I just returned from Netroots Nation 2015 in Phoenix, AZ.
NN15 became notable for the Black Lives Matter disruption of the Presidential Town Hall on Saturday. That has been diaried aplenty and my opinions about it sprinkled about the comment threads. I won't really be talking about that.
What I do want to speak about, from my personal filtering of the conference, is the issue of diversity. According to the NN website, 62% of speakers were people of color and 63% of speakers/moderators were women. Of course, there may have been changes to these numbers at the actual conference, since participation always shifts.
In any event, this isn't a defense or critique of NN's commitment to inclusion. Rather, my intention is to consider what happens when an attendee FILTERS FOR DIVERSITY at a conference. Full disclosure: I was a (white female) moderator of a panel in the new Music Track programming at NN15, and this is the track I want to discuss.
Follow me below the desert-sun-baked curlycue.
Okay, now that we're past that blast of Phoenix heat, let me tell you about my NN experience. You can see what it looked like, too.
As always, national conferences are a 15-ring circus. At any given time slot, you have about 15 things you can choose to attend, with the 16th being something off the program like personal networking, caffeine-refilling, or cruising the tables in the town hall for free mini chocolates. There are lots of tools in the website that let you filter your choices, but "diversity" isn't one of the menu selections. However, my interests led me to panels/presentations/events that were at least as diverse as the official NN advertised diversity: about 62% POC, 82% women, and 25% LGBTQ (self-identified in the panels; probably higher number). And while I don't know the panelist's ages, my guess is that they represented about 90% under the age of 50, if not a higher percentage.
To recap, my self-selected environment at NN15 was approximately 60% people of color, 82% women, 25% LGBTQ, and 90% younger than myself. The audiences at these panels looked to fall into similar demographics, with perhaps an even higher percentage of POC. And it was amazing.
So how did I do this? I followed my interests, and my interests are about arts, activism, and empowering creativity. That led me to the new Music Track, which was announced last year to debut this year. Here is how NN billed the new Music Project last October.
As I mentioned, I did participate myself in a Music Track panel. However, I attend Music Track panels because the content was challenging and compelling, and involved the people who are on the ground, in the streets, embedded in communities, who are doing vibrant, creative and diverse work that empowers just the demographics that organizers want to empower: young people, poor people, people of color. The first music track panel, "People's Climate March: Music and Art in service of social movements," was so good I came back for the next: "You don’t have to know Jay-Z: Activating untapped networks of artists." I was hooked.
So perhaps when you're seeking diversity at a national conference, you should travel to panels that include artists, musicians, writers, poets. Of course, women and people of color are experts in every area of human endeavor, and we need to see them as the keynote speakers and moderators and panelists in every topic, workshop, panel, training session. But also consider that if you're at a conference that publishes diversity inclusion at over 50%, and when you look at the panel presenters you don't see diversity inclusion at over 50%, perhaps you should discover where the diversity lies and attend those panels too.
My personal experience at NN was filled with "non-dominant" voices: the people in the panels, the people in the audience, all having a conversation. That was my bubble, and when I did pop out of it to attend keynote addresses, I saw a much older, whiter crowd. And when the Black Lives Matter protestors took the stage at the Presidential Forum, everyone, regardless of their personal filter, had to confront the activists' (in my opinion) justified demands that the people in power and the audience leave their bubble and confront one of the most urgent issues facing that community of color.
My sense is that while NN works to increase the diversity of people presenting, there needs to also be work to increase the diversity of people attending. I know there are scholarships and other opportunities to defray costs. It is expensive. The conference itself, travel, lodging, food. NN is in St. Louis next summer. What is being done to be sure young people of color from across the country can attend?