Adriana Jara

es

A story about systemic problems

In general, we believe that everyone has the same opportunities to succeed within the same system. The so-called meritocracy system always tells us, “You can be whatever you want, achieve whatever you want as long as you work hard”, when the truth is we cannot pretend that we are even playing the same game.

Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility taught me a lot about systemic issues, how difficult it is to understand that we cannot escape the system, especially if the system benefits us. Just because the system benefits us does not mean we do not have to work, but it does mean that there are many advantages we cannot see because we take them for granted and believe that everyone has them.

Let me give you an example of a professional fair for teenagers where I once mentored. One of the girls asked me how many stocks she should expect when joining Google. How do additional bonuses work with salaries? And how to negotiate her salary? Another girl asked how she could convince her dad that engineering was not just for men and that the reason she wanted to go into the field was because it was a good professional option for her to be able to study.

Honestly, who do you think would navigate the “meritocracy” better at Google if both got a job there? Would their hard work really be paid at the same rate? Yes, you can tell me, “Adriana, life is not fair! Each one of us has to play the cards we are dealt with”, but keeping the analogy of cards, the system works in such a way that certain groups of people have mostly bad cards, for those people the rules of the game change without warning and sometimes it feels like they are playing a completely different game.

That is why I believe that those who want an inclusive industry, those who have the power to effect change, must consciously, personally and explicitly help minority people.

I understand that you may be thinking: Shouldn’t you be suggesting that we simply treat everyone equally? Or maybe you are thinking that providing explicit help to traditionally underrepresented groups would give them an unfair advantage! And if someone is in one of those minority groups, they might be thinking, “I can and want to do it on my own. I don’t want or need special treatment, I don’t want my coworkers to think that I didn’t achieve my accomplishments solely on merit.” Well, I think the same thing. I cannot bear another conversation about lowering the level or professional quality for the sake of being “inclusive”.

But I ask you to suspend disbelief and accept for a minute the premise that minorities need additional help. Join me on a journey of an incomplete list of scenarios that I wish had been different. A list that describes the help I would have wanted. The help that if given to people who need it, would create an inclusive workplace.

xkcd comic

The stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as a personal characteristic, a negative stereotype about the social group to which one belongs (Steele & Aronson, 1995). I (Adri) invite my reader to search for more information on Google about stereotype threat.

I believe the help I describe above would help any person, underrepresented or not, to grow in their career. I left out scenarios related to comments on how a person looks or sexual harassment because I don’t know how to fix those other than don’t do it, and people tend to agree that actions need to happen to eradicate them from the industry.

The scenarios I list above are more subtle, in some sense harder to fix. I am saying that we give that kind of help to the privileged group unconsciously, without any effort. The privileged group will never know what it is to operate dealing with stereotype threat. I am saying it takes work to make sure the minorities get the specific help we need.

There is a systemic problem and we won’t solve it unless we make an explicit effort, unless we check our biases and our privileges, consciously and constantly. Humans empathize and have a better understanding and a better perception of people who look like them, people who have experiences in common with them, people who speak their same language. Right there the majority has an advantage that underrepresented people will never be able to get, hence the need for explicitly helping the minorities.

Confirmation bias and stereotype threat are roadblocks the majority will never have to face. People say respect is earned, trust is earned, but the truth is we give our trust so much more easily to the people that look like us, that we can easily relate to, when we “see our younger selves in them”. The others, the ones that are new to the tribe are the ones that need to prove their worth. This is why we have to be proactive in showing the tribe they belong.

I invite you to read White Fragility with an open mind. It taught me that we can’t help but be racist (I extrapolate that we can’t help but be sexist), and this doesn’t mean we are bad people. It doesn’t mean you can fix sexism or racism but you can diminish their impact for those around you. It means to balance out the power of the system we have to do active work. We have to help the people that the system has put down for years and years. “Don’t be a jerk” is not enough. The distance is so abysmal, the injustice has existed for so many years, that even if every single person that reads these words commits to help underrepresented people, the balance still will not even out during our lifetimes and it is impossible to tip it the other way.

In the end all I’m asking you is to double check: Are you actively making sure everybody really has a fighting hand, or are you telling some of them they can win at the poker table when all they were given are monopoly cards?

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Footnotes

  1. Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as a self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one’s social group (Steele & Aronson, 1995). I invite my reader to Google more about stereotype threat. ↩

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