Do Not Be the Oppressor: Unlocking the Power of Employee Resource Groups

“It’s not the ERG’s responsibility to keep telling stories you’ve already heard repeatedly.” —Dominique Hollins

I love that line. It gets to the heart of advocacy and activist burnout.

There are lots of stand out lines in this talk that resonate with my DEI experience:

“Show me the money, and I’ll show you the outcome.”

“How are you gonna drive a DEI strategy with absolutely nobody in place to maintain continuity and accountability?”

“If you don’t have a dedicated person, how do you further this work?”

“Are we perpetuating oppression among our own by only focusing on our needs?”

“Don’t perpetuate oppression.”

“Prioritize the most marginalized, and we’ll all rise together.”

“To not have conversations because they make you uncomfortable is the definition of privilege. Your comfort is not at the center of this discussion.” —Brené Brown

“Every person who is struggling right now does not have the luxury to wait. We are literally dying.”

“Do not be the oppressor. You are perpetuating the pain.”

Motivating developers to care about the edges is exhausting work.

I got feedback this week that we should have written the GitHub issues differently. I was told we should have explained more why they are an issue, so that the developers are more motivated to solve them.

Source: I have resigned as the WordPress accessibility team lead. Here is why. – Rian Rietveld

Motivating developers to care about the edges is exhausting work.