checking your privilege: a how-to for hard things
TRANSCRIPT
Checking Your PrivilegeA How-To for Hard Things
Leslie Hawthorn Director of Developer Relations
[email protected] @lhawthorn
Our Story So Far… Under Represented Groups in Tech
• Women are 25x more likely to be harassed online than men
• Women are more likely to be interrupted
• Women make up 20% or less of tech workforce at major companies
• The numbers for most people of color are much, much worse
• Transgendered people receive disproportionate & violent harassment both on & off the job
• The list goes on ….
Our System Defaults & Their Discontents
Bias & discrimination are inherent in our social systems, making them hard to detect & even harder to combat.
Examining Our Defaults
“I can be fooled by anyone who looks like Mark Zuckerberg.”
- Paul Graham, Y Combinator, on whom he’ll choose for Venture Capital investment
Why We Cling to Our Biases
• Biases are part of how we define ourselves
• We benefit from our biases
• We’re uncomfortable that we have these biases at all
Overcoming Bias Experiment 1: Change Your Speech Defaults
Hi, guys.
That’s gay!
You throw like a girl.
You’re crazy!
What a retarded idea.
This code is lame.
• Use social media to understand other perspectives
• Listen != retweet, +1, reposting, commenting, providing advice
• #NotAllMen is not a useful addition to a conversation
Overcoming Bias Experiment 2: *Listen* to People Who are Not Like You
Your next empathy building mission….
Change your online avatars & profile pics to depict you as:
• a woman
• a man of color
• a woman of color
• a person of size
Overcoming Bias Experiment 3: Change Your Online Persona
• Recenter discussions on people whose points have been dismissed, then restated
• Bring the conversation back to individuals who were interrupted or ignored
• Point out individuals’ mistakes with respect
Overcoming Bias Experiment 4: Speak Up for Others
Provide sincere apologies when you make a mistake.
Overcoming Bias Experiment 5: Ask for Help & Accept It Humbly
Measure Your Actions• Count how often you
• have the floor in meetings and discussions
• interrupt other people
• dismiss ideas without working them through with the other person
• Use the results of these measurements to change your behaviors.
Questions & Knowledge Sharing Time
Thank you for attending!
Leslie Hawthorn Director of Developer Relations
[email protected] @lhawthorn
The Legal Bits
• This presentation is licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Please reuse, remix and share widely!
• The images used in this presentation are copyright their respective owners and used with permission under a Creative Commons license.
Photo Credits• Creation / Leaf in Hand: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smanography/2299171379/
• Foundation: http://www.flickr.com/photos/city-amsterdam/12101321055
• Justice: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ensh/6204837462/
• Harassment / Hand: http://www.flickr.com/photos/keoni101/5132652314/
• Money: http://www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/8463683689
• Bandaid: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephanie_in_love/5434424913/
• Young man in a hoodie: http://www.flickr.com/photos/100013566@N03/12853691273/
• Young women in orchestra: https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcomartinscosta/418200303/
• Static cling kitten: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31333486@N00/1802425453/
• Empathy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia/15925430129/
• Speech bubble: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddsock/2979328682/
• Social media: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/9894304255/
• Avatar: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31333486@N00/2037593361
• Megaphone: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hazzat/5412540184/
• Humility: http://www.flickr.com/photos/indymetro/13310400055
• Can and String ‘Telephone’: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiertz/13195153284
• Listening is an act of love sign: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oneworldgallery/2245563352/
• Assume: http://www.flickr.com/photos/x1brett/3949835761/
• Broken bulb: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uaeincredible/1458303830/
• Bridge: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kpaulus/14574838075/