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As usual the only black guy there doesn't get to talk about tech. It must either be "on diversity" or nothing showing black people do tech. I don't think it is

As usual the only black guy there doesn't get to talk about tech. It must either be "on diversity" or nothing showing black people do tech. I don't think it is deliberate but it perpetuates a wrong narrative. == EDIT. I was inaccurate in this case. See below

ng12 10y ago
http://conf.reactjs.org/speakers/ben http://conf.reactjs.org/speakers/ben ?
- OoTheNigerian 10y ago
  I stand corrected. Thanks ng12 When I looked through, I didn't see him. I'm happy I am wrong here. The stats are still worrying [1]. My greatest joy will be to be continuously wrong on this [1] http://oonwoye.com/2015/10/15/where-are-the-black-tech-foundersexecutive-speakers-at-major-tech-conferences/ http://oonwoye.com/2015/10/15/where-are-the-black-tech-found...
  - spicyj 10y ago
    As someone who was involved in speaker selection, I agree. We'll keep pushing on this and hopefully do better next year.
pluma 10y ago
I think it's not that he "doesn't get to talk about tech". I think women and minorities just generally are more likely to talk about diversity because it affects them more directly and thus if you pick a diversity talk at random the speaker is more likely to fall in one of those categories -- whereas because they are the minority in tech, a tech talk picked at random will likely be by a white male speaker. IMO it'd make sense to counterbalance this bias just like the bias for speakers in general: I'd love to hear more women and minorities talk about tech and more "straight white cis-males" talk about diversity but I'm sure someone's bound to complain if "the diversity talk" is given by a straight white cis-man because reasons[0]. I've actually noticed the "wrong narrative" you decry myself: at last year's React Conf while browsing the videos I instinctively guessed who was going to give the diversity talk by looking at the speaker. I was aware of my bias but I sadly saw it affirmed. You don't fix the problem by talking about it. You fix it by living it. Sadly right now there don't seem to be enough high quality minority speakers to solve this without running into the "all confs sound the same" problem (more than they do already). It's complicated. [0]: Counterpoint: getify seems to be widely accepted as a diversity speaker but I'm not sure whether he's held talks exclusively about diversity at conferences where there weren't also women or minorities also giving diversity talks.

ng12 10y ago

http://conf.reactjs.org/speakers/ben http://conf.reactjs.org/speakers/ben ?

OoTheNigerian 10y ago
I stand corrected. Thanks ng12 When I looked through, I didn't see him. I'm happy I am wrong here. The stats are still worrying [1]. My greatest joy will be to be continuously wrong on this [1] http://oonwoye.com/2015/10/15/where-are-the-black-tech-foundersexecutive-speakers-at-major-tech-conferences/ http://oonwoye.com/2015/10/15/where-are-the-black-tech-found...
- spicyj 10y ago
  As someone who was involved in speaker selection, I agree. We'll keep pushing on this and hopefully do better next year.

pluma 10y ago

I think it's not that he "doesn't get to talk about tech". I think women and minorities just generally are more likely to talk about diversity because it affects them more directly and thus if you pick a diversity talk at random the speaker is more likely to fall in one of those categories -- whereas because they are the minority in tech, a tech talk picked at random will likely be by a white male speaker. IMO it'd make sense to counterbalance this bias just like the bias for speakers in general: I'd love to hear more women and minorities talk about tech and more "straight white cis-males" talk about diversity but I'm sure someone's bound to complain if "the diversity talk" is given by a straight white cis-man because reasons[0]. I've actually noticed the "wrong narrative" you decry myself: at last year's React Conf while browsing the videos I instinctively guessed who was going to give the diversity talk by looking at the speaker. I was aware of my bias but I sadly saw it affirmed. You don't fix the problem by talking about it. You fix it by living it. Sadly right now there don't seem to be enough high quality minority speakers to solve this without running into the "all confs sound the same" problem (more than they do already). It's complicated. [0]: Counterpoint: getify seems to be widely accepted as a diversity speaker but I'm not sure whether he's held talks exclusively about diversity at conferences where there weren't also women or minorities also giving diversity talks.