As the writer, let me explain. I read somewhere on the web that Dr. McLoud was Native American and first in her family to go to college. I checked with her, and

As the writer, let me explain. I read somewhere on the web that Dr. McLoud was Native American and first in her family to go to college. I checked with her, and she said her mom has an associate degree, so I picked my words very carefully. Why mention in the first place? How many Native American mathematicians can you name? How many of those are women? It's kinda noteworthy, so rather than ignore it on a silly "minority blind" pretext, I chose to sneak it in; knowing that it would not sit well with all readers. I teach at an HBCU (for women) and we like to highlight our students' achievements, as underrepresented minorities are not so visible in STEM. This seemed like a great op to say "some cool new mathematics the public can understand has been discovered and BTW, one of the people on the team is not a traditional demographic geek." If nobody covering this story ever mentioned what I did, how would a Native American girl looking for role models in STEM on the web ever find out about Dr. McLoud?