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2023-04-24-Who-leads-us.md (5170B)

---
title: Who should lead us?
date: 2023-04-24
---
Consider these two people, each captured in the midst of delivering a technical
talk.
<div class="images">
  <img src="https://l.sr.ht/AB9J.jpg" alt="A picture of a young trans woman in a red dress" />
  <img src="https://l.sr.ht/uI9v.jpg" alt="A picture of a middle-aged white man in a red shirt" />
</div>
<style>.images { display: flex; }</style>
Based on appearances alone, what do you think of them?
The person on the left is a woman. She's also pretty young, one might infer
something about her level of experience accordingly. I imagine that she has led
a much different life than I have, and may have a much different perspective,
worldview, identity, and politics than I. Does she complain about sexism and
discrimination in her work? Is she a feminist? Does she lean left or right on
the political spectrum?
The person on the right looks like most of the hackers I've met. You've met
someone who looks like this a thousand times. He is a man, white and middle-aged
-- that suggests a fair bit of experience. He probably doesn't experience or
concern himself with race or gender discrimination in the course of his work. He
just focuses on the software. His life experiences probably map relatively well
onto my own, and we may share a similar worldview and identity.
Making these assumptions is a part of human nature -- it's a useful shortcut in
many situations. But they are assumptions based only on appearances. What are
the facts?
The person on the right is Scott Guthrie, Vice President of Cloud and AI at
Microsoft, giving a talk about Azure's cloud services. He lives in an $11M house
in Hunts Point, Washington. On the left is Alyssa Rosenzweig, main developer for
the free software Panfrost GPU drivers and a trans woman, talking about how she
reverse engineers proprietary graphics hardware.
You and I have a lot more in common with Alyssa than with Scott.  The phone I
have in my pocket right now would not work without her drivers. Alyssa humbles
me with her exceptional talent and dedication, and the free software community
is indebted to her. If you use ARM devices with free software, you owe something
to Alyssa. As recently as February, her Wikipedia page was vandalized by someone
who edited "she" and "her" to "he" and "him".
Appearances should not especially matter when considering the merit of someone
considered for a leadership role in our community, be it as a maintainer,
thought leader, member of our foundations' boards, etc. I am myself a white man,
and I think I perform well in my leadership roles throughout the free software
ecosystem. But it's not my appearance that causes any controversy: someone with
the approximate demographic shape of myself or Guthrie would cause no
susurration when taking the stage.
It's those like Alyssa, who aside from anything else is eminently qualified and
well-deserving of her leadership role, who are often the target of ire and
discrimination in the community. This is an experience shared by many people
whose gender expression, skin color, or other traits differ from the "norm".
They've been telling us so for years.
Is it any wonder that our community is predominantly made up of white
cisgendered men when anyone else is ostracized? It's not because we're
predisposed to be better at this kind of work. It's patently absurd to suppose
that hackers whose identities and life experience differ from yours or mine
cannot be good participants in and leaders of our movement. In actual fact,
diverse teams produce better results. While the labor pool is disproportionately
filled with white men, we can find many talented hackers who cannot be described
as such. If we choose to be inspired by them, and led by them, we will discover
new perspectives on our software, and on our movement and its broader place in
the world. They can help us create a safe and inviting space for other talented
hackers who identify with them. We will be more effective at our mission of
bringing free software to everyone with their help.
Moreover, there are a lot of damned good hackers who don't look like me, and I
would be happy to follow their lead regardless of any other considerations.
The free software ecosystem (and the world at large) is not under threat from
some woke agenda -- a conspiracy theory which has been fabricated out of whole
cloth. The people you fear are just people, much like you and I, and they only
want to be treated as such.  Asking them to shut up and get in line, to suppress
their identity, experiences, and politics, to avoid confronting you with
uncomfortable questions about your biases and privileges by way of their
existence alone -- it's not right.
Forget the politics and focus on the software? It's simply not possible. Free
software *is* politics. Treating other people with respect, maturity, and
professionalism, and valuing their contributions at any level, including
leadership, regardless of their appearance or identity -- that's just part of
being a good person. *That* is apolitical.
---
*Alyssa gave her blessing regarding the use of her image and her example in this
post. Thanks!*