I am loathing some people today


People who are very invested in no change and no blame

Jason Kottke wrote an interesting post about conference speaker diversity.

And now, predictably, a bunch of guys are rushing to explain why we should all walk away, nothing to see here. You can go search for them if you're interested. I won't be linking to the typical drivel about it just reflecting their particular industry. Or society. Or a lack of interest from women. Or the fact that the whole wide world is such a darn "meritocracy" that caring about diversity would instantly populate conferences with incompetent, mediocre women and people of color. Or that even daring to think about wanting diversity is a slippery sloe that will require you to make sure red-headed, 53 year old, near-sighted Alabamans are represented. It's always some damn thing that they have no responsibility to care about, much less do something about. Particularly infuriating are the ones who actually could do something about it pretty easily, but again, don't see it as a problem to begin with, so of course they wouldn't dream of doing anything about it.

And their commenters rush to tell them how brave and honest and spot-on they are.

I've written about this over on Worker Bees so often I can't bear to do it again, hence the post here. I know that's weird, but they're my blogs I can bifurcate if I want to.

Let's recap shall we:

Meritocracy is a myth.

Diversity has benefits. Multiple benefits.

It's the Conference Organizer's job to deliver those benefits to their attendees. And those that won't own that make my head explode.

So, Jason is catching some crap, just like Chris did before him.

Why? Perhaps because as long as the various minority and/or interest groups are the ones speaking up about problems, certain people assume that they will be dismissed and ignored. But when someone from inside the group in power, or of privilege, whichever you prefer, dares to point out the very same issues? Well, those invested in not having to think about change are afraid it will be taken much much more seriously.

That's my theory, anyway, what's yours?

Posted: Fri - February 23, 2007 at 05:35 PM       EmailFeedback

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