Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

internetworkers - Head In The Clouds

internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "David R. Matusiak" <matusiak AT hotmail.com>
  • To: internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Head In The Clouds
  • Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 17:52:16 EDT


what, i ask, makes an issue "clean?"

in this day and age, if it wasn't for the clouding, we'd have no issues at all.
this "clouding" we are referring to is essentially two things:

1. it is a persons reaction to these "issues." and we aren't going to start invalidating everyone's opinion, are we?
-and-
2. it is the scuttlebutt of tanginential issues which persons "associate with" or "think of when" dealing with these issues.

this unaccountable melange is what happens without the focus of which i have previously written.
i mean, _seriously_, WHAT ARE WE ARGUING ABOUT HERE??
AND WHY??

this (i believe) began as a simple "hey, let's get some more minorities involved in the group" and has since spawned into this multi-level query as to "who did what and why?"

*there aren't enough african-americans
*there aren't enough women
*there aren't enough geezers
*there aren't enough redheads
*there aren't enough this, that, and the other

and "well, that's not significant (or important) because _they_ haven't been socially impacted for hundreds of years" -or- "they chose me because i was a girl - ick!" -or- "i'm not seeing anything on this list about segregation..."

well, all this came from someone wanting to bring some different folks into the group.

you want that?? DO IT. make it happen. meet them; invite them; bring them in your car.... what more can you do?
there is no need to really bring this up repeatedly unless we are going to try to challenge one issue and do something about it. but this clouding that's taking place is not helping us, it is not helping bring more people into the group, and it is not helping the issues themselves.

i will give my personal promise right now to attempt to meet a wide variety of tech professionals in this area and tell them about/invite them to our group and our meetings. i do not plan on dragging anyone to the meetings, nor am i about to hound someone incessantly. if they know about it and chose not to participate, then that is their business. but really, if we are going to discuss things, let us at least attempt to have some loose topic to follow.

what the hell are we talking about again?
dave ;)

From: Gina Norman <gina AT vnet.net>
Reply-To: "InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
To: "InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: [internetworkers] Re: RE: Geeks + Diversity
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 16:06:59 -0400 (EDT)

> I am constantly amazed at our ability to cloud an relatively simple issue.
> If America had an issue with wide scale devaluing of red heads, geezers and
> so on, that is still perpetuated even today. That leaves whole communities
> struggling with generational curses then I can see your point. But for now
> can we keep the issue clean?

Well, America does have an issue with wide-scale devaluing of women,at
least in "high technology" based on both salary ranges for equivalent
positions and the dearth of women entering technology degree programs at
the college level. And I would've still left "ookie" if someone had
wanted me in Internetworkers just 'cause I'm a girl.*

I even thought of using that as that as my example, in fact, but decided
that my point, which is that I don't want someone to value my
participation just because I'm "diverse" or part of a specific
group-of-interest, was better served by the red-head thing than by
throwing gender into the mix. I want my participation to be valued because
of who *I* am.

Make sense?

-gina
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page