Christopher Allan Webber

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White Male "Allies" Have Surprisingly Little To Say About Fixing Sexist Tech Culture

Writeup of the super weirdly assembled "male allies" panel at Grace Hopper Conference that included GoDaddy's CEO. Yes, GoDaddy's CEO on a panel about male allies.

Or rather that is: the panel was, conceptually, weird. But once on stage, looks like it was as bad as expected.

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Before misunderstanding sets in: male allies of course good (apparent mainsplaining feminism panel: bad). Instead, support something sane like the Ada Initiative ally skills workshop.

Christopher Allan Webber at 2014-10-09T23:43:37Z

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"Men who want to help need to get the hell out of our way, basically."

This kind of thing isn't constructive.

Benjamin Cook at 2014-10-10T00:10:55Z

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Do you know if anyone "followed the money" here? This panel seems oddly constructed to include key companies that sponsor the event. That seems corrupt.

Bradley M. Kuhn at 2014-10-10T16:38:43Z

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I didn't put this part in my main blog post on the subject, but I'm reminded that the summer reading for my British Literature class in high school included the Hunt for Red October.

Interstingly enough, Tom Clancey was an alumnus of my high school and a major donor. But he is certainly not British.

Bradley M. Kuhn at 2014-10-10T17:19:13Z

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