The Diversity Talk

Presented at CodeStock 2015

Transcript

1. Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don't know what he looks like but they know his name is John and that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a truck driver, a mechanic and a fireman all playing poker. Without hesitation or communication of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman. How do they know they've got their man? No Internet! No Discussion! Try to solve this on your own =)
2. The Diversity Talk Michael C. Neel
3. The Value of Story
4. Who is this talk for?
5. Systemic Discrimination Systemic discrimination, also known as institutionalized discrimination, is a culture of discrimination that pervades the workplace, where discrimination is a regular feature of interactions and processes or happens over a long period of time.
6. It’s The Status Quo If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. - Desmond Tutu
7. It’s a White Male Problem
8. Privilege • An advantage you have from what you are, not who you are. • It varies by the situation, people, place, and time. • Something everyone has. • Distribution of privilege is not balanced or equal. • Is not something you can choose to use or avoid. • Is invisible and very rarely mentioned when used. • Is the root of inherent, unseen bias. • Is not a flaw you possess or proof of discrimination. • Not seeking to understand it or acknowledge it is however.
9. When is the first time you became aware of your race?
10. So where does this come from?
11. 2 + 2
12. 457 x 23
13. LEFT left right RIGHT RIGHT left LEFT right upper lower LOWER upper UPPER lower LOWER upper
15. Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful but with very little interest in people or in the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure, and a passion for detail. Is Steve more likely to be a librarian or a farmer?
16. Linda is thirty-one years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations. Linda is (1) an elementary school teacher, (2) active in the feminist movement, (3) a bank teller, (4) an insurance salesperson, or (5) a bank teller also active in the feminist movement?
17. System One and System Two Thinking System One • Immediate Response • Pattern Recognition Based • Runs Basic Body Systems • The Lizard Brain • Initial Reaction • Bad News Is A Priority • Always Provides an Answer System Two • Delayed Response • Neural Network Based • Memories and Thoughts • The Human Brain • Gut Feeling • Is Lazy • Justifies System One Answer
18. WYSIATI / Cognitive Ease REPEATED EXPERIENCE CLEAR DISPLAY PRIMED IDEA GOOD MOOD EASE FEELS FAMILIAR FEELS TRUE FEELS GOOD FEELS EFFORTLESS
20. Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful but with very little interest in people or in the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure, and a passion for detail. Is Steve more likely to be a librarian or a farmer?
21. Linda is thirty-one years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations. Linda is (1) an elementary school teacher, (2) active in the feminist movement, (3) a bank teller, (4) an insurance salesperson, or (5) a bank teller also active in the feminist movement?
22. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
23. Starbucks Ideology
24. System Programming
25. False Narratives In Tech
26. Code: A Woman’s Job “It’s just like planning a dinner. You have to plan ahead and schedule everything so it’s ready when you need it. Programming requires patience and the ability to handle detail. Women are ‘naturals’ at computer programming.” -- Dr. Grace Hopper
27. The Code Pioneers Grace Hopper Ada Lovelace
28. What Changed?
29. Marketing!
30. False Narratives In Tech
31. False Narratives In Tech • Queen Bee Myth New research looked at top management teams in 1,500 companies over a 20-year period and found that where women had been appointed chief executive, other women were more likely to make it into senior positions. • The Meritocracy Women often have to provide more evidence of competence than men in order to be seen as equally competent. This descriptive stereotyping reflects the perceived lack of fit between being a woman and being a scientist. • Women, by nature, are less confident Asking for permission and applying qualifiers to statements like “I’m not sure, but…” is the result of a person who must constantly defend their position and ideas and not a gender trait. Women in gender equal fields do not exhibit this behavior. [citation needed]
32. Social Media Case Study: Donglegate
33. Social Media Case Study: Donglegate • Tweet with photo sent, and reported to PyCon • PyCon handled the report and posted to their site per stated guidelines “Both parties were met with, in private. The comments that were made were in poor taste, and individuals involved agreed, apologized and no further actions were taken by the staff of PyCon 2013. No individuals were removed from the conference, no sanctions were levied.” • “Hank” left the conference, Adria stayed • Monday Hank was fired and posted this to Hacker News, linking him to the tweet. Story goes viral. • Monday evening Adria blogged her details of the event • From there, Adria was nonstop harassed and threatened, and her company SendGrid was attacked via DDoS and told it would end when they fired her, which the did.
34. Social Media Case Study: Donglegate “Hank” • White Male • Still kept his privacy • Found new job weeks later • “We don’t have any female developers at the place I’m working at now.” • Fired after company investigation Adria • Black Woman • All personal information “DOX” • Still unemployed • Still receives hate mail and death threats • Fired after DDoS attacks and cited as “difficult” for complaining about talks with “porn” in the abstract.
35. Social Media – What You Can Do • Do Not Public Shame *Anyone* • Read before you post • Speak to the issue, not the people • When you see someone being attacked or expressing frustration: • Don’t ask “what can be done” or explanations; you have Google. • Don’t feel the need to respond. • Don’t explain to them why things are this way (they already know). • Don’t tone police, or make jokes. • Do express feeling of support. • Do boost the individual and their work. • Do take on some of the battles (and remove them from replies). • Do care and post about issues all the time, not just during a crisis.
36. ReProgramming the System
37. Language Matters Is Autistic / Has Autism Transgendered / Transgender
38. The Dress Code
39. Gender, Identity, and Orientation Gender Identity Orientation
40. More ReProgramming • Build Empathy! Use Social Media • Stop, Think, Listen, Speak – Break System 1 Thinking • Do not interrupt in meetings • Help break habits – “That’s interesting, can you elaborate?” • The world doesn’t end at the office door “When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.” ― Toni Morrison
41. The Job Interview “We spend more time working than we do on almost any other activity in our lives. People want all that time to mean something.” -- Laszlo Bock, Google SVP of People Operations
42. The Job Interview Problems • A decision is made in 10 seconds, the rest is confirmation bias A group of college students watched the first 10 seconds of interviews without sound and made the same decision as the actual hiring manager. • Asking the wrong questions The ability to answer hard questions or whiteboard problems during an interview has no correlation with employee success. • Looking at the wrong numbers Google hired back candidates who initially failed because of low GPA, non-selective college, etc. that otherwise seemed good. These employees had the same success rate as employees hired to the higher standards. • The interview process allows bias to remain, while being unseen to the interviewer.
43. The Job Interview Improvement • Train on effective interview and understanding bias! • No one likes quota systems • “Not a good fit” is never a valid reason • Decide on concrete requirements before reviewing the first resume • Have HR remove all names and references to gender and race • Create a list of qualified applicants • Decide on number of interviews you can actually do • Randomly choose applicants from qualified list • Interview Team: Manager, 1 or 2 Team Members, 1 Unrelated Employee • All questions and responses written down • Committee (no interviewers) reviews and makes decision
44. Thank You – michael.neel@gmail.com / @ViNull TechCo.org KnoxGameDesign.org Meetup Sun 2PM - Quest for Fun!