Are Racism, Sexism, Etc. Still a Problem These Days?

[jimhines]

One of the challenges that comes up pretty regularly in conversations about diversity and inclusiveness in SF/F is, “Show me where someone has been told they can’t be a part of fandom because of their race/gender/sexuality/etc.”

The underlying assumptions seem to be that:

1. There aren’t any such examples, and therefore-
2. All of this talk about the need

Comments

[ext_560035]

Trusting newcomers with work requires speculation, thus opinion and bias. People apply previous good decisions to current ones, and bias informs what they believe made prior choices work. A bias towards applicants who look like current employees amplifies and rationalizes prejudice.

Exactly this. Many people, in both professional and volunteer circles, just know what a good risk looks like. Without imagining that they contain prejudice, they're measuring candidates against internal benchmarks they're not wholly aware of.

Twenty years ago I was visiting Dublin, and in walking to meet a friend I got turned around, as I tend to do. I had no idea where I was, but I thought, well, at least I'm obviously not in a dangerous part of town, so I'll just keep walking towards the river and I'll figure it out eventually. A second later, I realized that I'd automatically judged it as a "safe" part of town because everybody I could see was white. That internalized "wisdom" can be very insidious and tough to chisel out, in part because it lives in the part of our judgment and intuition we tend to pride ourselves on as discernment.