privilege – Terence Eden’s Blog

Check your biographic privilege

@edent — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 11:01:51 +0000

A friend and I were having a good old grouch-and-moan session over a couple of beers. We were being snide and petty about all the people who'd ticked us off that week.

"And another thing!" I proclaimed, "Have you seen their Twitter bio? It's all 'Forbes 30-under-30' and 'Global Speaker' and 'Best Selling Author'! Bah! Why can their bio just say 'I like cheese!'?"

My friend took a glug of beer. And said he agreed with me - and that made him feel bad.

We're a pair of straight-white-cis-posh-sounding men. We're festooned with privilege. The person we were discussing, bluntly, is not.

When we walk into a room, we're judged in one way. When our frenemy makes a first impression, it's often under different circumstances.

I can get away with my Twitter bio saying I'm a "Digital Idiot". When people see my scruffy beard and stained t-shirt, they think "Ah! A real geek. He must know what he's talking about!"

That's not a privilege granted to everyone.

Of course, there are competing tensions at play. British culture values self-depreciation. American culture places huge emphasis on self-confidence. The Kiwis call it "Tall Poppy Syndrome". I think it's best illustrated in this gif showing the difference between British and American athletes.

I remember, a couple of years ago, witnessing a small revolution on Twitter. A bunch of academic women realised that they were avoiding using their earned title of "Doctor" in their Twitter bios - and then made sure to correct that.

My friend was much more eloquent at explaining this than I have been in this blog post. But the point is that some people have to be relentlessly self-promoting.

The shield of privilege may not be available to them; it is absolutely right that they make sure everyone knows that they have the right to be taken seriously.

Scruffiness Privilege

@edent — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 17:24:13 +0000

When I was at school, we had to wear a uniform. Black trousers, white shirt, brown blazer, brown tie. Coincidentally, it was more-or-less the same uniform as the local supermarket.

On the last day of school, I ripped off my tie and vowed never to wear one again. And, aside from the occasional wedding and funeral, I've kept my promise.

Which leads me to this 100% true story.

I work with computers. It is an in-demand profession and I'm pretty good at it. So much so that I can turn up to work in jeans and a free hackathon t-shirt, sporting ridiculous facial hair, and still get paid. I've been told - several times - "you look like a real hacker! I wouldn't be able to wear that in the office! Hahaha!"

As the old meme goes: (Actually that's a journalist who wrote a book about not shaving.)

But, of course, not everyone can grow a beard as fabulous as mine. Some disadvantaged people can't grow any beard at all!!!

Some people dress-down and then get stopped by security when they try to enter the building. Or, worse, have authorities think they're a ne'er-do-well.

Some people in the computer industry need to dress for the job they have because, otherwise, no one takes them seriously.

As a kid, I used to argue that school uniforms were inhumane. Now I see that they do a very good job of erasing some of the sartorial choices that only the privileged have. Sure, there were rich kids and poor kids at my school. But money simply can't buy you a better class of crappy brown blazer.

Recently I argued that schools could at least do away with ties. No one wears a tie for work any more, right?! Turns out I was wrong. Lots of people have to make an effort to look smart for their job. Weird.

So what am I getting at? I'm not saying that scruffy devs should get a shave and a proper suit. Nor that there's a right or wrong way to dress for work.

You can computer in a Vera Wang dress just as well an old Nirvana t-shirt.

If you think that someone doesn't look like a real hacker because of the clothes they wear, or the colour of their hair, GTFO.

I don't have an email address - so what?

@edent — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 08:45:58 +0000

Is email dead? I don't think so - but I know lots of people who either don't have an email account or deliberately don't check it. And why should they? Is email a requirement for modern life?

All the major chat apps - WhatsApp, Line, Signal, Wire, Skype - only require a mobile phone number. Hey presto I can communicate with anyone around the world. No email required.

But, suppose I wish to engage in a more public social network - can I do that without an email address? Absolutely!

The two big social platforms on the web - Facebook and Twitter - know that not everyone has an email address.

Once you have one of those accounts, you can use it to sign in to a multitude of different online properties. They are gateways for people without email.

Wikipedia requires neither email nor phone if you want an account there.

Conversely, you must have an email address to use Yahoo (flickr & tumblr) and Google (YouTube).

Why the discrepancy? Obviously it is because Google and Yahoo make money from people having email addresses, not for any technical or sociological reason.

Want to improve your job prospects? LinkedIn isn't perfect, but that's where the traffic is. And you'll need an email address to sign up.

Want to buy stuff? Amazon requires an email. Whereas AliExpress will let you sign up with Facebook.

In the mood for love? Tinder and OK Cupid allow social sign in - whereas Gridnr assumes every gay man has email. I wonder why that is?

I can get onto StackOverflow without an email address - but not GitHub. All the webhosts I could find required an email. PayPal has some great mobile payment options, but won't let you sign up without email.

Every UK bank requires an email address if you want to sign up online.

If you want to watch the BBC's iPlayer - you'll need an email address.

Large swathes of modern life are predicated on the user having access to email. I think that's a problem.

Saving Money

Most utilities in the UK will give you a discount if you want paperless billing. Rather than posting you out a statement each month, they email you a statement or reminder to check your online account.

This is, effectively, a tax on the technically illiterate. If you can't afford a computer or have low IT skills, then you pay more for your gas, water, and electricity.

There's no technical reason why online billing can't be conducted without an email address.

Take a look at your wallet. Is there any reason why your public transport smartcard account needs an email address? Or your store loyalty cards? Or your library card?

Universal Communications

Email is a small subset of Internet communications. Statistics are hard to verify, but there are around 1.5 billion users of email - by contrast there are 2.8 billion users of the Internet.

Half of the online world doesn't use email. Even in the UK, around 7% of online users don't use email. Of those that do use email, around 6% check their email less than every 3 months.

Standards

As I've mentioned before, smartphones are dirt cheap and free WiFi is plentiful in most urban areas. At a lower level, dumb phones are virtually free, and there's no cost for receiving SMS.

But there is a communications imbalance here. Receiving SMS is free - sending SMS costs money. Perhaps only fractions of a penny per message, but it is still more costly than email.

There's also the issue of interoperability. Email is an open standard - anyone can set up a server and send messages to users. Most messaging apps aren't like that. There's no messaging API for WhatsApp. Some platforms have (weak) support for "bots" which can react to a user's question and, in some cases, send messages directly to them.

Would you like to get your water bill via a Facebook message? Perhaps not - but for millions of people it is their preferred comms platform. For many, it is their only platform.

Why should they be forced into using email?

Thoughts

I'm not saying that you shouldn't ask for an email address at sign up. What I am saying is that requiring an email address deliberately excludes lots of people from your service.

Things to consider:

Do I need to communicate with the user?
- If so, is email the only way to do that?
Will it matter if the user loses access to this specific account?
- What are the different ways to recover access to an account?
Are there better ways to send a notification?
- Which notifications do users actively want?
Should users be expected to make urgent decisions based on my communications?
- Not everyone checks mail instantly. Is that a problem?
Is the literacy level of the audience sufficient to understand long communications?
- Does your message need to be anything more than "Your water bill this month is £12.34"?
How do you engender trust in your messaging?
- Email is full of spam and scams - can you avoid that with an alternative communications platform?

There is a world beyond email.

You can text - or email - the author using http://edent.tel/

Nelson Mandela says "Check Your Privilege"

@edent — Sat, 14 Dec 2013 11:30:14 +0000

During my commute home I like to listen to podcasts. The London School of Economics has a regular lecture series which it is gracious enough to record and podcast.

The lectures are consistently interesting - although of inconsistent audio quality - and offer a fascinating glimpse into the minds of its speakers.

Last night, the crackly audio gave way to a familiar voice; Nelson Mandela.

In this lecture from April 2000, Mandela talks about how people should comment on and judge African leaders.

One of the key point that he makes is that leaders like him came from a family with no history of education. He went to school hungry and unable to concentrate. The schooling he received was not in a fully equipped classroom, nor did he have dedicated teachers. Crucially, the language of education was not the same language as he spoke at home.

To me, it's almost the perfect "check your privilege" to journalists, world leaders, and anyone watching.