FSFE in Outreachy?

[Daniel Pocock]

On 02/09/17 12:27, Nikos Roussos wrote:
> On September 2, 2017 11:45:20 AM GMT+03:00, Carmen Bianca Bakker <carmenbianca at fsfe.org> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> On Saturday, 2 September 2017 09:51:36 CEST Nikos Roussos wrote:
>>> I don't see any discrimination here, and in general in any initiative
>>> that tries to help minorities.
>> It is discrimination by its very definition, though.  That is: making a
>> distinction between groups of people.
> Of people that have same opportunities. So I'd say that these kind of programs are meant to reverse discrimination imposed already in our societies.
>
> But you are right, that to some extend we define discrimination differently. I see no discrimination because these initiatives don't take away opportunities from other groups of people. They can still contribute through other ways that already exist out there and in general favor white males.

One argument I've seen is that women have effectively been passed over
and even brainwashed during their childhood and teenage years and so
deliberate efforts like Outreachy are needed to correct that bias that
they already have in their own thinking:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39579321

So that is not really discrimination, that is just matching a problem
with a solution.  In the same way, if a doctor refuses to give an x-ray
to a healthy person, would you call that discrimination?



>> I very much prefer alternative methods.  I really admire a lot of the
>> LGBT community, for instance, in how they approached their struggle for
>> equality.  Their focus on love is exemplary, and the inclusion of gay
>> characters/people in popular media -- often as equals -- has done more
>> for them than anything else ever could.
> Sure, but popular media are mostly in the hands of privileged people, so these examples are rare. Also part of the LGBT and fiminism community also organizes similar types of initiatives like django-girls, Ruby Girls summer of code, pyladies, cryptodinners, etc.

Carmen, it would be really interesting if you could share any practical
ideas you have about extrapolating these concepts into the free software
community.

Regards,

Daniel