CSG-Ed Resources for Further Reflection on Diversity and its Role in Computing

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd (a 46 year old black man) died while handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin. The incident was recorded by a bystander and the video footage went viral. In the days following Floyd’s death protests erupted around the country and the world. Many protests have turned violent and the National guard have been called out in 21 states 1.

With such protests, which continue daily through the time of this posting, in the background, many have taken this time to reflect upon the past injustices, the current realities and whether, to what extent and in what ways such injustices remain systemic in all facets of our lives.

As computing organizations and institutions throughout the country grapple with the issues brought to a head by the recent protests, CSG-ED wanted to support such reflections and conversations by providing some resources to its practitioners and members.

The following is a list of links to publicly available resources. This list was compiled by some of our CSG-Ed members. The list is grouped by resource type. The list is not exhaustive and does not include every perspective or approach to said topics. We encourage you to use this list as you see fit. If there are additional resources that you feel would be beneficial to share with CSG-Ed, we’d love to hear about them. Please email our webmaster at csgedsteercomm@gmail.com . Include CSG-ED Resources in your subject-line.

Books:

Race After Technology – R. Benjamin (2019)

Algorithms of Oppression – S. Noble (2018)

Black Software – C. McIlwain (2019)

Grading for Equity – J. Feldman (2019)

White Fragility Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, – R. DiAnjelo (2018)

Race on the Brain: What Implicit Bias Gets Wrong About the Struggle for Racial Justice – Jonathan Kahn (2017)

Implicit Bias in Schools – Gina Laura Gullo,, Kelly Capatosto,, Cheryl Staats (2019)

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do -Jennifer L Eberhardt (2020)

Non-Violent Communication – Rosenberg (2015)

Dignity – Diane Hicks (2013)

Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain – Zaretta Hammond (2015)

Blog Posts/Articles:

HOW WE NEED TO CHANGE FOR MORE INCLUSIVE AND OPEN PUBLICATION PRACTICES – Julie Williamson (2020)

A Letter to my White Male Friends of a Certain Age – Dax-Devlon Ross (2020)

CS Teachers its (Past) Time to Learn about Race – Mark Guz Dial (2020)

How to make a racist AI without really trying – Robyn Speer (2017)

Data science, ethics, and the ‘massive scumbags’ problem – Stilgherrian (2019)

5 Steps to take as an Anti-Racist Data Scientist – Emily Hadley (2020)

How to Be an Anti-Racist – Ibram Kendi’s (2019)

95 things that White people can do for racial justice – Corinne Shutack’s (initially posted 2017, updated regularly)

Websites with Resources, Action Steps and Support to discuss difficult topics

https://implicit.harvard.edu/ has tests that you can take (kind of fun and game like) that help to reveal implicit bias in various categories.

center for nonviolent communication. These folks have written numerous books and articles on conflict resolution, how to have difficult conversations that are productive and how to speak to one another without violence.

Just Peace on how to build a container for conversation.

CrisisGuidelines – Juan E. Gilbert

National Conflict Resolution Center

B-Corp’s list of resources

CMD-IT supports the Call to Action to the Computing Community from Black in Computing and Allies The open letter provides an excellent list of actionable items for individuals, organizations, and communities.

Share your story, written or video. We welcome anonymous sharing. Our goal is to share our stories on the CMD-IT website to raise our voices about racial injustices experienced by many in the Black community. It is also a teachable moment and provides education to those that want to understand the detriment of racism in society.

Ted Talks on Diversity Issues

Amal Awad: Moving beyond the token minority | TED Talk

The untapped genius that could change science for the better

Rocío Lorenzo: How diversity makes teams more innovative | TED Talk

Joy Buolamwini: How I’m fighting bias in algorithms | TED Talk

What baby boomers can learn from millennials at work — and vice versa

Computing Groups

There are numerous computing societies and professional groups geared towards a variety of interests and audiences. Such groups may have their own resources and support. There is likely a local group in your area. If you need help or want recommendations contact csgedsteercomm@gmail.com

Spark a Discussion

Reading current events or other fact-based resources with others can spark a discussion about these issues. Two examples of such sources are below:

News Article

The Computer Got It Wrong’: How Facial Recognition Led To False Arrest Of Black Man

Bureau of Labor and Statistics Demographics in Computing

Bureau of Labor and Statistics on Computing Profession (tables below taken from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, but cut to show relevant pieces).

HOUSEHOLD DATA

ANNUAL AVERAGES

11. Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity

[Numbers in thousands]

Occupation

2019

Total

employed

Percent of total employed

Women

White

Black or

African

American

Asian

Hispanic

or Latino

Computer and mathematical occupations

5,352

25.8

65.7

8.7

23.1

7.8

Computer and information research scientists

–

Computer systems analysts

663

40.1

67.8

9.7

20.3

8.3

Information security analysts

125

17.1

74.6

16.6

7.6

12.9

Computer programmers

454

20.3

67.8

8.5

21.8

8.7

Software developers, applications and systems software

1,815

18.7

54.0

5.8

37.7

5.1

Web developers

193

41.4

77.6

6.7

12.0

4.6

Computer support specialists

547

26.4

74.2

10.5

12.7

11.3

Database administrators

106

30.2

72.0

6.8

16.7

6.2

Network and computer systems administrators

199

26.1

77.2

9.7

11.7

8.5

Computer network architects

106

9.2

76.1

13.1

10.3

14.1

Computer occupations, all other

808

23.6

70.5

12.7

14.1

9.7

Actuaries

–

Mathematicians

–

Operations research analysts

152

42.7

80.5

6.8

8.3

9.7

Statisticians

101

52.4

69.6

8.2

21.1

7.7

Miscellaneous mathematical science occupations

–

NOTE: Estimates for the above race groups (White, Black or African American, and Asian) do not sum to totals because data are not presented for all races. Persons whose ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of

January data. Dash indicates no data or data that do not meet publication criteria (values not shown where base is less than 50,000).9