Hello Bohun and others,

I am writing this from north of the border, and although I am not a US citizen, the political activities of the US are certainly relevant to Canada. I believe that our social groups, including C4L, are forums through which we think through and enact political activity. I wish to articulate some of my thoughts in point-form to promote dialogue on a diverse perspective to the problems addressed in the re-iterated statement.

- Have there been recent incidents of "... bigotry, intolerance, hatred, harassment, and violence in Code4Lib" that warrant a re-iterated statement?

- What are C4L's desired outcomes of "diversity, equity, and inclusion", and will such a statement improve the attainment of such ends? Is the goal of C4L to promote "diversity, equity, and inclusion" within C4L, the software technology community at large, or beyond?

- What constitutes "bigotry, intolerance, hatred, harassment, and violence" is not always obvious, and often needs to be teased out through reasoned dialogue.

- If inclusion spans "all technologists", then excluding those who dissent or present points of view bordering on "bigotry, intolerance, hatred, harassment, and violence" will be silenced, and likely to (further) develop resentment and anger, leading to further division. Is it better to exclude such people through language as forcefully as possible, or promote an environment of reasoned dialogue and relating to the "other"? When people are silenced they may go underground, and is it better to be underground or in the open?

- Will this re-iterated statement promote self-monitoring and self-censorship and thereby decrease diversity, one of the primary values of C4L?

With regards,
matt
________________________________________
From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Kim, Bohyun <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2016 12:59
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Post-election statement draft - also waiting for merge

Apologies for forgetting the spell-check! I was typing too fast. Here is a version with less typos! : )

Under ordinary circumstances, there shouldn't be a great need for Code4Lib to reiterate our values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, this year's contentious election season followed by many appalling acts of hate around the country has left us with no choice but to re-affirm our unfaltering support and strong commitment to these fundamental values.

As technologists, we always look for ways to make things work better. We love efficiency; we love elegance; we aspire to be free of any pain point or bug in everything we design and build. But we do this not for the sake of efficiency, elegance, and our deeply-rooted desire to improve things. We do this for the sake of people. Our ultimate aspiration is to help people get things done with the tools we create with delight. For this, we try to understand our users with all their differences in race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, national or ethnic origin, language, socio-economic background, citizenship status, and more. This is why we rely on empathy as one of the most important guiding principles in all we do as technologists. Without our caring, our work as a developer, designer, information specialist, and IT professional would be missing its heart.

Code4Lib has a proud history of recognizing the lack of diversity in the technology sector as a serious problem and acting to address it head-on. In the Code4Lib community, diversity, equity, and inclusion are not mere words. They underpin all we do from Diversity Scholarships, Newcomer Dinner, Code of Conduct, to our decision regarding where to host our next Code4Lib conference. They represent and reflect our shared and cherished understanding that we always solve difficult problems better together.

As a community that deeply values diversity, equity, and inclusion, Code4Lib will always be a welcoming and safe community for all who are passionate about information and technology. Everyone in our community is valued and respected regardless of what they look like, what their faiths are, what disabilities they may have, how they identify their gender, who they love, where they come from, what language they speak, or where they live. There is no place for bigotry, intolerance, hatred, harassment, and violence in Code4Lib. Today, we stand together in our most forceful support for diversity, equity, and inclusion.



Thanks,
Bohyun


From: "Kim, Bohyun" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2016 at 12:40 PM
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Post-election statement draft - also waiting for merge

Hi all,

As promised, I issued a pull request with 5 files which includes my draft for the post-election statement from Code4Lib.

Someone who has the write access to the C4L repo in Github, please merge. You can see the files here.
https://github.com/code4lib/antiharassment-policy/pull/56/commits/452570ec38b7becafc766c57b8916fa0f9981803

My draft statement also below. You should be able to edit once merged. Thanks everyone for standing behind this idea!

Under ordinary circumstances, there shouldn't be a great need for Code4Lib to reiterate our values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, this year's contentious election season followed by many appaling acts of hate around the country has left us with no choice but to re-affirm our unfaltering support and strong committment to these fundamental values.

As technologists, we always look for ways to make things work better. We love efficiency; we love elegance; we aspire to be free of any pain point or bug in everything we design and build. But we do this not for the sake of efficiency, elegance, and our deeeply-rooted desire to improve things. We do this for the sake of people. Our ultimate aspiration is to help people get things done with the tools we create with delight. For this, we try to understand our users with all their differences in race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, national or ethnic origin, launguage, socio-economic background, citizenship status, and more. This is why we rely on emphathy as one of the most important guiding principles in all we do as technologists. Wihtout our caring, our work as a developer, designer, information specialist, and IT professional would be missing its heart.

Code4Lib has a proud history of recognizing the lack of diversity in the technology sector as a serious problem and acting to address it head-on. In the Code4Lib community, diversity, equity, and inclusion are not mere words. They underpin all we do from Diversity Scholarships, Newcomer Dinner, Code of Conduct, to our decision regarding where to host our next Code4Lib conference. They represent and reflect our shared and cherished understanding that we always solve difficult problems better together.

As a community that deeply values diviersity, equity, and inclusion, Code4Lib will always be a welcoming and safe community for all who are passionate about infromation and technology. Everyone in our community is valued and respected regardless of what they look like, what their faiths are, what disabilities they may have, how they identify their gender, who they love, where they come from, what language they speak, or where they live. There is no place for bigotry, intolerance, hatred, harrassment, and violence in Code4Lib. Today, we stand together in our most forceful support for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Thanks,
Bohyun

--
Bohyun Kim, MA, MSLIS
Associate Director for Library Applications and Knowledge Systems
University of Maryland, Baltimore | Health Sciences and Human Services Library
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | 410-706-0405