[coldtea]

And if you haven't gotten an application from one to do so, no need to go out of your way to have one.

If they had rejected someone for being black/asian/a woman/all the above, I would have understand the outrage. But in a field where 99% of the people active are white males in Britain, it makes less sense.

Should a conference about confucianism in China also find a western person to speak, or be cancelled?

Here's a quick quiz for you: name a woman/asian/black person that is active and does interesting things in the Python community? Here are the people that come to MY mind: 1) Guido, 2) Alex Gaynor, 3) Jacob Kaplan Moss, 4) several more white geeks.

Whereas in, say, web design circles I know far more women that do interesting things.

[jchiu1106]

>Here's a quick quiz for you: name a woman/asian/black person that is active and does interesting things in the Python community?

Jessica McKellar, Hilary Mason, Wesley Chun... Cancelling a conference b/c all speakers are white male is disturbing, but it's equally disturbing the idea of "token minority" is IMO.

[demet8]

>Here's a quick quiz for you: name a woman/asian/black person that is active and does interesting things in the Python community?

Mahdi Yusuf, Audrey Roy, Bryan Veloso, etc. You see what you have always seen. Open your eyes, there's more in front of you than what you consciously choose to know.

[saraid216]

> Should a conference about confucianism in China also find a western person to speak, or be cancelled?

Actually, that's a pretty good idea. There are some good scholars of Confucianism who aren't Chinese, and it'd be worth getting them in.