[please feel free to fix the notes, use markdown <3] Outcomes from last year ----------------------- - diversity@debian.org email alias that goes to a group of people who can deal with people raising diversity issues or feeling excluded Continuation from last year --------------------------- Listening is one of the key points of diversity in general. When discrimination happens, people point out and there is a very defensive reaction to that. The important part is to be able to listen, because the person that triggered the situation has probably never been in that place and has no experience of one might feel Thank you for introducing yourselves with pronouns, because they are not always visible and it makes all be on the same level to introduce their pronouns. Many languages have issues with gender, like in german it's almost impossible to talk without naming the gender of a person. Some people may have even more than one pronoun, like pronouns can be fluid. - *language* issue = one of the core points we might address A lot of things that you can do is to help improve the translation in your language to make it more welcoming and more diverse, not just wrt using gender neutral language, but dealing with jokes that play around with stereotypes - *political correct language* = needed because power structures are mirrored in the language we use one of the things to get out of this is to start the diversity team for real, and create a mailing list and editing wiki.debian.org where teams have their sections → we need to create such a page and put what we stand for and what the aim of the team is. There is overlap with existing teams like anti-harassment, but a-h deals with specific incidents, and the diversity team addresses things on a generic/structural level. Focus on the positive sides to make a welcoming environment, identify areas where we find that help is needed to increase *visibility*. There is intersection between different minority groups, so the diversity team should not focus on specific groups but focus on the *intersectional* level [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality]]. - Webpage: Links to resources that could help people read about and learn together (example: resources about privilege) The a-h team has a collection of useful links in their wiki page, and the diversity team could do the same. [[https://wiki.debian.org/AntiHarassment]] Discussion ---------- Debian maintains the use of English. There are translation teams. But could there be something at the structural level that could improve for people who are less fluent in English? We could talk about the language issue. Languages and culture are also part of the diversity dynamics. Local teams should know that diversity@debian.org could be a contact for language/cultural structural or specific problems in Debian. Assume that Debian is a community of *people*, not assuming gender. When you know who the person is and your interactions with them are affected by gender (or anything else you assume the person to be), you might have a discrimination problem. What not to ask to a trans person: "if it's a question you wouldn't ask someone else, don't ask it to a trans person". This works in general, not just for trans. There could be "discrimination" (as in telling people apart) based on reputation, probably it doesn't make sense to try and treat all people the same all the time. If I had a bad experience with a person I might not want to interact with them for a while. But it should be based on my personal experience, not on stereotypes. [I'm "should"-ing a lot :/ :) ] Going out of the gender issue to talk about a more broad sense of diversity: language. (barriers for becoming a DD). How can we improve as a community to be more welcoming in general? Defining the term *diversity* → we should do that. What do we mean by that: gender, ethnic diversity, sexual orientation, language, race, geography, neurodiversity. What did people want to see happen when creating the diversity team? → originated in a queer background. antiracism came up as a subject "we"'d want do see included, but not led by white people. But *intersectionality*: patterns of oppression are the same for queer/race etc. It's the same structural discussion. What are some examples that make people welcome in the community? Or is there just absence of negative experience? → There is a fair amount of positive experience, such as at DebConf, where one can feel very welcome. → What specific events made you more comfortable, or did that grow over time? → Formulation of invitation to DebianWomen conference. Being included pushes self esteem. → Genderneutral documentation spoke more and made realize that diversity is more accepted. → Neurodiversity. Coming to DebConf over the years was a way to realise how we can manage to cooperate among such different kinds of people. "I was educated by Debian on how to deal with people with differences, and I think it's very important, it's very subtle, and it's very hard when I see oppression or situations where people are not respected in their individuality and in their difficulties". We should have neurodiversity written down so it's taken into consideration when people talk about. Other diversity-related events at DebConf ----------------------------------------- - [FIXME: didn't get the name] on Thursday - Enrico's "Multiple people" talk on Friday TODO ---- Ideas for next year's DebConf talk selection: make sure it does not just represent the community we have but the community we want to have. (be/feel represented on panels/discussions, was not the case this year for some talks). See you on the IRC channel: #debian-diversity on OFTC NOT YET, BUT SOON: If you need to report/talk about something in private: diversity@debian.org