Standard workday, standard work lunch catching up on RSS feeds. Of course, quite a few of them are discussing the leaked "Anti-Diversity" manifesto from the, now infamous, ex-Google employee (name forgotten and ultimately unimportant). It's been an interesting view into a very specific bubble of the tech sphere, but one which has helped elucidate the issue, if only a little.
Of particular note is the response from Adactio, which is easily understood by the title of the piece: "Intolerable". I will hold my hand up right now and say that I find the whole issue a lot more complex than Jeremy Keith outlines, but I cannot argue with his conclusion. Nor can I argue with the incredibly diverse and well-written sources he links to, each of which is definitely worth a read.
That becomes particularly true if you're anything like me: someone whose gut instinct was "this is utterly wrong", but who found themselves wondering if, beneath the anger, fear and sexism, a valid point was lurking. Having now read through the links (linked below) I feel a little more confident in my gut reaction, which is a nice feeling.
Just to clarify my use of the phrase "valid point", it is not valid that one gender is in any way better or worse at being involved in the tech sector (or any sector, for that matter). Instead, it's more of an issue of how we go about addressing the very real disparities between both job prospects and job uptake by any dissuaded minority group (and yes, women are not a literal minority, but they are in tech due to centuries of discrimination, so I feel it a valid term within context). I have a personal distaste for anything that borders on "positive discrimination". All it creates, long term, is embitterment and injustice, in my opinion. However, having read the links below I feel a lot more at ease that the diversity programmes at Google and similar companies are not going down this route, instead focusing on making the workplace a more attractive environment for everybody. That's something I can get behind.
If there is one element of Keith's article that I will find fault with, it's the blanket tone of dismissal. I understand where he's coming from and it's a tricky thing to call out, because it's an opinion I find myself feeling towards other subjects. I simply don't feel the world is ever black and white enough to make a statement like:
I refuse to debate this. Does that make me inflexible? Yep, sure does.
But, hypocritically, I also find myself agreeing with the directly following statement:
But, y’know, not everything is worthy of debate. When the very premise of the discussion is harmful, all appeals to impartiality ring hollow.
As an example, earlier this week the BBC came under fire for featuring Lord Lawson on a program about climate science. The argument for his presence is that it provides "the other side of the debate" and that the BBC have a mandate to be as impartial as possible. The issue with their reasoning is that it implies there is a debate to be had. In terms of scientific consensus, the degree to which man-made climate change is refuted is utterly negligible. The debate has been settled for decades and continuing to present it in any other way is directly harmful. It is akin, though less instantly vitriolic, to claiming that the BBC needs to include a Holocaust denier in documentaries on WWII. Yes, there are some people out there who believe that the vast majority of historians are wrong, but no organisation in their right-mind would claim that there is an actual debate soliciting both sides being heard.
Perhaps, then, it is I who is wrong on the Anti-Diversity Manifesto. Perhaps Keith is right and any discussion of non-diversity is, by its nature, only destructive and harmful because that debate, too, has been settled. Still, I can't help but feel that claiming so and shouting it so loudly only serves to reinforce the opinions of dissenters. It's hypocritical of me, but I don't feel that shutting down people with these opinions is the right course of action. Perhaps, in time, that will change. For now, I'm just happy to see that the discussion being had is largely positive.
Reading List:
A Brief History of Women in Computing - Faruk Ates
So About This Googlers Manifesto - Yonatan Zunger
Dissecting the Google Employees Anti-Diversity Manifesto - Ether Alali
