Eastercon and diversity

[nanila]

lapswood was kind enough to send me a few photos he took at Eastercon last month. I thought this one made a nice illustration of some points that were made about PoCs and the (lack of) diversity at science fiction conventions.

This is from the panel I was on. Myself, the gentleman next to me and the man on the opposite end from me are all working scientists. The other man is the moderator - I'm not sure whether or not he is a scientist.



When I look at this picture, the first thing that pops into my head is the Sesame Street song: "One of these things is not like the others/One of these things just doesn't belong."

Visually, the thing that doesn't belong is me. And that makes me sad. What does it make you think?

Comments

[holyschist]

I think science is pretty gender-blind and color-blind.

I think science likes to think it is pretty gender-blind and color-blind, but I've got a growing collection of anecdata to the contrary. It's not that people have bad intentions, but scientists are just as prone to unexamined assumptions as anyone else, and possibly more prone to thinking we don't have them because we are so Rational and Scientific and Logical, we must be beyond all that.

I did my graduate work in a lab that was at most points about half women of color, and almost all women, and pretty much everyone had a long list of Stories. And I've read a lot of the studies on retention of women and minorities in physics and the geosciences, and I just don't think the numbers would be so bad if the field were doing so great already.

Science probably isn't the worst area to work in, but there's still a lot of room for improvement.