people of color is not acceptable. We will not be silenced any longer.” In ending the post that way, Anne realized she was putting herself on the line to call out the next instance of bad behavior of which she was made aware. What she hadn’t realized is how quickly she would need to do so.

In the last few days, several women have come forward with stories of being harassed and made uncomfortable in their interactions with Bora Zivkovic, blog manager at Scientific American and prominent online science communicator. In these interactions, Bora abused his power – his power to publish these womens’ writing and promote their careers. We deplore and decry this unacceptable behavior. We applaud these women for their incredible courage in speaking out and breaking the silence. These revelations are pushing the science communications community into difficult but necessary conversations that we hope will move us closer to creating a safe and respectful environment for all those whose goal is to share the wonders and work of science.