How to act as an ally intech - in 2017

Valerie AuroraFrame Shift Consulting

http://frameshiftconsulting.com/

CC BY-SA Frame Shift Consulting, Liz Fong-Jones

WTF?2017CC BY-SA Ann Larie Valentine

https://flic.kr/p/5QQC7k

The rules have changed

Example: Godwin's Law

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." — Mike Godwin, 1990

Godwin's Law today

"If you’re thoughtful about it and show some real awareness of history, go ahead and refer to Hitler or Nazis when you talk about Trump. Or any other politician." — Mike Godwin, 2015

Godwin's Law

Godwin's LawSuggestion

WTF?2017CC BY-SA Ann Larie Valentine

https://flic.kr/p/5QQC7k

About meTaught Ally Skills Workshop to thousands of people in 7 countries over 5 years

Led adoption of codes of conduct at thousands of conferences

Wrote Linux and file systems code for over 10 years Valerie Aurora

Credit where credit is due: Liz Fong-JonesLiz Fong-Jones is a Site Reliability Engineer at a large tech company who has extensive experience in organizing tech workers to achieve specific goals

Liz's full advice is available as a 40-minute video (also as transcripts, notes, captions, tweets, etc.)

http://bit.ly/organizetech

What is an ally? Some terminology first:Privilege: an unearned advantage given by society to some people but not all

Oppression: systemic, pervasive inequality that is present throughout society, that benefits people with more privilege and harms those with fewer privileges

What is an ally? Some terminology first:Target: someone who suffers from oppression (also called "a member of a marginalized group")

Ally: a member of a social group that enjoys some privilege that is working to end oppression and understand their own privilege

Actions

ExamplePrivilege: Employers, law enforcement, and random strangers assume you are a legal resident of the U.S. unless you tell them otherwise

Oppression: The self-reinforcing system of stories, TV, news coverage, and the entire legal system which promotes the idea that people of color in the U.S. are more likely to be immigrants and/or undocumented

ExampleTarget: Any person of color present in the U.S.

Ally: Any white person who donates to organizations fighting "show me your papers" legislation, corrects their friends when they tell racist or anti-immigrant jokes, or reads Twitter threads from people of color talking about their fears of being detained by ICE

Actions

We ask targets to do work more often than allies

CC BY Nicolas Raymondhttps://flic.kr/p/eeZ2WB

Targets are already dealing with:Overwork

Stress

Lower pay

Less power

Higher risk of retaliation CC BY Tax Creditshttps://flic.kr/p/bZwHv5

Allies have more:Time

Energy

Money

Power

Benefit of the doubt

CC BY Nick https://flic.kr/p/5bt6cp

CC BY Kat Ter Haar https://flic.kr/p/8ugZks

Just one supporting research paper:"[...] 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

Acting as an ally in tech in 2016:Reviewing your promotion system for unconscious bias

Inviting people of color and women of all races to speak at your conference

Advocating for trans inclusive health insurance

Including accessibility information in all your event announcements

Acting as an ally in tech in 2017:Everything from 2016, plus...

Supporting coworkers who suddenly lost the right to enter the U.S. or no longer feel safe living in the U.S.

Planning what to do if the U.S. government demands data from your company to carry out human rights abuses

Changing your terms of service to forbid advocates of genocide from using your product or platform

How to act as an ally in tech in 2017, short version:1. Identify your sources of power and influence

2. Connect with and organize like-minded colleagues

3. Listen to leaders from marginalized groups

4. Choose a concrete, specific, attainable goal

5. Identify decision-makers and understand them

6. Use money, time, and social capital to achieve the goal

Identify your sources of power and influence

CC BY-SA Bronson ABbot https://flic.kr/p/3KAx86

Be honest and realistic

Potential unfair sources of power and influence● Dominant ethnic group● Male● Cisgender● Straight● Not disabled● A legal resident or citizen● Speak certain language(s)● Specific ages● Certain height/size/shape

● Not a mother● Not a caregiver● Educated● Technically experienced● Wealthy (can be earned)● From an upper class family● High caste● Certain religions● And many more...

What expertise or knowledge do you have?Computer security expert

Amateur playwright

Know how to screen print

Project management

Studied propaganda

Who listens to or respects you?

CC BY Tim Green https://flic.kr/p/ne1gEt

What resources do you control or own?

What resources do you control or own?

What resources do you control or own?

Example: Devops/SRE/security incident responseSpecialized, high-demand skill set

Site downtime can be millions of dollars per hour

You control where & when you give your labor

Your employer really cares about your happiness

Listen to leaders from marginalized groups

CC BY terren in Virginia https://flic.kr/p/6HpEEF

"Let's build an app"

Question tech solutionism

"Let's build an app"

CC BY http://emojione.com/

Bad example: Annotation system for news

Example: Buy/donate things on CAIR's wish list

Connect and organize with like-minded colleagues

Public domain by Pascal https://flic.kr/p/kmTPPN

Connect and organize with like-minded colleagues

Example: Tech Solidarity meetupsCities so far: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Raleigh/Durham, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC

http://techsolidarity.org

http://twitter.com/techsolidarity

Choose a concrete, specific, attainable goalVague goal: support disabled folks better

Concrete goal: Add reserved parking spaces at all employee entrances, not just the main entrance to the building

CC BY-SA By Xnatedawgx

Identify decision-makers and understand themIf you are the decision-maker, you are done!

Don't focus on people who can't make the change - it's a waste of time

Ask decision-makers why they made the current decision so you can make useful arguments for changing it

Route communications through 5-6 people

Use money, time, and social capital

Many of you have more access to money than most

CC BY-SA Japanexperterna.se https://flic.kr/p/srsFmV

Separate venting from problem-solving

CC BY Jon S https://flic.kr/p/ayGkBN

Separate venting from problem-solving

CC BY Kelsey MacDonald https://flic.kr/p/cNfAbG

Use Situation, Behavior, Impact modelConstruct communication in this format:

Situation: "When reporters ask for comment on whether our company will build a Muslim registry"

Behavior: "and PR refuses to comment"

Impact: "It makes a significant percentage of your engineering staff reconsider whether they want to work for this company."

Example: #DeleteUberSpecific ask: We want the Uber CEO to resign from the president's advisory council

Collective action: Internal "Letters to Travis" campaign plus external #DeleteUber boycott campaign

Result: CEO resigned from the president's advisory council

Example: Never Again Tech pledgeDec. 12: Twitter is the only major tech company on the record to not build a Muslim registry in response to press questions, other companies refuse to comment

Dec. 13: Never Again pledge has 300 signatures, covered by TV and newspapers, reporters ask companies again

Dec. 14: "Tech Summit" with president-elect, Facebook goes on record against Muslim registry

Example: Never Again Tech pledgeDec. 15: Microsoft goes on the record as refusing to build a Muslim registry

Dec. 17: Google, IBM, Apple, and Uber go on the record as refusing to build a Muslim registry, pledge has around 1300 signatures

Dec. 21: Pledge closes with over 2800 signatures

Upcoming issues for tech as a whole

Wishful thinkingDec. 14 at Tech Summit: "I’m here to help you folks do well."

Jan. 27: Executive order banning thousands of tech employees with green cards and visas from entering the United States

CC BY Kasiahttps://flic.kr/p/2UNRSm

"We're a neutral platform/utility/tool"

"We're a neutral platform/utility/tool"

"We're a neutral platform/utility/tool"

The "paradox" of toleranceKarl Popper: A tolerant society must be intolerant of one thing, intolerance (1945)

John Rawls: "Society has a reasonable right of self-preservation that supersedes the principle of tolerance" (1971)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

The paradox of tolerance and free speechKarl Popper argues that we cannot extend free speech to groups that plan to suppress the free speech of others if they gain power

This goes double for groups who plan to kill, oppress, remove voting rights, or remove human rights from others

European countries differ from the U.S. on free speech in this case (e.g., Holocaust denial is illegal in 14 countries)

Challenges for tech workers in 20171. Acknowledge that people who want to commit

genocide exist, are gaining power in many countries, and are using their products and labor

2. Develop a strong ethical code to govern their actions in this new environment

3. Ask employers to fully integrate this ethical code with their business model, changing business model as necessary

More detailsVideo, notes, etc. on how to organize tech workers;

http://bit.ly/organizetechThe Ally Skills Workshop, Focus on Allies talk, etc.

http://frameshiftconsulting.com/

Q&AValerie Aurora

Frame Shift Consulting

http://frameshiftconsulting.com/ally-skills-workshop/