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by dagmx 1121 days ago
Told to attend less because there needed to be space for other demographics? That’s not discrimination because it’s not preventing white men from attending, it’s just allowing other people to also attend unless you believe that you’re also somehow better than everyone who was allowed to attend.

the same goes for favouring people in your job. If you have a systemic issue in your place of work, then report it.

But otherwise people are chastising the person in question for pointing out that there isn’t diversity in representation. So what? They’re not meant to even mention what they think is an issue because somehow the systems are just and fair because of the internet???

Anyway I won’t be responding further. I don’t think you actually care about understanding or supporting equality, or letting other people prosper if they’re not your demographic.

The fact that you think the internet is an equalizer of opportunity just shows how people here don’t actually want to understand the issues people in other demographics go through.

Edit: ah and of course the reply below is it’s the minorities fault they’re not represented enough. This is why I don’t care to respond to people who are so deeply rooted in the idea that the world is somehow a just and fair representation. It’s the same argument for decades.

2 comments

I'm sorry but discouraging white males from attending a conference has approximately nothing to do with "allowing other people to also attend". It's a weird brand of discrimination (racism and sexism) based on the unfounded idea that any coveted group must have a racial and sexual profile equivalent to that of an arbitrary overall population. Additionally, there would be no need to exclude people on the basis of their race and sex if the minorities they'd like to include simply participated in the desired proportions, and in fact equity programs originally prioritized outreach to achieve that, but as it turns out, few industries have a demographic profile that matches the overall population. Therefore some have turned to racist and sexist exclusion.

Prioritizing non-whites and non-Asians for things like university admissions, employment and promotions is the same thing. You're not just giving your preferred groups the opportunity to compete, you're lowering your standards for them and raising them for the disfavored groups, creating barriers based on an immutable characteristic, which is skin color. Plain and simple racism.

You don't have to post your alleged experience with racism if you don't want to, but to then imply that I am racist for sharing mine and asking you to reciprocate sure is disingenuous. For the record, I care about equality, which is why I reject equity, since its implementation is predicated on the discriminatory policies that I described.

You are talking past each other. I just see bad faith.