Announcing the Empowermentors Collective: a group for women of color and queer people of color
The Empowermentors Collective is a new space by and for women of color and queer people of color within free software and free culture.
We recognize the need to address deep-seated cultural norms within the free software and free culture communities which, under the guise of openness, have excused and perpetuated alienating behavior. It is imperative that we acknowledge that there are systemic structures of control embedded in our society which permeate our movement. Refusing to do so in an effort to compartmentalize and focus on our own goals is detrimental to our success. We cannot afford to be an inward-facing movement.
To expose and undo this culture of exclusion, we would like to support the recently established Empowermentors Collective, a community for intersectionally marginalized identities. This type of intentional space also opens up the potential for much needed coalition building and advances our own understanding of how technology and media are inseparable from our experiences and ourselves, our bodies.
If you are a woman of color or queer person of color in the free software or free culture community and are interested in being a part of the Empowermentors Collective, please join the mailing list and the #empowermentors IRC channel on freenode.
Nice discrimination, shitfucks. The one thing I hate more than discrimination are people who discriminate while claiming to fight discrimination. Fuck you.
not >>10, but there are issues with a movement that helps an under represented group that excludes those not part of the said group from participation. That may or may not be the case, but it could be an unintended statement due to the wording in the quote from >>10.
Name:
Anonymous2013-02-08 17:58
>>19
I guess you could see it that way. It would be a form of discrimination, one that intends to promote more support to the discriminated group rather than ostracize them.
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Anonymous2013-02-08 18:04
>>15, 17, 19
The thing that bothers me about this is that our field is probably the least structurally discriminatory one there is. All you have to do to be a good programmer is read other people's code. You don't need their help and you don't need their permission. If you can't learn this stuff without an old (black queer) boys' club, then all the coders in the world can't help you.
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Anonymous2013-02-08 19:28
homosexuals
Ricky stallman just wants more boyfriends.
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Anonymous2013-02-08 19:37
good thing i don't use emacs anymore. it sucked anyway.
Name:
Anonymous2013-02-08 19:52
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>>15,17,19-20
When such ``help'' or group inclusion is conditional on one's race/ethnicity/sex/gender/orientation/etc, it's called discrimination. Discrimination cannot be justified by statistical arguments (e.g. being black correlates with criminality). Therefore, if statistics shows that my racial/ethnic/etc group is privileged, that cannot be used to justify discrimination against me.
As such, I see the paragraph quoted in >>10 as exclusionary against non-female non-queer persons, as well as non-``coloured'' persons; this paragraph (in the context of the article) shows discrimination against such groups. Moreover, such discrimination is (wrongly) justified by statistical arguments (namely, ``intersectionality'').
You can't fight discrimination with discrimination, god dammit.
>>21
On the Internet, no one knows you're a black homosexual. And nobody really cares, either.
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Anonymous2013-02-08 20:21
So nigger bulls can't join unless they can take it up the ass?
>>25
Are you sure the purpose of the FSF is to fight discrimination? The Empowermentors Collective of the FSF
This sounds like that they want to dedicate resources into these groups of people rather than fight discrimination.
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Anonymous2013-02-08 20:43
>>15
The discrimination is: "If you are a woman of color or queer person of color in the free software or free culture community" you may join our club. It's no different than "Whites only" signs, except in the minds of idiots.
Libby's job is to inspire people to use free software and put pressure on companies that violate user freedom. She is a justice organizer who believes in the power of appropriate technology to transform communities. Before joining the FSF, Libby worked to build community radio stations with the Prometheus Radio Project and advocated for better media policy at Free Press.
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Anonymous2013-02-08 21:25
>>15 underrepresented
LELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
>LE JIDF SHILL POSTING
>LE WHITES CAN'T BE DESCRIMINATED AGAINST, RIGHT MY GOOD LITTLE SHABBOS GOYIM?
>LE HAPPY MERCHANT FACE
to improve it, all you have to do is change, ``if you are X, come and join us at ...'' to ``if you are X or want to show your support for those who are X, come and join us at...''
Sigh another backwards approach. Try shedding more light on the hippocracy of the excluders instead of separating into a group of "Them" (especially targeted to such a small group) The whole Us vs Them (tribalism) mentality leads to more exclusion... These sort of groups do make people feel like they are doing something... so have it I guess.
Since this already exists, find more causes that don't effect your group and support them. the allies will be needed (if the problem is as big as you proport)
It is not politically correct for beautiful people to appear in films, theatrical stagings and ballets. Those people must understand their beautiful person privilege and act accordingly to atone for their history of snatching success from ugly people. It must be considered good manners to uglify oneself to stop promoting beautifulist attitude towards people of ugliness. BEAUTIFUL GUILT MUST BE PROMOTED IN UNIVERSITIES through educational programs such as Beautiful Studies.
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Anonymous2013-02-09 5:22
>>37
Protip: tribalism is natural. Associating with people of similar characteristic is natural.
I don't understand all the drama with this. Is it really the same issue as a 'white only group all others are excluded'? The way I see it, the FSF have their normal strategy of educating anybody and on top of that, they have an extra group where they formally discriminate these characteristics.
Announcing the Empowermentors Collective: a group for women of colour and queer people of colour
The Empowermentors Collective is a new space by and for women of colour and queer people of colour within free software and free culture.
We recognise the need to address deep-seated cultural norms within the free software and free culture communities which, under the guise of openness, have excused and perpetuated alienating behaviour. It is imperative that we acknowledge that there are systemic structures of control embedded in our society which permeate our movement. Refusing to do so in an effort to compartmentalise and focus on our own goals is detrimental to our success. We cannot afford to be an inward-facing movement.
To expose and undo this culture of exclusion, we would like to support the recently established Empowermentors Collective, a community for intersectionally marginalised identities. This type of intentional space also opens up the potential for much needed coalition building and advances our own understanding of how technology and media are inseparable from our experiences and ourselves, our bodies.