Kyle Kingsbury, im Internet auch bekannt unter dem Namen Aphyr, Schöpfer von Jepsen, Autor vieler herausragender technischer Analysen über verteilte Systeme (insbesondere Datenbanken), hat vor einigen Jahren eine Einführung in die Computerprogrammierung (mit Clojure) veröffentlicht und an deren Anfang dieses herzerwärmende “Manifest” gestellt:
Who is this guide for?
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are deeply rewarding fields, yet few women enter STEM as a career path. Still more are discouraged by a culture which repeatedly asserts that women lack the analytic aptitude for writing software, that they are not driven enough to be successful scientists, that it’s not cool to pursue a passion for structural engineering. Those few with the talent, encouragement, and persistence to break in to science and tech are discouraged by persistent sexism in practice: the old boy’s club of tenure, being passed over for promotions, isolation from peers, and flat-out assault. This landscape sucks. I want to help change it.
Women Who Code, PyLadies, Black Girls Code, RailsBridge, Girls Who Code, Girl Develop It, and Lambda Ladies are just a few of the fantastic groups helping women enter and thrive in software. I wholeheartedly support these efforts.
In addition, I want to help in my little corner of the technical community–functional programming and distributed systems–by making high-quality educational resources available for free. The Jepsen series has been, in part, an effort to share my enthusiasm for distributed systems with beginners of all stripes–but especially for women, LGBT folks, and people of color.
As technical authors, we often assume that our readers are white, that our readers are straight, that our readers are traditionally male. This is the invisible default in US culture, and it’s especially true in tech. People continue to assume on the basis of my software and writing that I’m straight, because well hey, it’s a statistically reasonable assumption.
But I’m not straight. I get called faggot, cocksucker, and sinner. People say they’ll pray for me. When I walk hand-in-hand with my boyfriend, people roll down their car windows and stare. They threaten to beat me up or kill me. Every day I’m aware that I’m the only gay person some people know, and that I can show that not all gay people are effeminate, or hypermasculine, or ditzy, or obsessed with image. That you can be a manicurist or a mathematician or both. Being different, being a stranger in your culture, comes with all kinds of challenges. I can’t speak to everyone’s experience, but I can take a pretty good guess.
At the same time, in the technical community I’ve found overwhelming warmth and support, from people of all stripes. My peers stand up for me every day, and I’m so thankful–especially you straight dudes–for understanding a bit of what it’s like to be different. I want to extend that same understanding, that same empathy, to people unlike myself. Moreover, I want to reassure everyone that though they may feel different, they do have a place in this community.
So before we begin, I want to reinforce that you can program, that you can do math, that you can design car suspensions and fire suppression systems and spacecraft control software and distributed databases, regardless of what your classmates and media and even fellow engineers think. You don’t have to be white, you don’t have to be straight, you don’t have to be a man. You can grow up never having touched a computer and still become a skilled programmer. Yeah, it’s harder–and yeah, people will give you shit, but that’s not your fault and has nothing to do with your ability or your right to do what you love. All it takes to be a good engineer, scientist, or mathematician is your curiosity, your passion, the right teaching material, and putting in the hours.
There’s nothing in this guide that’s just for lesbian grandmas or just for mixed-race kids; bros, you’re welcome here too. There’s nothing dumbed down. We’re gonna go as deep into the ideas of programming as I know how to go, and we’re gonna do it with everyone on board.
No matter who you are or who people think you are, this guide is for you.