---
# System prepended metadata

title: Friday's Statement

---

# Friday's Statement

As an organisation, we recognise that the space we have provided for learning has not been safe and supportive for everyone.

The expectations we set during the course have lacked the clarity required to ensure our goals of providing this space are met. Founders and Coders should be creating a space that reflects our goal for the tech industry.

We'd like to make our expectations clearer and we'd like you to bear with us while we get our messaging clear. Please be understanding of thinking of others and their space in the meantime.

We understand that we should have brought this up earlier and our negligence has affected your experience as part of this cohort.

> [name=Yvonne] (quoted by Oli) We _said_ we wanted to help marginalised people into the tech industry; we _said_ that we wanted you to prioritise collaborative learning, but we never gave guidance on how to achieve that.
> 
> We want to grow together
> 
> FAC is an iterative process. Each cohort builds on the last.

> [name=Oli] For example we created a gender-imbalanced cohort even though our goal is to correct this problem in the tech industry.

We feel that the code of conduct discussion last week devolved [degenerated?] into something potentially harmful and unconstructive.

> [name=Oli] Founders and Coders should be creating a space that reflects our goal for the tech industry.

> [name=Yvonne (I didn't realize this is hw you do this)] We recognise now that while we still want the cohort to shape their own experiences, some things (like providing a safe space to learn) shouldn't be the cohort's responsibility to create (or something more eloquent)

## Framing

We should have given better guidance from the start of the course. This is the initial version of something that will be presented in the first week. It's also important to reiterate this at the beginning of the group projects part of the course.
  
## Definitions

### Harm

Harm is damage you cause someone. It doesn't necessarily mean physical damage (although that is very serious). We're also talking about emotional harm (taking action that makes someone feel bad). It can even mean hurting someone's opportunities in their profession or education. For example creating a hostile work environment where someone doesn't feel comfortable can impact their performance, which can have negative economic outcomes for them.

### Microaggression

Small instances of harm that don't seem important in isolation but add up for the person on the receiving end. Can lead to observers thinking that person is overreacting when they only see the final thing that tips them over the edge.

For example in some professional settings women are at least 50% more likely to be interrupted while speaking. Being interrupted once is annoying, but to an outside observer doesn't warrant an overt angry reaction. However from the woman's perspective this might be the 10th time they've been interrupted that week. The otherwise innocuous events add up to a greater whole, and can lead to a (justified) outburst.

### Privilege

An unearned benefit or advantage someone receives because of their identity. This depends on the society you are in. For example in a historically patriarchal society where men occupied most positions of power and authority being male confers a certain amount of (unearned) privilege.

You may benefit from the inherent unfairness in your society in explicit ways (e.g. allowed to donate blood if you're straight). You may also benefit in smaller ways, like not experiencing daily microaggressions that make you feel like you don't belong.

It's (very) important to note that it's possible (and likely) to have one kind of privilege but lack privilege in other areas. This is why intersectionality is important.

### Intersectionality

This is related to the idea of privilege. Different parts of an individual's identity overlap and lead to specific types of systemic oppression and discrimination. You may be privileged in some areas (e.g. male) but not in others (e.g. working class).

A lack of understanding about the intersectionality of privileged is often used against us. For example White supremacy deliberately uses race to divide the working class and drum up support for racist/nationalist policy.

---

## FAC19 specific

Women don't feel comfortable learning in the environment we've created. They feel like the men are taking up too much space. This is reflected in a few places. The clearest is the questions and engagement at the end of workshops—almost all questions are asked by men.

### React Week project pairs

It's unhelpful to say "the women picked other women as partners too". The women are a minority on the course and were already feeling left out in group situations. If they made a conscious choice to pick partners they felt they could learn more effectively and safely with that's ok.

### #notallmen

When a woman makes a general observation about patterns of behaviour they have observed try not to take that as a personal attack. Maybe you never contribute to that pattern of behaviour (in which case great, let's work together to find a solution). However it's more likely that you never _intend_ to engage in that behaviour, but end up doing it anyway because of societal norms etc.

Making personal excuses reframes the discussion to be about you and your own feelings instead of being about the marginalised people who have raised concerns.

### Intent

Intent doesn't matter. If you hurt someone you hurt them. If you didn't do it on purpose that's great in that it means you aren't a bad person, but you still caused harm.

We're asking you to work against strongly ingrained societal/cultural programming. It's not _your fault_ if you have an inclination to confidently speak your mind and expect to get your way in group settings. However you are still responsible for the harm that may cause to others in the group.

It's important for you to work against your natural inclinations once you've been told that they are causing harm to others.

### Allyship

_Saying_ you're an ally is much easier than being one. Being a good ally is an _active_ role. You are not an ally merely by holding the right beliefs. Being an ally requires hard work and introspection.

Amplification is a useful technique: if you notice a marginalised person has been interrupted, dismissed or otherwise not listened to, repeat their point and credit it to them. You don't have to call out the person that interrupted, just leverage your privilege to redirect attention back to the marginalised person.

---

_Reverse-isms aren't a thing_.

<!--
Dunno if this fits anywhere, was just dumping thoughts

You may be able to be dispassionate and logical because you are disconnected personally from the issue. Do not dismiss the experiences and opinions of those who are angry merely because of their tone.
-->

> Afrotech Fest prioritises marginalised people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. Festival staff reserve the right not to act on complaints regarding:

> - ‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’
> - Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”
> - Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial
> - Criticising racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behaviour or assumptions
> 



---

> [name=D Sofer] 
>  
> ### My slide(s)?:
> - In any group, those in a minority may end up being marginalised. Specifically, women, who are over half the population, make up under 15% of all software developers in the UK (according to [the ONS](https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/datasets/aps168/reports/employment-by-occupation?compare=K02000001)).
> 
> - At Founders and Coders, we like to think that we are addressing marginalisation in tech, but we cannot do so by recreating that same pattern of under-representation.
> 
> - Every one of you on this course is here on merit, but it was careless of us to put together a cohort with a male majority without clearly thinking through how that might affect you all as a group.
> 
> ### For later:
> - Meanwhile, and for the rest of this course, we recommend the following guidelines:
> - To the men, in any Q&A please do not put up your hand until a woman has had a chance to speak.
> - To everyone, please limit yourself to one question per talk or workshop.
> - to everyone, try hard not to interrupt others
> - To everyone, be mindful about the amount of time you spend talking
> > Can anyone think of any other practical guidance that will not come over as too preachy or accusatory?
> > 
> > Perhaps we can each take it in turns to represent different slides tomorrow.
> 
> ~~On the front-page, change:
> 
> *"Founders and Coders CIC is a UK-based nonprofit that develops and runs tuition-free, peer-led training programmes in web development, guided by our core values of cooperation, inclusion and social impact."*
> 
> to:
> 
> *"Founders and Coders runs tuition-free, majority-female training programmes in software development, guided by our core values of cooperation, inclusion and social impact."*
>
> Add to our FAQs:
> 
> *"Why are your training programmes 'majority-female'?*
> *"In any group, those in a minority may end up being marginalised. Specifically, although they make up over half the population of the UK, under 15% of all software developers are women (according to [the ONS](https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/datasets/aps168/reports/employment-by-occupation?compare=K02000001)). Our courses are open to everyone who wants to help address this disparity and we seek to create an environment where all those from under-represented groups will have a place."*~~
> 

---