Hard Truths and Hope: #NCWITSummit Reflection
I joined the 2019 NCWIT Summit in Nashville as a first timer and it was an experience! I expected to be inspired and motivated by what the speakers and workshops leaders shared, but what I didn’t expect were that the hard truths about this work would be so front and center.
Sexism and Racism
Of course, I’m familiar with sexism — I am a feminist after all. But sometimes I get taken aback at the extent to which we are still very much living in the patriarchy. At the summit, Robin DiAngelo, Affiliate Associate Professor of Education at the University of Washington, asked us a couple of questions: 1) Who had the power to grant women (who were white) the right to vote in 1920? and 2) Who has the power to deny women their civil rights today? Then she shared these sobering stats.
Robin kicked off her presentation stating, “I’m a proudly angry feminist. I am also a white woman”. It’s that second part of her statement that she unpacked in her presentation “Seeing the Racial Water”. Here are some of the things she shared that took me aback again:
- By age 3 or 4, all children understand it is better to be white. That message circulates 24/7.
- You can get through teacher education (and lots of other disciplines) without ever discussing racism.
- Racism is a system, not an event and none of us are exempt from its forces.
- The status quo in this society is racism, it is the default setting.
Courtney Cogburn, assistant professor at the Columbia School of Social Work, is studying VR experiences as a means to achieve racial justice. In 1000 Cut Journey, the viewer becomes a black man encountering racism as a young child, adolescent, and young adult. Courtney also shared some hard truths:
1) Avoiding/minimizing the significance of race
2) Anti-racism (behavior & policy) > I’m not racist (narcissism)
3) Diversity won’t fix racism.
4) Addressing gender won’t fix racism.
5) Implicit bias is an important but inadequate solution (your awareness of your bias will not change your behavior). We can’t undo unconscious bias without also addressing the toxic culture.
6) Racism is not remedied by you feeling just awful about all of this. Empathy is insufficient. We need to think & act differently.
7) Colorblindness is not a solution to racism — it’s a form of racism.
8) Racism is structural, cultural and “baked in”. It is unconscious bias on steroids.
It’s number 2 in that list that gave me a jolt. I definitely don’t want to be known as a racist, but that’s about me, my feelings and my reputation. As a white woman, being anti-racist is a choice and one I too often don’t make because of excuses like I’m uncomfortable, ignorant, complacent, arrogant, tired… .
I am hopeful because grappling with the effects that racism and sexism has and continues to have on us seems to be taking stage front and center more often. I am also hopeful because of the growing research that diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams as Katherine Phillips,Columbia Business School, shared from her research How Diversity Makes Us Smarter. I will definitely be reading Robin’s book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism and hope I am willing to stew in my discomfort for awhile.
Girls and Women in Tech
One thing I think this summit gets very right is that it is a big tent that encompasses all of the computing ecosystem including industry, researchers, K-12 and higher education. It is going to take all of us turning conversations into change to deal with the systemic issues standing in the way of increasing the meaningful participation of all girls and women in the field of computing. As Mark Guzdial shared at the Broadening Participation in Computing workshop, even though enrollment in CS majors is up, we really aren’t seeing a change in the diversity issue yet — we are in this for the long game.
I am hopeful because there are so many amazing folks working on getting more girls and women in tech. Here are just a few that I met at the conference:
- Lynn Conway — whose influence on modern electrical engineering is profound, yet whose work and story was “disappeared”, so she’s telling her story and recovering other stories as well
- Jeremy Waisome — Modern Figures Podcast co-host who is inspiring the next generation of black female scholars, entrepreneurs and engineers in computing
- Katie Zombro — who helps girls ignite their passions, pursue their dreams, and amplify their futures while providing guidance in STEM education and careers
- Leigh Ann DeLyser and Anne Leftwich —who are part of the movement to find a home for CS in schools of education
- Josie Goytisolo — founder of Codella focused on increasing the number of middle school aged Latina and other under-represented girls in STEM
- Carol Fletcher — WeTeach_CS director in Texas who started this work because she wanted CS education for her kids
- Snehal Bhakta — STEM administrator for Las Vegas school district who is a tireless ally and awesome tweeter
Finally, I am hopeful seeing young women embrace their place at the table. It was awesome to see a dozen or so young women accept their NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Collegiate awards. Even better was seeing Samhita on that stage. Her passion for CS and being a role model for others has been such a privilege to be part of through Tech-Girls.
