I disagree-voted on this because I think it is overly accusatory and paints things in a black-and-white way.
There were versions of the above proposal which were not contentless and empty, which stake out clear and specific positions, which I would’ve been glad to see and enthusiastically supported and considered concrete progress for the community.
Who says we can’t have both? I don’t get the impression that EA NYC wants this to be the only action taken on anti-racism and anti-sexism, nor did I get the impression that this is the last action EA NYC will take on this topic.
But by just saying “hey, [thing] is bad! We’re going to create social pressure to be vocally Anti-[thing]!” you are making the world worse, not better. Now, there is a List Of Right-Minded People Who Were Wise Enough To Sign The Thing, and all of the possible reasons to have felt hesitant to sign the thing are compressible to “oh, so you’re NOT opposed to bigotry, huh?”
I don’t think this is the case—I, for one, am definitely not thinking that anyone who chose not to sign didn’t do so because they are not opposed to bigotry. (Confusing double-negative—but basically, I can think of other reasons why people might not have wanted to sign this.)
The best possible outcome from this document is that everybody recognizes it as a basically meaningless non-thing, and nobody really pays attention to it in the future, and thus having signed it means basically nothing.
I can think of better outcomes than that—the next time there is a document or initiative with a bit more substance, here’s a big list of people who will probably be on board and could be contacted. The next time a journalist looks through the forum to get some content, here’s a big list of people who have publicly declared their commitment to anti-racism and anti-sexism. The next time someone else makes a post delving into this topic, here’s some community builders they can talk to for their stance on this. There’s nothing inherently wrong with symbolic gestures as long as they are not in place of more meaningful change, and I don’t get the sense from this post that this will be the last we hear about this.
I disagree-voted on this because I think it is overly accusatory and paints things in a black-and-white way.
Who says we can’t have both? I don’t get the impression that EA NYC wants this to be the only action taken on anti-racism and anti-sexism, nor did I get the impression that this is the last action EA NYC will take on this topic.
I don’t think this is the case—I, for one, am definitely not thinking that anyone who chose not to sign didn’t do so because they are not opposed to bigotry. (Confusing double-negative—but basically, I can think of other reasons why people might not have wanted to sign this.)
I can think of better outcomes than that—the next time there is a document or initiative with a bit more substance, here’s a big list of people who will probably be on board and could be contacted. The next time a journalist looks through the forum to get some content, here’s a big list of people who have publicly declared their commitment to anti-racism and anti-sexism. The next time someone else makes a post delving into this topic, here’s some community builders they can talk to for their stance on this. There’s nothing inherently wrong with symbolic gestures as long as they are not in place of more meaningful change, and I don’t get the sense from this post that this will be the last we hear about this.