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ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

electronconf.com

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Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#111

Post by ygaf »

abtinf wrote: post #64
macspoofing wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't actually know anyone who concerns themselves with identity politics to the extent they would mothball their tech conference. Who are these people who make these kinds of decisions?

Conference organizers and conference presenters/attendees are two different sets of people with wildly different objectives and values.

You made me think. Electron may have been unsatisfied with the promotional appeal of the lineup; it's like advertising Windows 10 - you show ethnic minorities, women, children using their tablet etc. But who knows whether electron are being business minded or simply upholding standards they claim to have.

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#112

Post by catenthusiast »

wand3r wrote: post #25
TokenDiversity wrote: post #8

I am an Indian (मैं भारतीय हूं‌) but as long as there are people who put token diversity over true meritocracy, there will never be hope for the downtrodden. This entire thing is such a farce.

Well Indians are over represented in tech so you're views don't matter. Double because you're male. But yes, rather rediculous. Totally agree. It's like survelience and terrorism. Just a stupid excuse to gain Goodwill w/ some groups and avoid a different problem they don't want to deal with. Hope you weren't offended, I just wanted to make a point. Of course your views matter

*your

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#113

Post by abtinf »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #82
abtinf wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All this without ... people that police every word you say. Is that a joke? There are literally laws, with actual prosecutions, in the Netherlands designed to police every word you say.

[citation needed]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech#Netherlands

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/world/europe/sylvana-si...

http://www.armradio.am/en/2017/03/17/chairman-of-turkish-aze...

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21640748-netherl...

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#114

Post by muninn_ »

viraptor wrote: post #96
muninn_ wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because at the same time you're implying that being surrounded by a specific skin color or sex is undesirable. That's racism and sexism. That's like me going to Japan and getting upset because I went to a conference and everybody was Japanese and there wasn't any diversity.

No, that's a false dichotomy. The fact I prefer a mix of cultures, doesn't mean I'm against whatever conference you'd like to see (unless you were explicitly excluding people, that is). I'm not even saying staying in the monoculture of your own origin is bad, if that's what you want to do. And btw, East Asia has some awesomely diverse conferences :)

I'm not saying that you can't have a preference. The problem is that, if you prefer a monoculture than you're labeled a racist. So if you say: "I prefer a mix of cultures at xyz conference" that is ok because the mix is seen as good. But if you say: "I prefer only Han Chinese at this conference" you're a racist (actually I don't think you'd be labeled a racist, I think you would only be labeled a racist if you said white people). Personally, I also don't care who anybody prefers to associate with. What bothers me is that it's immediately racism if you're white. It's got to the point where I've stopped really caring about diversity. Sensory overload with how I'm an evil white man taking away everybody's jobs and how I'm so privileged. Meanwhile somehow white women aren't privileged? Meanwhile some black woman that went to Harvard had such a struggle? All people do is look at skin color. You (not you specifically) don't know what I've been through. Sorry for the poorly-worded rant. I'm just growing frustrated with stories like these. If people stopped flipping out and calling everything fascist and racist maybe we wouldn't be so divided.

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#115

Post by indy »

thrownaway114 wrote: post #68

It is really worth considering that this conference used a blind review process[1]. Subsequently, there is zero chance that the reviewer's decisions were influenced by racism or sexism. As a society, we need to consider the implications of what is going on here. In what way could this move possibly be said to be anti-racist/anti-sexist? It just isn't. If anything, abandoning your speakers because they are male/white…

It's an unfortunate sign that you felt the need to use a throwaway account in order to make such a statement.

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#116

Post by yorick »

thrownaway114 wrote: post #68

It is really worth considering that this conference used a blind review process[1]. Subsequently, there is zero chance that the reviewer's decisions were influenced by racism or sexism. As a society, we need to consider the implications of what is going on here. In what way could this move possibly be said to be anti-racist/anti-sexist? It just isn't. If anything, abandoning your speakers because they are male/white…

However, there's might still be bias in who applies to speak at this kind of conference. They could have done more to reach out and encourage other groups to apply. I'd be interested to see the submission statistics.

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#117

Post by selllikesybok »

macspoofing wrote: post #65
frozenport wrote: post #9

At face value this is poor communication. It's not clear what kind of diversity they aimed for: was it gender, racial, economic? What are they taking a stand for?

Definitely not diversity of ideas.

Is there evidence of that? Not clear from the discussion of the list how much diversity of thought there was. Also, generally, the amount of diversity in thinking that is possible when you are talking about a conference for the discussion and promotion of a single technology cant be that much in the first place.

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#118

Post by briandear »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #81
Baeocystin wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come now. What would you say to an academic who didn't want to go to the whole of Europe, just because he saw some scary news about something that happened in Prague once? The US is a huge, multifaceted place, and like anywhere so large, you will find things both awful and wonderful. But life is a lot less chaotic than the news agencies claim. And the histrionic folks, while loud, are a lot fewer in number than the a…

I second the line of thinking, but please rein in the TSA a bit. That's literally the only thing I'm scared about going to US. All the other things seem like a purely local phenomena that shouldn't be generalized to the whole 300M country. But I am scared I'll get into trouble on the border because of my HN and Facebook posts (e.g. against US drone strikes).

The TSA and immigration officers at points of entry are nearly as bad as people make them out to be. It's a little like judging Chicago as a war zone based on stats from a very narrow geographic area with high violent crime rates: it isn't representative -- it's just that nobody ever gets "outraged" over the times they are treated well by customs/immigration/TSA. It's the same thing as tourists avoiding France because of terror incidents when in fact tens of millions safely visit France every year.

Criticism of TSA are certainly fair, but as someone that flies to the US from Europe monthly, the fears are definitely overblown.

Seriously, don't sweat it. The fears are overblown and not based on any actual data other than anecdotes from highly vocal bloggers/etc.

About 1 million visitors a day enter the US through airports in the US and about 360 are denied entry -- most of those because they had prior visa violations that deemed them inadmissible and others because they didn't have a valid visa. So 0.03% denied entry. In the U.K., that percentage is about 0.02%, just for comparison.

Re: ElectronConf postponed until a “more diverse slate of speakers” can be delivered

#119

Post by ygaf »

Tehnix wrote: post #89
DeusExMachina wrote: post #45

As a European, I keep getting baffled about how out of hand these things seem to be in the USA. I live in the Netherlands, a very open-minded country with same-sex marriage, equal rights and were women seem to me to be even slightly more dominant over men (but this is just my perception). All this without safe spaces, forced quotas at conferences, codes of conduct and people that police every word you say. There are…

I definitely agree with this view, and it's perhaps also why I really can't understand choices like these, to cancel an event, because of the genders of the people speaking? Why does that even matter? If what another commenter mentioned[0][1], that they did blind-reviews of the papers, then this is actually quite appalling to me and sends the reverse signal that we don't really care about your paper, as long as you f…

They've realised now (or maybe still don't realise) a blind review of papers isn't what they wanted.
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