Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in SIAM News on July 13, 2020 (https://sinews.siam.org/Details-Page/broken-social-contract).

The video of Mr. George Floyd dying on the street in Minneapolis, Minn., is almost too difficult to watch, yet its impact has been profound. Academia must reflect on this incident. Seven decades ago, universities began ramping up the research component of mathematics departments. Every year since, meager handfuls of minorities have obtained doctorates from mathematical sciences and statistics (MSS) departments. The mathematical aspirations of countless minorities have died in silence. No video recorded these deaths. When was the last time that you advised a Native American undergraduate or discussed mathematics with a Native American mathematician? Such a glaring lack of contact with this one important minority group is evidence of the harm inflicted by MSS departments on the minority population in general.

The current unrest that we see on the streets is connected to white privilege. I earned a Ph.D. in mathematics, which led me out of poverty and granted me privileges. I had a safe work environment, a regular paycheck, health insurance, and a retirement account. I traveled around the world and own a home. Few minorities have these privileges.

There is an implicit social contract between the minority community and MSS departments. The tax dollars of minorities support the research and privileges of faculty in MSS departments; in return, MSS departments educate minority children. That social contract has broken.

I call on our profession to recognize the professional privilege in which we live and reformulate departmental policies, attitudes, and programs of study with a view towards producing an equitable educational system for women, minorities, and all our citizens. How much longer must women and minorities call for change? Must we wait for calls to defund our MSS departments? On the other hand, will MSS departments take the lead in addressing reform?

— William Yslas Vélez, emeritus professor of mathematics at the University of Arizona

This letter will also appear in MAA Focus, Notices of the AMS, the AWM Newsletter, and AMSTAT News.