DEV Community: Sophie The Lionhart

Where Are All The Black Engineers?

Sophie The Lionhart — Wed, 07 May 2025 00:03:09 +0000

Disclaimer:

I am NOT a person of color. I’m just someone who is tired of choking on silence for other people’s comfort. This is not my story to tell, but when Black voices speak, too few listen. I’m using my platform to amplify what keeps being ignored. Use yours too. This isn't about me but if all you can do today is share this article, then please do that. If you can do more, find and elevate the voice of a Black individual. Whatever you do, do something. Share the injustices you've seen and ask if others have seen it too. Ask if others have also been forced to choke on their silence and betray their friends and conscience. I have other similar stories to tell of injustice but theirs is so much more layered and rooted even more deeply in history and the systems of today's reality. It must be confronted first.

This is simply meant to be a starting point. Listen to their voices, not mine. Sit and stay in your own discomfort. Its a signal that you can use to grow your kindness and compassion. Don't run away from it. Seek out and truly listen to the stories of real Black people, not the white-washed ones. The stories that contain not just joy and progress but the realities of the pain that may never be fully addressed.

If this is your story to tell, SHARE IT IN THE COMMENTS.

This hopefully can serve as a space for it all to be seen. For people to really see your voices and experiences, good and bad. Drop your links. Share your work. Speak your truth. Let people see you, all of you. All of the joy, the pain, the power, and the dreams they keep pretending don’t exist or are worth helping make come true. Be loud or quiet, but be you!

If this is not your story to tell, shut up and listen to those who's story it is to tell! We've been telling people to be quiet for too long!

We Need to Talk About "The American Society of Magical Negroes"

If this headline made you flinch, great! Growth starts with being honest with yourself. That discomfort? It is doing its job as an emotion.

The “Magical Negro” trope is a long-standing tradition in film making:

A Black character who exists solely to guide, to uplift, or to emotionally heal a white protagonist. They often appear with seemingly mystical or self-sacrificial qualities(including a monumental task load), and almost never with an inner life of their own, much less a community. They exist to serve, soothe, and then disappear while reinforcing racial stereotypes under the guise of wisdom or moral clarity.

That trope didn’t stay in film and fiction. It seeped out of hollywood and into real systems that harm real people. It seeped into offices, into schools, into technology, into the products we build and the people we choose to interact with. It became a blueprint for how we commodify Black presence. We want it visible but not powerful, helpful but not heard, included but never centered. They aren't a person. They are stripped of agency, and told to shut up and do what they are told. To be GRATEFUL for the opportunity to be degraded so that they can survive.

If you work in tech and have never collaborated with a Black engineer, never sat across from one in leadership, and have never reported to one, that isn't a coincidence.

They aren't hidden. They are excluded. You are not just missing them. You are in a system that was built this way, intentionally or not.

Whether or not you realize it or not, you have been helping to maintain it, and the status quo that quietly oppresses without fanfare.

I Like Big Stats And I Cannot Lie!

Let’s stop pulling the punches on this for people's comfort, we need to face reality in its plain, brutal, and measurable glory to effect real change:

* Black Americans: ~13% of the U.S. population

* Black people in tech: ~8%, often <3% in core engineering(its even worse in Silicon Valley)

* Black women: Less than 1% of the tech workforce

* Black LGBTQIA+ representation: So underreported it barely exists in available data

* Black people in prison: ~33% of the U.S. incarcerated population

Meanwhile:

A Black person is more likely to be imprisoned than employed by your company.
Not in your dev standup.
Not in HR.
Not in product.
Not on your board.
Not anywhere on your org chart.

If you think “diversity is improving,” prove it:

Show me the names of Black women on your executive team.
Show me how many Black queer engineers you’ve mentored.
Show me your attrition rates, how many of these people burned out before their second review cycle?
Show many how many were on contract-to-hire that got hired.
Show me how many Black people even landed second round interviews.

Note:

A few visible Black employees, even a standout DEIA success story, doesn’t erase a systemic problem.
Hiring one Black professional in a sea of dozens doesn’t negate the data.
Representation alone is not repair.
The underrepresentation, attrition, and exclusion of Black individuals in tech is not anecdotal.
This is documented. It is measurable. Its structural roots are visible.

"We're working on it." isn't an excuse. It has been almost 62 years since the Civil Rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August of 1963. How much longer must they wait? How many more generations?

"The American Society of Magical Negroes" Is Not Just Satire. It’s a Blueprint of Society’s Underlying Disease

In the 2024 film written and directed by by Kobi Libii, a secretive organization of Black people is tasked with one job: keep white people comfortable, or risk unleashing more oppression on Black communities across the world.

The magic only works if everyone suppresses their truth and prioritizes appeasement.

Speak your mind? The magic disappears.
Name the problem? Everyone loses power.

Discomfort becomes a chronic disease, and the proposed treatment is the silencing of one's conscience. The Black feminist author bell hooks had something to say about that concept in a different domain:

"The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves. If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem."

As long as everyone in the society is working together with the single minded pursuit of improvement through appeasement their powers work and all is well. Speaking your mind to the underlying issues though strips everyone, everywhere, of their magical powers. You must not bring attention to the issues and increase the discomfort, lest you and your community become powerless.

This isn't something that only effects Black people. I'm White but as a trans woman who is neurodivergent I felt the message in my bones. BIPOC(Black Indigenous People of Color), Neurodivergent, Disabled, Queer people, and other marginalized communities know this dance all too well. The micro-injustices that pile up week after week, unchallenged in meetings we aren’t invited to. The moments of harm that pass by unchallenged by "allies” because comfort still wins over courage until even they tell us to shut up.

In the movie, the main character is assigned to coddle the ego of a white designer, ensuring their frustration never spills out catastrophically and harms random Black people they encounter out and about in the world. He’s embedded in a fictional medium-sized tech startup as their first Black designer and employee. Hired not for his merit(which he has in spades), but as what many call a "DEIA Hire". It is a reactionary hire made after their facial recognition system failed to detect the faces of Black people effectively locking out an entire African nation, Ghana, from multiple critical applications as a result, grinding the businesses in the country to a halt.

What does the company do?

They don’t fix it.
They don’t take accountability.
They make a token DEIA hire, and then scramble to save face and soothe the CEO’s ego.

Sound familiar?

This Has Already Happened

Apple’s Face ID Can’t Tell Asian Faces Apart

Let's harken back to the 'before times', pre-pandemic, to the good ol' days of 2017. Facial ID was new and exciting! Everyone wanted to play around with it until suddenly the news reports emerged that multiple Chinese users discovered they could unlock each other’s iPhones. Coworkers, children, and strangers all able to unlock each other's devices. Children were allowed to bypass purchase filters and rack up purchases. Users were able to bypass access restrictions that protect privileged information. In general, a security nightmare all around.

What does Apple do to fix this? They blame the hardware. The truth however was in the training data and in the product pipeline, their system didn’t know how to tell Asian users apart.

Google Labels Black Users “Gorillas”

Let's go back a few years to 2015, Google Photos' new auto-tagging mis-labels two Black users with a horrific racial slur.

Their solution? "Let's just remove the word “gorilla” from the AI's vocabulary entirely!" Not a retrain. Not a correction. Just erasure of the problem by sweeping it under the rug. They apologized, but three years later in 2018 it was still not fixed. Lip service without accountability. All the benefits of "allyship" without any of the required action.

These weren’t bugs, they were systemic failures. Failures in product design. In the pipeline. In testing. In culture. Failures in the cultivating of the courage and compassion in the hearts of the people who built these tools.

Where were the guardrails? If safeguards existed, why didn’t they work? When they did fail, why wasn’t there already a plan? Why was it all swept under the rug instead of confronted?

Where was the accountability? Where was the promise it wouldn’t happen again? Where was the apology? Where was the repair?

Diversity Isn’t a Pipeline Problem. It’s a Prioritization Problem.

Places don't lack Black developers and professionals because they don't exist. They lack them because they:

Recruit from the same five schools
Refuse to mentor across differences: cultural, experiential, and systemic
Let unexamined bias shape hiring and retention
Mandate toothless DEIA training that never teaches people how to intervene
Burn out their marginalized talent without providing equitable support
Use them in PR photos and erase them in performance reviews
They hire Black women last and they are laid off first as a result

Black queer professionals are rarely onboarded, rarely protected as priority, and often isolated until they opt out “voluntarily.” Black women are made to feel personally responsible for the failures the lack of support that was never provided to them causes.

The ‘Problem’ Woman of Color in the Workplace” – visual reference

So Then Mysterious Internet Stranger, Where Are All the Black Developers?

Now you're asking the right question! They’re out there!

They’re interviewing five times as hard for half the offers.
They’re launching their own startups after watching yours ignore their ideas.
They’re building tools on nights and weekends because no one in your company believed they could lead.
They are making their resumes look less Black to even get a chance at the table before their name alone denies them the chance
They are forsaking their birth names and legally changing them just so they have a chance to live a life with a roof over their heads and food in their bellies

They’re also tired!

Of being the only person that looks like them in the company.
Of doing the unpaid emotional labor and DEIA education that was never in their job description.
Of smiling through exclusion so they can keep the job.
Of being called “intimidating” and "bad for team morale" for having standards.
Of the toxic positivity that only shows up when they speak of their pain.

You didn’t lose them. You pushed them out. Or worse, never let them in.

What You Must Do Now, Not Later: Allyship Is More Than Black History Month or Juneteenth

This is not about:

Charity
Branding
Your self-image
Your company's reputation

This is about repair for those harmed by systemic injustice you benefit from.

1. Hire Black Engineers and Employees. All Levels. All Functions.

Not just interns.
Not just DEIA consultants, token hires, or those who 'fit the culture'.
Hire principal engineers, VPs, C-suite, HR, Middle Managers, and Artists. Then promote them. Don’t let them stagnate in entry level limbo while your company advances others over them. If you are finding lack of evidence to support their promotions, find out why and fix it. Blame the system and lack of adequate or equitable support, not the employee. Ask them what the want and need. Not everyone wants a promotion.

2. Protect and Promote Black People Experiencing Intersectionality

Start counting how many Black women you have in your company.
Start counting how many Queer Black people you have in your company.
Start counting how many Black people experiencing disability or neurodivergence you have in your company.
Count how many have left your company.
Now ask why as well as who and what stayed silent for there to be so few.

3. Audit Your Products and Systems For Harm

What in your system fails Black users right now?
What blocks your employees from supporting them where they are?
What processes erase, mislabel, or exclude them?
How are you ensuring their voices are heard?
Fix it. Not for Juneteenth, not in Q3. Fix it NOW. Rebuild your priorities from the ground up.

4. Watch Black, Queer, Disabled, and Indigenous Films and Media

Watch media like The American Society of Magical Negroes with your team.
Provide thoughtful questions that promote reflection.
Provide the tools needed to sit in emotional discomfort.
If you laugh, ask why.
If you’re defensive, sit with it.
If you're horrified by something you now see in your life, do something! Fix it, speak up. Dignity dies where cruelty breeds, in silence.

Don't make your existing marginalized employees do the work for you, especially in rooms they aren't even allowed to enter. If the door is closed, open it. If there is no door, build one and prop it open.

Closing

You haven't been imagining it. You see the problem. The sameness in leaderships and the “culture fits” that all look alike. You have felt the awkward and palpable silence when someone raises a concern about the lack of equity in a roadmap. The quiet disappearances of the people who came in hopeful and left without fanfare as they were stifled by those who hired them, who maintained the status quo for comfort's sake. The complaints that are only able to be raised after all the bricks have been purchased as the Black voice is the last one to get the news, often after events are already in motion that no one prioritizes stopping.

You’re not stupid. You’re not naive. You just haven’t been given permission to say what you already know. Maybe you’re afraid. Understandably so, you know what happens to Black people on the daily can happen to you too if you:

Rock the boat.
Say the wrong thing to the wrong higher up.
Use your privilege to elevate someone who is struggling because it may cause someone else to face their own discomfort.

That fear makes sense. That fear is intentionally taught throughout school and is embedded deep in the zeitgeist to keep it that way. Here’s the important part that no one says out loud though:

To keep that safety, you’ve had to betray a part of yourself.

Every time:

You stayed silent when you knew something was wrong.
You laughed off bias in the name of “team cohesion.”
You told yourself, “It’s not my fight.”
You justified your inaction to yourself with, "I know they aren't a bigot so its fine."

It is your fight.
It isn't not just Black or other marginallized folks being asked to stay small, stay quiet, and most importantly stay out of the way.
It’s you, too. It always has been.

We've all been conditioned and trained to look away like one of Pavlov's dogs. To trade truth for comfort. To perform “team player” while watching it destroy the life of a team member. We've been trained to look for stories with 'Magical Negroes' to cope with our unease at the constant stream of injustices all around us.

We can’t afford that anymore. We MUST learn to be better. The civil rights movement never ended. It was declared over by the people who benefit most from it going away.

If you're scared to speak up imagine how Black people feel when they know that if they speak up:

They’re not just risking their jobs, but their human rights.
They’re risking being labeled difficult, angry, ungrateful, and unsafe to manage.
They’re risking never being hired again.
They're risking their chances at career advancement.
They’re risking a reputation that travels faster than the truth.
They know the risk, that if they fall there is nothing waiting to catch them but cold hard dirt.
They are not risking their livelihoods, they are risking their lives.

No safety net. No “oh, we’ll find you something else.”
Just silence. Ghosting. Locked doors.

Yet they speak anyway. Some do it bravely. Some do it to combat their fear. Some because their anger at being mistreated can no longer be contained. They do it because we keep forcing them to. They do it because their cries are performatively heard, redirected, and ignored constantly.

So ask yourself:

If they can risk everything to make space for dignity, can you risk discomfort to stand beside them?

You don't have to fight alone. Find one person on your team who sees what you see. Ask them to back you up. Offer the same. Hold them to it. Cover your ass. Document it. Make reports to HR. Make ignoring it untennable. Be the first to stand. Be the reason someone else finds the courage to do the same. Refuse to back down. If the product can't get built without you, use your leverage to force change. Do not center yourself in the fight for other's rights. This isn’t about being a savior. It’s about being whole. Wholeness starts the moment you stop betraying your own conscience.

So speak up and ask the hard questions.
Be wrong.
Say the quiet parts loud.
Learn.
Teach the system that silence is no longer guaranteed.

Supporting Links:

Debugging Humanity: How Systems Thinking Led Me to Radical Wokeness

Sophie The Lionhart — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 22:45:23 +0000

TL;DR:

I'm not some mad woman with a hammer trying to make everything a nail. This explicitly is not about forcing everything into a systems model. It is about what happens when the systems that are at the top break down under real grief, injustice, and complexity; and a sincere attempt to try and understand and synthesize a solution that stops leaving people's lives as husks.

I am a burned-out engineer looking for answers beyond code and capitalism. For years, years I have read texts. I've listened to the oppressed. I've been oppressed. I've done lots of therapy of various forms. Humanity has been trying to teach each other the road through hell for centuries. I tried to take all the maps they left and make an engineered fool-proof plan, so that everyone can bypass it or move through with dignity and compassion. Where we go back and get the people stuck there too, because our lives aren't complete until everyone we love can make it out with a smile and hope and dreams.

I wanted a blueprint not for control, but for care. This is how Radical Wokeness was born: not as ideology, but as an attempt to engineer a future where no one gets quietly erased regardless of who they are or want to be, what they have done or not done, where they are born or forced to flee. We survive together or not at all, everything will consume itself into collapse if we don't strive to maintain the balance.

Radical Wokeness: A systems engineering framework for ethical system design across disciplines and applications using dialectical framing, tension, and synthesis to solve problems across the stack with compassion, equity, and dignity baked in at all levels, for everyone, fortified with a robust and relational self-recursive lense.

🧠 Preface

Like many engineers, my work often runs into obstacles that aren't technical.

They're systemic.

At first, I thought debugging bad codebases was my real challenge.

Then I realized: the friction wasn't in the code — it was in the process.

Then it was in the company culture.

Then it was in market incentives, laws, traditions — the whole human ecosystem.

I kept following the bugs upward through the stack.

Eventually, I realized:

You can't debug broken software without debugging broken systems.

You can't debug broken systems without debugging broken civilizations.

That realization led me here.

Along the way, I kept encountering a word, "woke", that had been twisted beyond recognition.

Originally a call for awareness, care, and justice, it had been weaponized, distorted, and emptied of meaning through bad faith discourse.

I saw in its heart something still good: A call to defend dignity, to engineer systems where cruelty is neither necessary nor excusable.

I realized that if we were ever going to debug our broader systems, we first had to reclaim the language of conscience itself and define it carefully, openly, and intentionally.

I started experimenting with a language model on this project, my first real non-trivial usage of LLMs to this point and it was not to generate code but to think bigger. To engineer ethical structures the way we engineer resilient systems:

Modular
Self-correcting
Centered on human dignity and systemic flourishing

Radical Wokeness is the result of that exploration.

It’s not a political ideology.

It’s not a manifesto in the traditional sense.

It’s an attempt to answer one question seriously:

How do we consciously, deliberately, iteratively refactor the human operating system without erasing its living history, without repeating its cruelties, and without surrendering to despair?

What follows isn't finished.

It's a living document.

Like good, open-source, engineered code, it’s meant to evolve with conscience, testing, and resilience against failure.

I welcome serious, thoughtful feedback especially from those who think in systems, who care about ethical architecture, and who believe dignity should be designed into our future, not treated as a feature request.

If we can debug software, we can debug systems.

If we can debug systems, we can debug civilization.

🛠️ Section 1: The Problem Space: Systems Are Breaking Everywhere

Software often isn't the problem: processes, structures, incentives, and cultural inertia are.
Governments, corporations, and even communities often repeat predictable patterns of cruelty, neglect, or exclusion because their systems were built to optimize for survival of themselves, not for human dignity.
Debugging the world demands more than patches it demands systemic refactoring.

📈 Section 2: The Design Challenge: How Do We Refactor Civilization?

Refactoring, not rewriting:
- History is real. Culture is real. Trauma is real.
- We cannot simply delete the past or reset the system.
Constraints on any ethical operating system:
- Must honor human dignity across differences.
- Must maximize possibilities for authentic flourishing without creating systems of domination.
- Must retain adaptability without losing ethical grounding.
- Must reject endless growth as a good in itself. Flourishing must mean depth of dignity and relational thriving, not just expansion.

❓ Section 3: Why This Work Is Necessary

Because survival is not enough. Survival without dignity breeds despair and violence.
Because current systems often mistake efficiency for care, growth for thriving, and order for justice.
Because refactoring our civilizations is the only path to sustaining freedom, healing, and possibility for future generations.
Because despair is a design failure, not a given.

🧩 Section 4: Radical Wokeness - An Ethical Operating System in Prototype

What it is:

A living structure designed to systematize dignity and systemic healing.
A modular approach to ethics that can evolve without losing its core.
A system where flourishing is measured by depth of dignity, sustainability of care, and resilience against cruelty. Not one that is measured by infinite material expansion.

What it is not:

Not a partisan project.
Not a purity cult.
Not a utopian shortcut ignoring complexity.

Core Axioms:

Dignity is non-negotiable.
Systems that compromise dignity for survival, growth, or efficiency will collapse over time.
Cruelty is structurally illegitimate; not just morally wrong, but architecturally and systemically unsustainable.
Systems must be judged by the depth and relational quality of flourishing they produce, not their size, speed, or conquest.
Memory both of harm and of hope must be protected and integrated as a living system.

🧠 Section 5: Early Lessons from the Thought Experiment

Systems break down when they fail to recognize individuals' dignity and well-being as intrinsic to the system’s health even if people are seen as "cogs" within larger structures. A salary or company benefits are insufficient; dignity requires relational care, voice, and active participation in system stewardship.
Ethical systems must be engineered consciously, not assumed emergently.
Stories, rituals, and emotional architecture matter; logic alone can't sustain a civilization.
Change must be seeded, grown, and expected; not demanded instantly or imposed violently.

🌿 A Final Note Before You Read:

While the explanations above in this post explains the journey behind the idea, the actual living document — the first draft of Radical Wokeness itself — is shared below.

It is meant to be read, tested, challenged, and improved.

If anything here sparks something in you whether hope, critique, curiosity, or even discomfort please consider reading the full text that follows.

Your thoughts, your systems instincts, and your conscience are part of the debugging humanity needs.

Radical Wokeness

Radical Wokeness is a foundational framework of moral axioms—rooted in justice, compassion, interconnectedness, and impermanence—designed to guide us in collectively dismantling systemic cruelty, exploitation, and oppression, to build an intentionally just, sustainable, and dignified society. Radical here does not mean extremism or violence. It means reaching the roots — a full, uncompromising commitment to justice, compassion, and truth. Radical wokeness is radical only in the depth of its love, the honesty of its vision, and the courage of its care.

Radical wokeness is the uncompromising pursuit of social justice, economic fairness, collective liberation, and planetary stewardship. It is rooted in a deep and ongoing recognition of systemic inequality, historical injustice, and the sacred duty we owe to one another and to the Earth itself. It demands not just passive agreement with ideals of fairness and inclusion, but active, fearless engagement — confronting internal biases, dismantling unjust systems, and refusing to soften the truth for comfort’s sake. Radical wokeness calls us not only to defend our rights, but to uphold our responsibilities: to each other, to future generations, and to the fragile bonds that make freedom possible.

Radical wokeness embraces discomfort as a necessary part of growth. It insists that we build the courage and skills to sit with and understand big emotions — our own and others' — without retreat, denial, or cruelty. It teaches that no society, no system, and no structure is eternal: all exist to fulfill a sacred duty of care, and must be tended, reshaped, or released when they betray that trust. Care, safety, joy, and solidarity are not luxuries — they are the reasons society exists at all. Uncontrolled growth, expansion for its own sake, and change without purpose only hollow society's foundation rather than strengthen it. Change must serve these goals, not chase novelty for its own sake.

Radical wokeness rejects violence, imperialism, domination, and exploitation in all forms — including the weaponization of faith, culture, or identity. It does not seek to invert systems of oppression or replace one hierarchy with another; it seeks to end hierarchy itself and build shared dignity. It recognizes that true liberation cannot be dictated by existing structures of colonialism and conquest, but must be shaped by those whose lands, histories, and spirits have carried resistance across centuries. It honors Indigenous sovereignty, collective care, and the truth that we survive together — or not at all.

This is not a document meant to be consumed in a single breath. It is a tapestry of truths — some heavy, some hopeful, all demanding reflection. The ideas here are not light, because the world’s wounds are not light. If you find yourself needing to pause, to breathe, to sit with what you've read — that is not failure. That is the work beginning inside you. You are invited to move through it at your own pace, to pause when needed, to return when ready. If parts of this feel overwhelming, confusing, or difficult to untangle — it is okay to seek help, to ask questions, to learn together. Understanding is not a solitary nor linear task.

Black Lives Matter

Radical wokeness affirms that Black lives are not simply included — they are centered in the work of justice. To declare that Black Lives Matter is not to diminish the value of any other lives; it is to confront the reality that Black lives have been systemically devalued, endangered, and erased for centuries across the world, where they were trafficked, enslaved, and brutalized against their will. All lives cannot truly matter until Black lives matter equally, without fear, without exception.

Radical wokeness recognizes that the struggle for justice must actively oppose anti-Blackness wherever it appears — not only in laws and institutions, but within our own assumptions, behaviors, and privileges. Dismantling anti-Blackness is not a symbolic act: it is a necessary and inseparable part of building any world worthy of being called just.

We affirm the dignity, agency, and liberation of all people of color, while honoring the specific and foundational struggle against anti-Black racism as essential to the liberation of all. The fight for justice cannot be colorblind; it must be courageous enough to name who has been harmed — and bold enough to stand beside them without flinching.

No Human Is Illegal

Radical wokeness rejects the criminalization of existence. A human being cannot be illegal; borders may define territories, but they must never define who deserves dignity, safety, or hope. To treat people as "illegal" because of where they were born — or where they are forced to flee — is to deny their humanity and fuel cycles of exploitation and exclusion.

Migration, displacement, and seeking refuge are not moral failings; they are often the survival response to systems built to exploit, displace, and discard human lives. Colonialism, imperialism, climate destruction, and economic violence have shaped the modern world — and left millions with no real choice but to move for survival.

Radical wokeness affirms that every person, regardless of papers, language, or nation of origin, has an equal right to freedom, safety, opportunity, and belonging. No one should be denied humanity because of arbitrary lines on a map.

Love Is Love

Radical wokeness affirms that all forms of consensual love — across genders, sexualities, cultures, traditions, and relationship structures — deserve full dignity, protection, and celebration. Love is not something to be ranked nor policed. It is not conditional; it is a core expression of freedom and humanity.

True love strengthens the freedom, dignity, and flourishing of all people involved. It is built on consent, maturity, autonomy, and care. Any bond that lacks these — including any involving those without the capacity to consent, such as children — is not love; it is exploitation or abuse, and has no place in a just world.

Radical wokeness celebrates love in all its forms: romantic, platonic, familial, communal, and the love we owe to the Earth and all living things. Including polyamorous and queerplatonic relationships. Every genuine bond of care and mutual flourishing strengthens justice itself.

Love is sacred.
Love is revolutionary.
Love, freely given and freely honored, is one of the highest acts of justice.

Women's Rights Are Human Rights

Radical wokeness affirms that women's rights are not special interests — they are fundamental human rights, inseparable from the dignity and freedom owed to all people. True justice demands the dismantling of patriarchy in all its forms — social, political, cultural, and economic — without seeking to invert systems of oppression. Our liberation is not about revenge or reversal; it is about building a world where no one is forced into subjugation or silence.

Justice is not a zero-sum game. When women are liberated, all people are uplifted. Feminism is not about opposing men; it is about opposing injustice against femininity in all its forms — traits that exist alongside masculinity in every person.

We recognize that women are not a monolith, and that oppression is shaped by race, class, ability, sexuality, nationality, and other forces. Radical wokeness insists on intersectionality — and affirms the full dignity and womanhood of all who live within, identify with, or move through femininity, including cis women, trans women, non-binary femmes, and others whose identities defy rigid categorization.

Radical wokeness affirms that true justice requires bodily autonomy, informed choice, and compassionate healthcare. The ability to decide if, when, and how to bring new life into the world is not simply a personal preference — it is a profound moral responsibility tied to care for self, family, community, and planet. Reproductive freedom, including access to safe, legal, and stigma-free abortion, is essential to dignity, survival, and mutual flourishing.

We honor the complexity and weight of these decisions, recognizing that true support must prioritize the well-being of all: the living, the vulnerable, the future. We honor that for many, decisions about reproduction are deeply informed by conscience, ethics, and faith. Radical wokeness defends the right of every person to act in alignment with their own beliefs — so long as no one else's dignity, health, or freedom is sacrificed in the name of another's conviction. We affirm that choosing parenthood, choosing adoption, or choosing not to continue a pregnancy are all acts that deserve dignity, support, and compassion. Forced childbirth, criminalization of care, and coerced suffering are betrayals of collective responsibility and love. Radical wokeness demands systems that nurture life at every stage — not systems that exploit, endanger, or dehumanize those asked to bear it.

We explicitly affirm that achieving gender liberation does not require reversing power, dominance, or exclusion — it demands dismantling those structures altogether. Our vision is not a matriarchy to replace patriarchy, but a future without hierarchies of domination at all.

People Are the Gender They Say They Are

Radical wokeness affirms that gender identity is a truth known first and best by each individual, not something granted or validated by external authorities. Radical wokeness affirms that trans rights are human rights, recognizing that gender identity belongs solely to each individual, free from external imposition or invalidation. To be radically woke is to respect, affirm, and defend every person’s right to self-identify and to be recognized for who they are — without condition, challenge, or exception.

Gender is not limited to male or female; it is as diverse, complex, and living as humanity itself. Across the world, cultures have long recognized many beautiful expressions of gender — from the Kathoey of Thailand, the Hijra of South Asia, to the Two-Spirit people of many Indigenous nations.

Even biology, when understood honestly, reveals complexity beyond simplistic models — from genetic variation to the dynamic influence of epigenetics. There is no single way to be a body, a spirit, or a self.

Identity is not a trend. It is not confusion, though it can feel confusing at times. It is not a disease, nor a pandemic. It is not up for debate. It is a declaration of truth and dignity — and it must be protected at every level of society.

Disability Rights Are Human Rights

Radical wokeness affirms that disabled people are not burdens to be pitied, obstacles to be ignored, or problems to be solved. Disabled people are fully human, fully valuable, and fully entitled to dignity, autonomy, and full participation in every part of society — including leadership.

Disability is not rare or exceptional — it is a natural part of human life. It can arise suddenly, gradually, or from birth, and will touch almost everyone eventually as bodies change and age. A just society does not segregate or sideline disabled people; it centers accessibility, inclusion, respect, and leadership opportunities as non-negotiable foundations — not privileges granted based on perceived "independence."

Radical wokeness demands that accessibility be treated as a fundamental right, not a special accommodation. Physical spaces, digital tools, healthcare systems, workplaces, and cultural life must be built with disabled people in mind — not after the fact, but from the start.

We affirm that disability rights are inseparable from mental health justice and the full dignity of neurodivergent people. Those with mental health struggles, cognitive differences, and non-normative ways of thinking and experiencing the world deserve full respect, support, and leadership — not just tolerance, but celebration. We affirm that the right to live with dignity must also include the right to die with dignity — to choose, when necessary, an end rooted in autonomy, compassion, and care.

Disability is not shameful. It is not failure. It is part of human diversity. Justice demands not only legal rights, but cultural transformation — ending pity, ending shame, ending barriers, and building a world where every body and every mind can belong.

Science Is Real

Radical wokeness embraces science — not as an unquestionable authority, but as a living, evolving practice rooted in humility, curiosity, and responsibility. True science demands the courage to question, the wisdom to adapt, and the discipline to place evidence above ideology, profit, or tradition.

Scientific knowledge must serve humanity and the Earth, not corporate greed, political power, or colonial ambition. We honor the healers, researchers, and truth-seekers who expand human flourishing — and challenge the systems that weaponize science for exploitation or inequality.

No discipline of science stands alone. Biology, chemistry, physics, medicine, agriculture, engineering, and ecology weave into every part of life: food, health, shelter, energy, and community. Science shapes not only technology, but our understanding of justice, sustainability, and survival itself.

To honor science is to cultivate a polymathic, interdisciplinary mind — one that recognizes patterns across disciplines and applies knowledge with care, foresight, and intention. Living with integrity demands synthesis, not isolation: engineering society with wisdom drawn from all domains of life.

Honoring science is not about blind faith in authority. It is about defending truth, challenging corruption, and ensuring that discovery remains a force for liberation — not domination.

Water Is a Human Right

Radical wokeness affirms that access to clean, safe water is not a privilege, but a fundamental right owed to every person. Water sustains life itself — no one should suffer, sicken, or die because basic survival was priced beyond their reach.

Water must be protected from privatization, exploitation, and destruction. It is not a commodity to be hoarded by corporations, poisoned by industries, or rationed according to wealth. Water is sacred — and stewardship of it is a sacred trust owed to future generations.

Radical wokeness recognizes that environmental justice and social justice are inseparable. Pollution, scarcity, and environmental collapse are not random accidents; they disproportionately harm marginalized communities first and worst. Defending water means defending life, dignity, and equality — at every level, across every border.

True justice demands not only defending access to water, but defending the waters themselves: the rivers, lakes, glaciers, wetlands, and oceans that sustain all living systems.

Water is life.
Water is a right.
Water is sacred.

Economic Justice Is Social Justice

We reject the belief that wealth and poverty are natural reflections of talent, merit, or divine will. They are the engineered outcomes of historical and ongoing systems of exploitation — slavery, colonialism, wage theft, land theft, environmental degradation, racial inequality, patriarchy, and predatory globalization — systems aimed not at bringing humanity together, but at tearing us apart. All of these forces were engineered to hoard wealth and opportunity for the few at the expense of the many. They are systems of exploitation working exactly as designed. Radical wokeness demands the dismantling of systems that hoard wealth and opportunity for the few while exploiting the many. We reject the myth that poverty is a personal failing; poverty is a societal injustice, rooted in histories of exclusion, extraction, and engineered scarcity. We reject the mythology that success is simply a matter of hard work — ignoring the rigged starting lines and moving goalposts designed to privilege a few. Moreover, we reject the reverence given to success built on exploitation, domination, or cruelty. True achievement uplifts others, strengthens communities, and sustains dignity — it does not devour life to accumulate power. No economic system — capitalist, socialist, or otherwise — is sacred. Any system that fails to serve the dignity of living beings must be challenged, reimagined, or dismantled. Our loyalty is not to ideologies, but to the flourishing of life, justice, joy, and care.

We affirm that a thriving economy uplifts the many, not a privileged few. It prioritizes care over cruelty, collaboration over domination, stewardship over extraction. In a just world, freedom is not reserved for the wealthy — it is guaranteed for all by strong, resilient systems of care. Real social safety nets must ensure that no one is left behind, that no life is disposable, and that dignity is materially secured for all people. Success is not measured by wealth hoarded or empires built. It is measured by the freedom to dream without fear, the health of communities, and the flourishing of all beings.

Radical wokeness affirms the rights of all people to live with dignity — including access to food, clean water, housing, healthcare, education, and meaningful participation in the decisions that shape their lives. A just society is not built on endless accumulation, but on the fair distribution of resources — ensuring that every person has the means to live with dignity, security, and joy. Living wages, universal healthcare, affordable housing, access to education, and a sustainable relationship with the Earth are not luxuries — they are rights.

Radical wokeness recognizes that exploitation wears many faces — from wage theft, to environmental degradation, to the systemic denial of generational wealth to entire communities. Justice demands that we challenge not only obvious oppression, but also the polished cruelty hidden inside everyday systems that normalize inequality. We affirm that no one deserves a higher quality of life simply because their interests happened to be more profitable under unjust systems. Luck, privilege, or profitable skill sets do not make anyone more worthy of comfort, safety, or fulfillment.

Economic justice is not charity. It is not pity. It is solidarity — the recognition that liberation must be material, not just theoretical. We are owed a world where no one is disposable, where no one’s humanity is a line item on someone else’s profit sheet. Radical wokeness rejects narratives that frame justice as revenge. While we confront and dismantle unjust concentrations of wealth and power, we do not seek to dehumanize those we oppose. Dignity must be universal — even when accountability is necessary. True liberation demands the end of cruelty, not its redirection.

Sustainability and Planetary Stewardship

Sustainability is not an optional choice or a luxury for the privileged — it is a sacred duty owed to future generations, to the Earth itself, and to all forms of life that depend on it. Environmental destruction is not an isolated tragedy; it is part of the same systems of greed, domination, and exploitation that harm people. The climate crisis is not a distant threat — it is a present emergency, and it strikes the most marginalized communities first and hardest.

We reject the notion that "growth for growth’s sake" is progress. Unchecked expansion is not a sign of health — it is what cancer does. True progress strengthens communities, restores ecosystems, and protects the delicate systems that sustain life.

Radical wokeness demands that we rethink our relationship with the planet, moving beyond extraction and exploitation toward stewardship, reverence, and regeneration. Sustainability is not simply about conserving resources; it is about honoring the web of life, recognizing our interdependence, and designing systems where thriving does not depend on harm. We are stewards, not conquerors; builders, not hoarders; caretakers, not consumers. Our survival depends on reclaiming this sacred role.

Justice must also extend to the animals with whom we share the planet. Industrial meat production, factory farming, and mass exploitation of animals for profit are incompatible with sustainability and compassion. Reducing harm — through plant-based foods, lab-grown meat, and innovative, ethical food systems — is not just possible, but essential. Our future demands food systems that honor life, not cheapen it. We do not condemn survival or cultural necessity today — we seek to build a future where better choices are available for all.

We affirm that the rights of future generations — human and non-human — are real, urgent, and non-negotiable. To prioritize short-term gain over long-term survival is not innovation; it is betrayal.

We also recognize the deep injustice of environmental racism, colonial extraction, and systemic neglect — where Indigenous lands, Black and brown communities, and the Global South — the regions most exploited by colonialism, corporate extraction, and environmental collapse — bear the brunt of environmental destruction while contributing the least to its causes. True environmental justice must center those most affected and elevate local, traditional, and Indigenous knowledge as essential to planetary survival.

True sustainability is not only ecological but personal. Growth without reflection hollows the foundations of society just as surely as exploitation hollows the Earth. Rest is revolutionary. Healing is necessary. Sustainability demands systems that nurture recovery, reflection, and resilience — not endless exhaustion disguised as progress.

Life sustains life.
Justice sustains life.
Compassion sustains justice.

There is no liberation without a living planet to inherit.

Freedom of Belief Without Oppression

Radical wokeness upholds the right of every individual to worship freely — or not at all — so long as that freedom does not infringe on the rights, safety, or dignity of others. Faith and non-faith are equally respected, but neither can be used as a weapon of injustice.

We recognize that religion has often been a source of profound meaning, resilience, and solidarity for people, especially the oppressed — but also that it has been weaponized to justify violence, exclusion, and domination. No belief system, however ancient or sacred, exempts anyone from respecting the inherent worth of others.

Radical wokeness demands that spiritual communities confront injustice within their own ranks, and that faith is never used to shield injustice. Never used to excuse abuse, to dehumanize, or to be cruel. True freedom of belief means defending the sacred while refusing to sanctify harm.

We affirm that morality is not the sole possession of any one religion or tradition. Compassion, dignity, and justice belong to all people — not just to the faithful, but to the human spirit itself.

Anti-War and Anti-Violence

Radical wokeness rejects war, imperialism, revenge, and cruelty as tools of domination and injustice. We reject the romanticization of violence, the glorification of conquest, and the idea that progress must be built on bloodshed. We reject the myth that violence must shape identity, power, or belonging.

We honor the right to struggle fiercely for justice. We recognize that self-defense is sometimes necessary — not to glorify harm, but to minimize it and preserve life. True struggle is grounded in care, not conquest. Organized resistance and warfare must be re-envisioned away from domination and destruction — toward strategies grounded in dignity, harm reduction, and solidarity. True martial traditions already teach that strength is restraint, that real victory is preserving life, not taking it.

Radical wokeness calls us to resist not only external injustice, but also the temptation to replicate it in our own actions. Liberation is not built through hatred. Retaliation is not justice. Revenge is not healing. Heroism is not domination — it is the courage to protect without dehumanizing, to resist without becoming the mirror of oppression.

We affirm that loyalty to law or to orders does not absolve injustice. Law is not inherently moral. Orders are not inherently just. True justice demands discernment, conscience, and the courage to disobey injustice even when sanctioned by authority. Police work, military service, and systems of enforcement must be reimagined around de-escalation, preservation of life, and the rejection of cruelty as a tool of policy.

We recognize that many who serve in militaries or policing institutions do so out of love, duty, and sacrifice — but love must not blind us to the realities of systemic harm. The desire to serve and protect is real, but it is often exploited by systems that sustain injustice. No system that depends on killing or domination can be the foundation of a truly just society. Progress requires more than new rulers or new uniforms; it requires new values.

We affirm that disability is not tragedy, and that surviving violence, injury, or illness does not diminish a person’s worth. Mercy killing narratives are a profound betrayal of dignity and are an inherently ableist narrative, even when seemingly rooted in compassion. Every life altered by conflict deserves respect, support, and a future worth living — not erasure.

True courage is refusing to surrender our humanity even when violence tempts us. True strength is building a world where harm is no longer the default currency of power.

Justice Must Heal, Not Exploit

Radical wokeness affirms that true justice is rooted not in cruelty, but in healing — for victims, for communities, and for those who have caused harm. Modern prisons, as they exist today, are not merely sites of punishment; they are engines of economic exploitation, racialized oppression, and systemic despair. They sustain cycles of trauma rather than break them.

We reject the commodification of human beings through mass incarceration. Prisons today often function as legalized slavery, profiting off the labor, suffering, and disposability of marginalized populations. This is not justice; it is extraction.

We further affirm that the death penalty is an intolerable violation of human rights. No state or institution holds the moral authority to take life in the name of justice. The use of death as punishment does not heal wounds or restore dignity — it entrenches the same cruelty it claims to avenge. True justice values every life, even in the aftermath of great harm.

Radical wokeness demands the dismantling of exploitative incarceration systems and the full commitment to restorative and transformative justice practices. Justice must focus on reducing recidivism — not merely through punishment, but through genuine rehabilitation, community support, and the transformation of the conditions that lead to harm.

Accountability remains essential. Justice must honor the needs of victims for safety, recognition, and healing — without replicating cycles of vengeance or dehumanization. Justice must also uphold the humanity of those who have caused harm, affirming their right to change, to repair, and to be held accountable through compassionate, equitable processes.

We reject the false idea that fear of incarceration alone deters wrongdoing. When the cruelty of life outside prison mirrors or exceeds the cruelty inside it, punishment loses all deterrent effect. True deterrence comes not from fear, but from building a society where dignity, opportunity, and care are the norm — where survival does not require desperation or violence.

Radical wokeness affirms that true justice must be accessible to all people, in all contexts — criminal, civil, or otherwise. Every individual must have the right to fair legal representation without financial hardship or systemic barriers. The law must be understandable and navigable by ordinary people — not an obscure and inaccessible maze reserved only for professional lawyers. A just society ensures that those seeking fairness do not require wealth, privilege, or extraordinary sacrifice to pursue it.

A truly just world seeks to prevent harm, heal the wounds it creates, and dismantle the structures that fuel it. True justice restores. True justice redeems. True justice liberates.

Equity Is Not Charity — It Is Justice

Radical wokeness affirms that all people are born equally entitled to dignity, safety, freedom, and flourishing. No one’s worth is determined by the circumstances of their birth — not their wealth, their geography, or their privilege. Yet we are not born into equal conditions; history, violence, and systemic injustice have shaped uneven starting lines across the world.

Equity is not favoritism, nor is it reverse discrimination. It is the deliberate and necessary act of repairing injustice — of recognizing that fairness is not treating everyone identically when we know not everyone begins with the same opportunities.

We affirm that a just society does not scorn those who need more support. It does not blame those who carry heavier burdens. True justice lifts everyone — and works especially to ensure that those pushed down longest and hardest are no longer left behind.

We reject the idea that advantage, luck, or profitability makes anyone inherently more deserving of opportunity, comfort, or joy. Wealth and privilege are not evidence of merit; they are often accidents of history, often sustained by exclusion and exploitation.

Equity is not an obstacle to excellence. It is what creates the conditions for real excellence to emerge — ensuring that talent, effort, creativity, and compassion are not wasted by injustice.

Radical wokeness rejects tribalism and artificial divisions. We are not separate by accident of birth or border — every atom, every possible expression of life in the universe, is bound together in a shared story of survival, dignity, and care.

True liberation demands that we stop mistaking inequality for natural law. We must move beyond shallow "equality of opportunity" rhetoric, and instead build a future of equity of dignity: a world where every person has what they need to truly thrive, not just survive.

Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere

Radical wokeness understands that oppression is interconnected. Injustice against one group is injustice against all, and liberation for one must be liberation for all. We reject the idea that anyone can be truly free while others remain trapped in systems of violence, exclusion, exhaustion, and exploitation. Freedom built on the suffering of others is not freedom — it is domination by another name.

Radical wokeness calls for active, global solidarity. Solidarity that listens. Solidarity that uplifts. Solidarity that sacrifices convenience, comfort, and silence in order to stand beside and protect those most at risk. Solidarity that recognizes that the systems that harm one community are often the same systems that harm many others — and that standing apart only strengthens oppression.

Complacency in the face of one injustice is complicity in all. Silence is not neutrality. Discomfort is not oppression. Fighting injustice sometimes demands fierce disagreement — but true solidarity insists we resist in ways that protect dignity, minimize harm, and act with courage even when outcomes are uncertain. Justice is not served by reckless escalation, nor by fearful silence. It is built through bold, thoughtful action rooted in the dignity and survival of all — including the courage to stand up even when we are not asked to, when conscience demands we meddle to protect what is sacred.

Courage and Responsibility to Change

Radical wokeness demands not only awareness, but action — the willingness to transform ourselves and the world around us. Change is not easy, and it is not always safe. It often requires sacrifice, discomfort, and standing alone before others are ready to follow.

True justice demands the courage to change even when change feels overwhelming — to sit with big emotions rather than retreat, and to help others sit with theirs. It requires the strength to hold empathy and accountability at once: to understand why people resist growth, without excusing harm; to invite others forward, without abandoning those most at risk.

Radical wokeness affirms that kindness is not passivity. Kindness is a skill — an active practice of meeting discomfort with courage, meeting cruelty with boundaries, and meeting injustice with action. We must hone this skill every day.

We must believe in each other’s ability to grow. We must build scaffolds of hope sturdy enough for all to climb. We must stand — not because we know if we can or will win, but because standing is itself a victory of the human spirit.

Awareness is not enough. Activism requires action. Action requires not perfection, but persistent, courageous, collective motion toward liberation.

Final Closing

Radical wokeness does not offer easy paths or instant victories. It asks us to sit with hard truths, to bear witness to injustice, and to act even when action is slow, costly, or painful. It is not a brand. It is not a performance. It is a way of living — a stubborn, joyful, compassionate rebellion against cruelty.

We reject cynicism and cruelty disguised as humor or wisdom.
We reject comfort disguised as neutrality.
We reject hatred disguised as morality.

The rights of living beings to not be exploited must not be politicized.
There is no "agree to disagree" when it comes to dignity, safety, freedom, or survival.
No border, no accident of birth, no false division erases our shared needs as living beings.
Every atom, every possible expression of life in the universe, is braided together in the same story of survival, dignity, and care.

We affirm that society itself — the systems that feed us, house us, heal us, teach us, protect us, inspire us — exists to safeguard these rights, not to undermine them.
We affirm that society is not self-sustaining or inevitable. It must be engineered, maintained, defended, and evolved with fierce compassion — or it will decay into cruelty.
We are not just engineers of society; we are engineers of our own lives, designing systems of survival, growth, and care within ourselves.

When abusive systems stand in the way of justice, and clearly better alternatives are within reach, radical wokeness demands that we resist participation — and build something better. Loyalty to broken systems is not virtue. It is cowardice.

We affirm that rest is revolutionary. That joy is essential. That dreaming boldly — for ourselves, our communities, and for those not yet born — is a responsibility we all share.
We affirm that there is no virtue in suffering for its own sake. That engineering systems of care — medical, communal, personal — is humanity’s greatest achievement.

We affirm that humility is essential to justice. True liberation requires the courage to question even our own assumptions, to refine ideas collaboratively as a safeguard, and to prioritize learning over ego. There is no shame in asking for help, no failure in admitting uncertainty, no weakness in seeking to do better together.

We will not build endlessly for the sake of growth. We will not measure success by conquest or domination. We will measure success by the abundance of love, the health of the planet, the freedom of minds and bodies, and the dreams we entrust to those who come after us.

We travel not only across lands and stars — but across ages.

Radical wokeness demands that we act — not because it is easy, but because it is necessary.
Because dignity demands it.
Because hope demands it.
Because love demands it.

We are the stewards of tomorrow.
We are the architects of healing and solidarity.
We are the rebellion against cruelty — and the revolution for compassion.

We believe in each other.
We believe the future can be built.
We are building it — right now.

We are the builders of a new dawn, the fierce protectors of dignity, the caretakers of each other’s freedom. Now, friend, the choice stands before you. You must choose — and know that not choosing is itself a choice: a choice for passive inaction, a heart and mind that actively chooses silence in the face of suffering. Will you break free from a world built on domination, hierarchy, and hollow victories — and help forge a future where dignity uplifts all? Or will you turn away, leaving others to struggle and suffer, while the same broken game grinds onward, consuming even its winners in the end?

There are billions trapped in a rigged game of survival.
Radical wokeness is one path forward — a path that refuses cruelty, embraces care, and rebuilds hope from the ground up.

Liberation is not a destination we arrive at once and forever. It is a commitment we renew, again and again, across generations — a covenant of care written not in stone, but in living hearts.

The choice is yours. Choose wisely.

Public Dedication:

Radical Wokeness is dedicated to the public domain. No individual, organization, or government owns these ideas, principles, or documents. They are a gift to all living beings, offered without condition or restriction.

However, any use that seeks to weaponize these ideas for oppression, exploitation, or exclusion betrays their spirit — it is a violence against truth itself and a betrayal of good faith usage.

This work was created by an individual with the help of an LLM. I recognize that I stand not alone, but on the shoulders of every living organism and idea that came before me and currently co-exists with me today. I am not perfect. This is a best faith effort rooted to lift all people up, excluding none. I hope you find it inspirational and valuable to apply in your own life. Thank you.

Published under CC0 1.0 Universal — Creative Commons.

Today is National Coming Out Day! Anyone want to share their stories of being an LGBTQIA+ developer?

Sophie The Lionhart — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 16:59:57 +0000

As the title says, today, October 11th, is National Coming Out Day! Most of us are or know someone who is LGBTQIA+. Has anyone come out in the workplace or had their or a coworkers orientation or identity help better create a feature such as making more inclusive gender selectors or the like? Or does someone want to share a tale of what being an LGBTQIA+ engineer is like?

Whatever your orientation or identity, or whether you're an ally, I just want to say you are valid and belong!

Have a great National Coming Out Day!

Diversity and the tech meritocracy

Sophie The Lionhart — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 15:43:46 +0000

Yesterday here on dev.to Sarthak Sharma(sarthology) posted an article about Hong Kong needing our help. In the post he described also how the use of ISO 3166 can be used to push a political agenda. He also explains that he was made aware of this issue from his Taiwanese developer friend who is also a dev.to user.

Article No Longer Available

This got me thinking about a thing I read when I was doing research into hiring developers, and how the interview process and hiring decisions are made in a meritocratic way most places. Meritocracy being the idea of hiring based on one's achievements, knowledge, and demonstrated skills rather than based on who they know, bribery, or some other metric.

I can't find the thing I read at that time but it was about hiring for diversity and how it relates to meritocratic metrics. The article explained something along the lines of:

"If your organization only has one main demographic such as young white males, then your organization's view of what is a 'merit' will be skewed. Therefore hiring purely for diversity can realign the criteria for what is a merit into something more representative of reality."

That always stuck with me as something that really seemed true. However as a member of the main demographic here(young white male) I was unable to really imagine what some of those other merits could be. The post yesterday showed me a little insight though. Simply being from a foreign country or someone who exist between two cultures such as a Korean-American could provide similar insights as above.

I have a small list that I've thought of but would love to see more, or be told ideas on my list are wrong or discriminatory, or offensive!

Political things such as above that could make a bad or incorrect address form or push a possibly harmful agenda
LGBT issues that could push alienating gender selects or use non-inclusive language or the like
Various disabilities that could cause a UX that is unusable for a part of the population due to motor, visual, hearing or other impairments
Different cultural experiences that if known, would prevent offending a subset of customers, or maybe could tell you that some business initiative would not work because of the mindset of the people its targeting.

So I'm wanting to get feedback from the lovely community here, what are some diversity based merits that people don't think about? What are some examples you have from your own workplace where a person from a different background brought up a good point? Do you have examples where someone with a different background could have brought up a point if they were there?

Thanks for reading and I want to hear from you!

Alcohol and developer culture

Sophie The Lionhart — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 15:34:16 +0000

Hi there, I want to have a quick discussion my friends. Not looking to toot my own horn but, today marks two years sober for me. I think alcohol is a relatively un-discussed issue in the professional community, especially tech and startup culture.

A bit of a brief history on me, is that I used to be quite the drinker and alcoholic. I started drinking when I studied abroad in Korea, and kept it up when I came back. It caused me to lose my dream job and almost become homeless. I eventually got a job but still kept on drinking. I had a minor health scare and stopped drinking completely, that was two years ago.

Things are going well now. I quit smoking, got a better job, increased my skills a whole bunch, got a dog, and just all around am doing better! The increase in mental clarity and acuity from not drinking and smoking is insane. Its like I'm two times smarter almost!

However, I want to talk about alcohol in dev culture. From beer on tap in startups, to encouraging going out and getting plastered as 'team building', alcohol is very prevalent. All tech events seem to have beer in cans or bottles at a minimum. This doesn't bother me anymore, though it made not drinking difficult when starting out.

For the newly sober this can be a death sentence, and for the rest of us, its a minor worry.

"Will I be seen as an uncool prude if I don't go out and drink? Will people judge me?"

"Should I reveal my past drinking so that my coworkers keep me accountable?"

"Will my past drinking prevent a promotion or limit my career options?"

"Can I safely go to rehab without losing all my PTO or sick days, and have no one ask about it? I don't want everyone to know."

These are the kinds of questions some of us will ask ourselves. I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this, but I wish people would think more about the impact of alcohol culture in their companies. A lot of events will have some La Croix or soda, and that's great! However, it feel like a shitty consolation prize. The company "splurges" on the good beer, and you get a canned coca-cola. Maybe also "splurge" on the fancy sodas, or have a fancy mocktail, or something else at your event. This is also good for people who don't drink culturally such as Muslims, or who have other health issues.

Lastly I want to say to anyone who is struggling with alcohol here, feel free to reach out to me. I used mostly reddit.com/r/stopdrinking to stop, but also kept busy with meetups and video games. There's no one way to stop drinking, alcoholics anonymous, rehab facilities, retreats, SMART programs, whatever. Your doctor has loads of resources to help you, they won't judge you and will help you repair any damage you've done.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy some ice cream tonight for me! I for one, am not drinking.

Developers turn more than pizza and coffee into code, what do you consume to code

Sophie The Lionhart — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 15:51:12 +0000

The old adage goes, "A developer is a machine that takes in pizza and coffee, and outputs code.", and while that is a fun little quote, if it were the truth, most devs wouldn't live past 35.

Many of us are very busy little developers, and have trouble getting the time to grab breakfast or lunch, and an even harder time grabbing something that's good for the brain. So my question is, what are your go to foods for quick, no-time dev sessions? Also what techniques do you use to stay hydrated?