Reading this comment makes me realize that perhaps a significant fraction of the awkwardness and not-facing-the-issue that Alice was met with was due to people in the room realizing, upon hearing Alice’s thoughts, that it was too late to promote diversity, and that this made them feel icky. And that all that could be done was to do better next time around.
(It probably wasn’t clear in the post, but the context was that all the applications were in, and they’d all been evaluated and ranked already. At that point, it does seem that there’s not much—if anything—that can be done other than distorting the bar?)
Sorry yeah for me that wasn’t very clear and I thought you were basically accusing of (1) diversity work not being worth it and (2) diversity advocates of not being sincere (but instead engaging in applause lights). I think I then felt a little bit personally attacked by my imaginations of what you were saying—which I see now are different from what you were actually saying. This contributed to my response.
I can say that I’ve definitely been in this position before facing the applications and feeling the dread that nothing can be done. I totally empathize with all your feelings here. I’ve felt every single one of them myself. By the time you get the applications in, there’s really not much you can do and it is very uncomfortable.
Sorry yeah for me that wasn’t very clear and I thought you were basically accusing of (1) diversity work not being worth it and (2) diversity advocates of not being sincere (but instead engaging in applause lights). I think I then felt a little bit personally attacked by my imaginations of what you were saying—which I see now are different from what you were actually saying. This contributed to my response.
I can say that I’ve definitely been in this position before facing the applications and feeling the dread that nothing can be done. I totally empathize with all your feelings here. I’ve felt every single one of them myself. By the time you get the applications in, there’s really not much you can do and it is very uncomfortable.