Focus on Ally Skills
Diversity and inclusion in technology
Slides by http://frameshiftconsulting.com/
Presented by David E. Bernholdt, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Researcher in HPC
At Oak Ridge National Laboratory Manager for 8 years (20-40 people) 20+ years leading and participating in (large) R&D projects
2
Beginning to learn and practice Ally Skills Inspirational talk by Valerie Aurora at
CarpentryCon 2018
Participated in Courageous Leaders Summit offered through ORNL (2019)
Participated in Ally Skills workshop offered by
NB: This is not an Ally Skills Workshop
The Ally Skills Workshop is 3 hours long, mostly group discussion
Available as an online workshop More info here:
https://frameshiftconsulting.com/ally-skills-workshop
What are ally skills? Some terminology first:
Privilege: an unearned advantage given by society to some
people but not all
Oppression: systemic, pervasive inequality that is present
More terminology
Marginalized person: a member of a group that is the
primary target of a system of oppression
Ally: a member of a social group that enjoys some privilege
that is working to end oppression and understand their own privilege
Actions
Example #1
Privilege: The ability to walk into a convenience store and
have the owner assume you are there to buy things and not steal them
Oppression: The self-reinforcing system of stories, TV, news
Example #1
Marginalized person: Any Black person who wants to enter
a convenience store
Ally: A non-Black person who donates to legal system reform
organizations, actively objects to racist stories, calls their representatives to support police reform, and reads news articles about this privilege
Example #2
Privilege: The ability to interview for a job and have the
interviewer assume that if you have children, you will continue doing a good job at work
Oppression: Family members’ expectations that women take
Example #2
Marginalized person: Any woman who wants to work for pay
for an employer
Ally: A man who takes on significant childcare
responsibilities, donates to women’s causes, uses paternity leave for childcare, speaks up at work against stereotypes about mothers, and reads news articles about privileges fathers enjoy and mothers don't
What do diversity and inclusion mean?
Diversity: The state of having people in a
group who differ along race, gender, sexuality, age, disability, religion, class, caregiver status, etc.
Inclusion: Everyone in a diverse group is
valued, included, and respected, without unfair discrimination or bias
Common diversity and inclusion
misunderstandings
An individual can’t be “diverse” -diversity exists only in the
context of a group
Many efforts focus on increasing diversity without also increasing inclusion
CC BY Senorhorst Jahnsen
Examples of diversity and inclusion efforts
Volunteer-run affinity groups Travel scholarships
Advice books for the marginalized
Conferences for marginalized
groups AdaCamp Portland
What’s wrong with diversity and
inclusion today?
Most work focuses on changing marginalized people
Less work focuses changing allies
Reasons to focus on changing
marginalized people
They directly benefit from change and are more self-motivated
They are often more aware of oppression
They are often lower status and easier to tell what to do They are seen as the cause of the problem
Why not focus on marginalized people?
CC BY Nicolas Raymond
Marginalized people are overworked
Marginalized people are under more stress
Discrimination Harassment
Abuse and assault PTSD
Marginalized people have less money
79%: Lesbian couples vs. men married to women 78%: white women vs. white men
73%: mothers vs. fathers
65%: Black women vs. white men
63%: people with disabilities vs. those without 58%: Latinas vs. white men
CC BY Tax Credits
Marginalized people are retaliated against
"[...] Ethnic minority or female leaders who engage in diversity-valuing behavior are penalized with worse
performance ratings; whereas [ethnic majority] or male leaders who engage in diversity-valuing behavior are not penalized for doing so."
David Hekman, Stefanie Johnson, Wei Yang & Maw Der Foo, 2016
Does valuing diversity result in worse performance ratings for minority and female leaders? http://amj.aom.org/content/early/2016/03/03/amj.2014.0538.abstract
Sources: Second 2011 Wikipedia Editor Survey, FLOSSPOLS report
Marginalized people have less
power and influence
Fortune 500 CEOs: < 7% are women, < 2% are Black, < 1% are openly gay “The probability that a woman
occupies a top management team
position is 51 percent lower if another woman holds a position on the same team.”
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.2461/full
CC BY-SA Bruno Girin
Marginalized people are seen as
whiny & selfish
And yet...
Resources for developing ally skills
Dear Ally Skills Teacher https://dearally.com
@betterallies @frameshiftllc
Proposal: Focus on ally skills
Allies have more time and energy
Allies have more money
Allies are less likely to be harmed
Allies are often in the majority
CC BY Senorhorst Jahnsen https://flic.kr/p/5QSiBv
Allies have more power and influence
Allies are seen as altruistic, giving,
kind
What do good ally skills look like?
An ally self-educates
An ally listens
An ally gives credit
Women get less credit for co-authoring when authors are listed alphabetically
Example: Credit legal scholar
Kimberlé Crenshaw by name
for the term "intersectionality"
http://scholar.harvard.edu/sarsons/publications/note-gender-differences-recognition-group-work
An ally asks for consent when possible
An ally keeps the focus on marginalized people
An ally uses their energy wisely
FALSE
"The likelihood of future incarceration still was higher for blacks at every level of wealth compared to the white likelihood."
Charles’ Rules of Argument
1. Don't go looking for an argument
2. State your position once, speaking to the audience 3. Wait for absurd replies
4. Reply one more time to correct any misunderstandings of your first statement
5. Do not reply again
6. Spend time doing something fun instead
An ally spends money
An ally uses their social capital
An ally acts even when it’s uncomfortable
An ally sacrifices personal gain
An ally follows leaders from
marginalized groups
An ally makes mistakes - and apologizes
How to learn ally skills?
Follow @frameshiftllc
Subscribe to Dear Ally Skills Teacher https://dearally.com
Take the Ally Skills Workshop Clients include Google, Airbnb,
In conclusion
Most D&I efforts focus on marginalized people
Marginalized people have less time, energy, power, and influence
Allies have more ability to make change Ally skills can be learned
Let’s focus on ally skills
Q&A
Slides by Valerie Aurora and Frame Shift Consulting