>> I try to remind myself on the one hand, that some people care a lot more about things I'd shrug off, <<
Same here. They also don't care about a lot of things that matter greatly to me, and in fact, actively work against solving problems like climate change or the artificial shortage of affordable housing.
>> and on the other hand, that sometimes it's better to do what one can, than nothing at all. <<
Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. That's a permaculture approach. But you have to know what you're doing in order to choose small steps that have meaningful and positive results. A poorly conceived bike lane that makes the street uncomfortable so people avoid it is not an improvement.
>>But when my employer changed the name of its mainline source code repository from "master" (the default) to something else I promptly forgot, lest the word "master" cause offense, I looked around at all the non-black faces among my colleagues, and was singularly unimpressed.<<
No shit. They're still doing the master role, they're just pretending they aren't. In fact, one of the things that makes modern racism so dangerous is that it's more covert and thus harder to protest and dig out.
>>Yes, they also announced yet another recruitment effort, and I went on leave before there could reasonably have been results, so I couldn't verify that this one did in fact work about as badly as all their prior efforts. But the whole thing seemed totally petty and a bit ridiculous.<<
Their petty performance issues are probably why they don't have good diversity. Don't just look at "recruitment," look at retention. How many people of color are hired, but quit or get fired after a short time? It's likely higher than the numbers for white people.
Are they asking current employees of color "Do you know any ethnic folks who might like to apply for this job?" Are they advertising in ethnic newspapers, or sending people with flyers to post them on bulletin boards in ethnic neighborhoods? Hitting up the nearest historically black college or ethnic studies department at a mixed college for applicants? I would expect not.
I know how much extra work it takes to hustle people in order to fix an imbalance, because I've done it -- not with race, with gender. PanGaia (all genders) always got some spillover from SageWoman (female focused) so ensuring we had at least one male author in every issue (more if possible) took serious effort. You can't just sit on your butt and choose from the stuff that comes in, there's not enough. You have to go out and get it. Most people just aren't willing to do that much extra work, and some don't know how.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-12-02 08:53 pm (UTC)Same here. They also don't care about a lot of things that matter greatly to me, and in fact, actively work against solving problems like climate change or the artificial shortage of affordable housing.
>> and on the other hand, that sometimes it's better to do what one can, than nothing at all. <<
Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. That's a permaculture approach. But you have to know what you're doing in order to choose small steps that have meaningful and positive results. A poorly conceived bike lane that makes the street uncomfortable so people avoid it is not an improvement.
>>But when my employer changed the name of its mainline source code repository from "master" (the default) to something else I promptly forgot, lest the word "master" cause offense, I looked around at all the non-black faces among my colleagues, and was singularly unimpressed.<<
No shit. They're still doing the master role, they're just pretending they aren't. In fact, one of the things that makes modern racism so dangerous is that it's more covert and thus harder to protest and dig out.
>>Yes, they also announced yet another recruitment effort, and I went on leave before there could reasonably have been results, so I couldn't verify that this one did in fact work about as badly as all their prior efforts. But the whole thing seemed totally petty and a bit ridiculous.<<
Their petty performance issues are probably why they don't have good diversity. Don't just look at "recruitment," look at retention. How many people of color are hired, but quit or get fired after a short time? It's likely higher than the numbers for white people.
Are they asking current employees of color "Do you know any ethnic folks who might like to apply for this job?" Are they advertising in ethnic newspapers, or sending people with flyers to post them on bulletin boards in ethnic neighborhoods? Hitting up the nearest historically black college or ethnic studies department at a mixed college for applicants? I would expect not.
I know how much extra work it takes to hustle people in order to fix an imbalance, because I've done it -- not with race, with gender. PanGaia (all genders) always got some spillover from SageWoman (female focused) so ensuring we had at least one male author in every issue (more if possible) took serious effort. You can't just sit on your butt and choose from the stuff that comes in, there's not enough. You have to go out and get it. Most people just aren't willing to do that much extra work, and some don't know how.