Yonatan Zunger gives his usual clear and insightful summary.

Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger

The story below contains nothing which is likely to surprise anyone: white men advocating diversity in the workplace get treated net neutrally for it, while women or people of color doing so get rated worse by their peers than ones who don’t. What’s important about this is the consequence: that if you are a white man, this puts more of the onus on you to do this.

This is part of a general pattern. We each have things beyond our control which lead to us being treated better or worse than other people. If you’re seen as white in the US, you’ll be treated better in various ways (by cops, by employers, by business owners, etc) than if you were otherwise identical but black. If you’re “gender conforming” (e.g., you’re male and you look it and you act it), you aren’t (among other things) in danger of being killed for it. And many of these things can be subtle and situational: there are times and places where (e.g.) being black, or being female, is an advantage, just like there are times and places where those aren’t. And you almost certainly have a combination of features: maybe you’re white, male, gender-conforming, and straight, but also grew up poor and had no access to a lot of basic things that everyone around you is taking for granted.

The technical term for a thing you can’t control which makes people treat you better is “privilege.” I personally hate this word, because in English it implies something slightly contemptible, and like if you have it then everything in your life must be fine. That’s obvious nonsense, which makes this a terrible word for a very important idea. The technical term for the fact that everyone has different things for and against them, and these interact in complicated ways in their daily life, is “intersectionality.”

But here’s the thing: There’s nothing wrong with having privilege. You can’t control that, any more than you can control not having it. It’s just something that’s sort of there. It has no notion of whether you “deserve” it, because it’s something that was assigned to you before you could deserve or not deserve it.

What you can control is how you use it. In particular, with each privilege comes a responsibility to use that privilege for the benefit of people who don’t have it. (You didn’t ask for the responsibility, either, but that’s life for you. It doesn’t really care.)

That doesn’t mean infinite responsibility, and this is far from the only responsibility in your life. You absolutely can and should balance between them.

But you need to be aware of what privileges you have, and keep an active eye out for when something seems to be depending on them, and question that. Because here’s the thing: lots of the things which depend on these things aren’t even explicit “oh, I like this one better” sorts of things. They’re things that happen so subtly that you don’t even see them unless you’re actively looking. In fact, the most common effect of a privilege is “not having to worry about X” – which means that it’s only obvious to people who don’t have it. Another common form is “there really aren’t any X’s around here;” well, what’s stopping them from coming?

Spend your time talking to people who are different from you in various ways. Listen to them: recognize that their experiences might be really different from yours in a way that seems outright bizarre at first. (“That would never happen! People aren’t like that!” “They aren’t like that to you.“) The things really going on often won’t be obvious. 

And when you do find things, do something to fix them. Often what’s needed most is something simple and straightforward: for example, people like X aren’t showing up somewhere because they don’t feel they’ll be treated equally, that people will always see them as other. Just taking the effort to actively welcome people, and to seriously pay attention, is a very important first step.

(Far from the last step, of course, but it’s an important place to start)

This isn’t just true for managers; it’s true wherever you work, live, or play. Take active steps to welcome people who are different from you. It’ll make your, and their, lives better.

A long article (I haven’t had time to read it all), but the main point is: women took all kinds of roles in historical times; they can do so in fiction, too.

Originally shared by Cora Foerstner

For those of you who write epic fantasy or are interested, I found this interesting article. It’s long but worthwhile reading.

Seeing people we can identify with in media, especially when we’re young, helps us build our identities and make choices.

Via Josh Roby.

Originally shared by Laura Anne Gilman

I’m not crying, you’re…  I’m totally wet-eyed. 

http://www.chicagonow.com/portrait-of-an-adoption/2016/03/an-open-letter-to-supergirl-stars-melissa-benoist-and-chyler-leigh-from-an-adoptive-mom/

“High status groups, mainly white men, are given freedom to deviate from the status quo because their competence is assumed based on their membership in the high status group. In contrast, when women and nonwhite leaders advocate for other women and nonwhites, it highlights their low-status demographics, activating the stereotype of incompetence.”

– Harvard Business Review. Includes a real-world study and a confirmational experiment.

Originally shared by Walter Roberson

$11.60.

What a time to be alive.

Originally shared by Kat Richardson

Soon to be standard equipment for every plumber, house inspector, and contractor EVER! 

Not only could these data scientists not find much difference between literary novels by people with and without an MFA, but they couldn’t find a discernable difference between white and non-white writers, either. And well over 90% of both groups (MFA and non-MFA) had a majority male cast, even though 66% of MFA students are women.

Seems like literary novels are not where we should look for innovation and diversity, then. And, at best, doing an MFA (something that Americans spend $200 million a year on) seems to introduce you to the “in group” rather than making any difference to how you write.

Originally shared by A.H. Pellett

Whether you have an MFA in writing or not, this article may speak to you. Some scientists got together to determine whether the writing of an MFA graduate is different from a non-MFA graduate. Semi-spoiler alert, depending upon which side of the coin you have set yourself on toward this educational track, you may come away from this article a bit disturbed by the study’s conclusions (last two sentences of the article).

“What attracted me to both projects was the agency of those characters. At first glance, they look like victims. But the writing offers them complexity. They’re deep. They have likes, strong dislikes, needs, fears. And as an actor, I’m always looking for that. Those are the things I need to hook onto. Because sympathy is not nearly as interesting as empathy. There’s so much more to learn by stepping into someone’s shoes than by saying “poor you” from a safe distance.”

Originally shared by Fred Hicks

“TN: So I went to all the young comedians I knew — black, Hispanic, female, whatever — and I said, “Are you interested?” And they all said: “Are you crazy? Of course, I’m interested.” So I asked, “Why didn’t you audition?” And they said, “We didn’t know about it.” But they told me they’d sent it out to all the agents and managers. And they all went: “Oh, that’s where you made the mistake. We can’t get agents or managers.” We can say we want diversity, but there’s this little roadblock that no one tells you about.”