| > By creating anti-diverse groups like [Women Who Code, PyLadies, Girls Who Code, Black Girls Code], people are literally saying “This group of people are different than the majority, so we need to do special things for them. Treat them differently. They’re special.” Though this was a small part of the post, I believe this is one of the most flawed concepts he has. Having founded a group for black programmers in NYC, I can tell you, we're not asking for special things, nor have any of the women I've encountered from the other groups. My group, the Black Techies, was founded so that we could have a place free of crap like cultural biases, or people asking "why are the black people sitting together at lunch", or sexist and racist posts that devalue our worth. The author's version of "true diversity" is one where anyone who is not a white male assimilates into a white male culture of software development. His vision is one where white males don't have to change; where acceptable groups are blessed; where we can't do anything about the adults in the field, we need to focus on the children and in 20 years, __maybe__ we will look up and see that it worked. This vision is one that perpetuates the status quo. For myself, and I would posit the other founders of similar groups, the status quo is unacceptable. And we actively fight, on our own terms, for our own interests about the best way forward. Who knows best about how to hire more "diverse" programmers than those same "diverse" programmers? Is a "1:1" speaker ratio the right thing? Is it going to produce results? Is it sustainable? Who knows. But, it is an active and bold idea. It's taking a stand. It's does a hell of a lot more for the conversation than silently removing a "no girls allowed" sign from the boys club. |