4 ms·

As a non-American who occasionally attends conferences in the States, this entire incident is rather frightening. I really could not imagine a similar reaction

As a non-American who occasionally attends conferences in the States, this entire incident is rather frightening. I really could not imagine a similar reaction in Europe. It reminds me of the situation last year where a British ruby conference had to be abandoned after negative publicity resulting from tweets, made by non-attending Americans about the entirely white male lineup of speakers. I don't think this cultural difference is because women and minorities are more oppressed here. I think it's more a result of the simplistic view some Americans take on issues of discrimination. Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe people do feel oppressed here and there's just less of a culture of complaining. I'm not convinced though.

Argorak 14y ago
Actually, brit ruby was initially called out for calling themselves a "diverse conference", which was a very valid point: they had nothing to back that up. The resulting shitstorm was inappropriate, though, and I am very sad that it got cancelled.
- MrScruff 14y ago
  Ok, that's possibly unfortunate wording but it could have referred to the attendees rather than the presenters. At the time the complaint was that they hadn't applied quotas to the presenters which is not the same thing as discrimination.
  - Argorak 14y ago
    Not wanting to discuss that in detail (again), but the initial complaint about brit ruby was okay and also accepted by the conference. The whole thing afterward was sadly very messy. This blog post sums it up quite good: http://testobsessed.com/2012/11/diverse-discussions/ http://testobsessed.com/2012/11/diverse-discussions/ In my opinion, its not a good example, as it is a relatively civil discussion about an important topic gone horribly wrong.
- gngeal 14y ago
  "they had nothing to back that up." You mean that they received an insufficiently broad (or overlapping) range of presentation submissions?
  - Argorak 14y ago
    They didn't have a CFP when that happened. All invited speakers.
norabean 14y ago
You're not too far from right, but you're not fully right either. America is very much a spot where anyone can sue or whine and get people fired.
stefantalpalaru 14y ago
>I really could not imagine a similar reaction in Europe As far as I know, nobody was fired, but at last year's EuroPython a male participant was publicly shamed for twitting an "inappropriate" joke while eating at a restaurant[1]. [1] http://www.roguelynn.com/words/really/ http://www.roguelynn.com/words/really/

Argorak 14y ago

Actually, brit ruby was initially called out for calling themselves a "diverse conference", which was a very valid point: they had nothing to back that up. The resulting shitstorm was inappropriate, though, and I am very sad that it got cancelled.

MrScruff 14y ago
Ok, that's possibly unfortunate wording but it could have referred to the attendees rather than the presenters. At the time the complaint was that they hadn't applied quotas to the presenters which is not the same thing as discrimination.
- Argorak 14y ago
  Not wanting to discuss that in detail (again), but the initial complaint about brit ruby was okay and also accepted by the conference. The whole thing afterward was sadly very messy. This blog post sums it up quite good: http://testobsessed.com/2012/11/diverse-discussions/ http://testobsessed.com/2012/11/diverse-discussions/ In my opinion, its not a good example, as it is a relatively civil discussion about an important topic gone horribly wrong.
gngeal 14y ago
"they had nothing to back that up." You mean that they received an insufficiently broad (or overlapping) range of presentation submissions?
- Argorak 14y ago
  They didn't have a CFP when that happened. All invited speakers.

norabean 14y ago

You're not too far from right, but you're not fully right either. America is very much a spot where anyone can sue or whine and get people fired.

stefantalpalaru 14y ago

>I really could not imagine a similar reaction in Europe As far as I know, nobody was fired, but at last year's EuroPython a male participant was publicly shamed for twitting an "inappropriate" joke while eating at a restaurant[1]. [1] http://www.roguelynn.com/words/really/ http://www.roguelynn.com/words/really/