4 ms·

How can one lament the lack of women in a conference panel but make no mention of how lily white it is? Is it just me or do most of these underepresentation co

• calibraxis 11y ago
  Yes, it's multiply awful for those on the intersections: particularly women of color. Therefore they're the ones we’d expect a consistently ethical person to be most concerned about. (And helping improve their situations helps others too.)
  • mcphage 11y ago
    > Therefore they’re the ones we’d expect a consistently ethical person to be most concerned about. Why is that? I mean, I think of arguments for it, but I can think of arguments against it as well, enough that I don't think it qualifies as obviously true.
  • exstudent2 11y ago
    It's pretty awful for men who are ethnic as well. I come from a poor hispanic background but I keep getting lectured on my male privilege by upper middle class white people. I'd say it's pretty awful for non-upper middle class white men as well. I think we need to make sure everyone has the opportunities they desire, but repeatedly telling 50% of the population that they're privileged when that's most definitely not the case isn't helping anyone.
    • rrss1122 11y ago
      Coming from similar background, I say just screw 'em, honestly. Look out for yourself, and I know it's easier said than done, but don't give much weight to what other people think.
      • exstudent2 11y ago
        That was my strategy for a long time. I just focused on being the best dev I could be. Have I experienced racism in a professional environment? Yes. But again, I just focused on being the best I could be and worked past it. I'm successful enough now but it worries me that the same tools I used to get ahead are now being systematically disassembled. Meritocracy is now a bad word. High standards are deemed non-inclusive. Being male, regardless of your socio-economic background is now a handicap. Questioning any of this will get you labeled at the very least misogynist or racist. Publicly questioning it will likely get you fired. These developments worry me. While I "have mine" through 10+ years of very hard work, I'd like to leave the ladder in place so others can climb up instead of burning it down and helicoptering a chosen few up.
• kelukelugames 11y ago
  Gender is hot right now. Race is not. :(
  • rrss1122 11y ago
    Depends on what part of society you're talking about. More accurately, gender is hot in tech, race is hot in relation to police.
• tytytytyty 11y ago
  Take a good long hard look in the mirror and repeat after me, "I am part of the problem. I have no business preaching about a profession of which I don't belong" If I go to a conference I want to listen to the best and the brightest, not the most "under-represented" or whatever trendy bullshit it is this week. This used to be a respectable profession. Funny how it's being destroyed from the outside and not from within.
• Lawtonfogle 11y ago
  >How can one lament the lack of women in a conference panel but make no mention of how lily white it is? Maybe it is related to how the mismatch from base rate in prison populations in regards to race is a sign of systematic racism against the over-represented groups, but the same doesn't seem to be reported in regards to sex.
  • minnows 11y ago
    So, commute all prison sentences to STEM scholarships, and problem solved?
    • Lawtonfogle 11y ago
      If prison offered good job training (and we got people to be willing to employ felons), I think recidivism rates would take a significant dip. But oddly enough, such a solution would only further solidify the gender gap in tech as such scholarships would be going to far more men than women.
  • dragonwriter 11y ago
    > Maybe it is related to how the mismatch from base rate in prison populations in regards to race is a sign of systematic racism against the over-represented groups I've usually seen prison population cited not alone, but along with (and as an example of the outcome of) more direct examples of disparate treatment, such as unequal sentencing for like offenses, and the definition of different sentencing categories for different categories of narcotics, with the higher sentences being for possession or sale of categories disproportionately in use in the black community at the time the differential treatment was adopted.
• danharaj 11y ago
  It is in the social circles I frequent. Really the only way to know what tech is like for people with X experience is to listen to and follow (in the social media sense) people with X experience. No one can fully understand how other people experience things.
• rrss1122 11y ago
  People do talk about it, but it seems women are either more interested in talking about it or more likely to take action about it. I am part of a racial minority, and to be honest trying to "do something about it" never really interested me. Racial disadvantages never meant much to me personally. And no, there's no way in hell I can pass of as white, in person or on the phone.
  • kelukelugames 11y ago
    Part of the reason minorities are less willing to talk is because people are not really willing to listen. I just left a company where multiple complaints by people of color were dismissed.