I would add that micro-aggressions and sexual advances are also unique to EA. This is not because they do not happen in other places, but because there is probably, and justifiably an expectation that a community of altruists would behave better in this regard, especially when there is a screening process to attend this conference. To illustrate: I would expect less micro-aggressions if I was attending a UN conference than a paintballing (random example) conference in the US south.
‘Micro-aggressions’ aren’t a thing. Psychology research debunked this strange, unempirical, activist concept years ago, e.g. this paper. The fact that the DEI industry continues to promote the concept of ‘microaggressions’ shows that they can profit from it, not that it is empirically grounded.
As for sexual advances being ‘unique to EA’, that would be news to any biologist who studies courtship in any of the 60,000 species of sexually reproducing vertebrates.
“People saying things that are mildly offensive but not worth risking an argument by calling out, and get tiring after repeated exposure” is just obviously a type of comment that exists, and is what most people mean when they say microaggression. Your paper debunking it alternates between much stricter definitions and claiming an absence of evidence for something that very clearly is going to be extremely hard to measure rigorously.
I should point out that I unfortunately misquoted the sexual advances part, it should be “inappropriate sexual advances”. I agree that we cannot expect no romantic relationships to take place in one form or another during conferences. But hopefully we can agree that such activities should not be significantly upsetting to attendees, and perhaps even have an ambition that everyone should feel safe from inappropriate behaviour.
Hi Felix, I think from the perspective of those suffering from micro-aggressions they expect (perhaps naively, the Catholic church is also supposedly very moral) that a space dedicated to altruism and the removal of bias (rationality) would be generally safer than e.g. a tech conference (I have been to many wind energy conferences with “booth babes”). I agree, maybe I am stretching the definition of “unique” somewhat, but I think there is something to it. But I am by no means an expert on this, and being white and male I am very open especially to feedback from those suffering from microaggressions that I am mistaken. If you clarify your question further, I might be able to provide more details. That said, I am uncertain about whether I am striking the balance right between taking up space in D&I conversation vs trying to take a tiny bit of the burden of working on D&I off those suffering from micro-aggressions etc. Let me know if you would be up for setting up a reading group on gender and/or race for EA purposes—I am keen to have a wide range of perspectives in such a group.
Hi Ulrik, if you’re anyplace else than Germany, try to reach out to (ideally) your National organizing team if you have one. I’ve talked to a lot of them in the last weeks, and the question of how to make EA spaces more inclusive and welcoming for people is on most people’s mind. Sometimes they don’t have the time to start a project on that, but maybe you can kickstart something like it in your region, or even internationally :)
In Germany, we have a diversity group with meetings every two weeks, but I think it is limited to folks living in the region. If you are interested in joining, I’ll ask them.
Good point, as stated in my other comments, I probably stretched the definition of “unique” while being a bit vague as to what exactly I meant. I think the difference between expectations from minorities vs reality is unique to EA. This is both due to very high expectations of a community of altruistic and bias-eliminating people as well as the current state of EA which I think demonstrably has room for improvement. So I guess neither of the two suggestions you make is exactly what I mean. I think I might want to rephrase as “I would add that the difference in expectations vs reality regarding micro-aggressions and sexual advances is uniquely large in EA.” This was hastily worded—I am sure there is a better way to put this.
the difference in expectations vs reality regarding micro-aggressions and sexual advances is uniquely large in EA.
Weak agree vote! I definitely expect more ethical behaviour irl from EAs than I expect from other people. But I also get the good behaviour that I expect from almost every EA that I’ve interacted with in Vancouver and briefly in SF.
It’s more distressing for me to hear reports of micro-aggressions and inappropriate sexual behaviour from people in EA than to hear similar reports in my other communities, because it’s more unpleasantly surprising and comes apart more from my expectations.
I would add that micro-aggressions and sexual advances are also unique to EA. This is not because they do not happen in other places, but because there is probably, and justifiably an expectation that a community of altruists would behave better in this regard, especially when there is a screening process to attend this conference. To illustrate: I would expect less micro-aggressions if I was attending a UN conference than a paintballing (random example) conference in the US south.
‘Micro-aggressions’ aren’t a thing. Psychology research debunked this strange, unempirical, activist concept years ago, e.g. this paper. The fact that the DEI industry continues to promote the concept of ‘microaggressions’ shows that they can profit from it, not that it is empirically grounded.
As for sexual advances being ‘unique to EA’, that would be news to any biologist who studies courtship in any of the 60,000 species of sexually reproducing vertebrates.
“People saying things that are mildly offensive but not worth risking an argument by calling out, and get tiring after repeated exposure” is just obviously a type of comment that exists, and is what most people mean when they say microaggression. Your paper debunking it alternates between much stricter definitions and claiming an absence of evidence for something that very clearly is going to be extremely hard to measure rigorously.
I should point out that I unfortunately misquoted the sexual advances part, it should be “inappropriate sexual advances”. I agree that we cannot expect no romantic relationships to take place in one form or another during conferences. But hopefully we can agree that such activities should not be significantly upsetting to attendees, and perhaps even have an ambition that everyone should feel safe from inappropriate behaviour.
If they are happening elsewhere too, why is it unique to EA?
Hi Felix, I think from the perspective of those suffering from micro-aggressions they expect (perhaps naively, the Catholic church is also supposedly very moral) that a space dedicated to altruism and the removal of bias (rationality) would be generally safer than e.g. a tech conference (I have been to many wind energy conferences with “booth babes”). I agree, maybe I am stretching the definition of “unique” somewhat, but I think there is something to it. But I am by no means an expert on this, and being white and male I am very open especially to feedback from those suffering from microaggressions that I am mistaken. If you clarify your question further, I might be able to provide more details. That said, I am uncertain about whether I am striking the balance right between taking up space in D&I conversation vs trying to take a tiny bit of the burden of working on D&I off those suffering from micro-aggressions etc. Let me know if you would be up for setting up a reading group on gender and/or race for EA purposes—I am keen to have a wide range of perspectives in such a group.
Hi Ulrik, if you’re anyplace else than Germany, try to reach out to (ideally) your National organizing team if you have one. I’ve talked to a lot of them in the last weeks, and the question of how to make EA spaces more inclusive and welcoming for people is on most people’s mind. Sometimes they don’t have the time to start a project on that, but maybe you can kickstart something like it in your region, or even internationally :)
Hi Ulrik,
I think I understand what you mean. :)
In Germany, we have a diversity group with meetings every two weeks, but I think it is limited to folks living in the region. If you are interested in joining, I’ll ask them.
Do you mean to say they’re “unique to” EA, or that they “feel uniquely bad in” EA?
Good point, as stated in my other comments, I probably stretched the definition of “unique” while being a bit vague as to what exactly I meant. I think the difference between expectations from minorities vs reality is unique to EA. This is both due to very high expectations of a community of altruistic and bias-eliminating people as well as the current state of EA which I think demonstrably has room for improvement. So I guess neither of the two suggestions you make is exactly what I mean. I think I might want to rephrase as “I would add that the difference in expectations vs reality regarding micro-aggressions and sexual advances is uniquely large in EA.” This was hastily worded—I am sure there is a better way to put this.
Weak agree vote! I definitely expect more ethical behaviour irl from EAs than I expect from other people. But I also get the good behaviour that I expect from almost every EA that I’ve interacted with in Vancouver and briefly in SF.
It’s more distressing for me to hear reports of micro-aggressions and inappropriate sexual behaviour from people in EA than to hear similar reports in my other communities, because it’s more unpleasantly surprising and comes apart more from my expectations.