[IAEP] Code of Conduct Motion to add Anti-harassment policy - Sugar Labs

[James Cameron]

Long reply.

I'm very familiar with the geek feminism team and the conference
anti-harassment policy, as I've been a regular speaker at
linux.conf.au.  I support the work of the geek feminism team.  For my
part, two of my friends who are female are part of the overall geek
feminism movement.  The conference policy is essential.  I support the
policy itself, but I don't think Sugar Labs needs it yet.

I'm also familiar with abuse and harassment policies in general, as
I've been studying and implementing them as part of another
organisation.  Earlier this week 130 or so pages of canon law passed
my eyes.

Walter asked Laura why existing code of conduct is insufficient;
perhaps another way of asking why the policy would be needed.  At time
of my writing, Laura hasn't answered.  I look forward to an answer.

For my part, I guess there are two possible scenarios, and which is
correct I cannot be sure.  Perhaps none, perhaps one, perhaps both.

1.  a misunderstanding.

Since almost everything here in Sugar Labs mailing lists is in
English, and there is no independent third party doing translation,
any non-english speaker is obliged to manage their own translation,

Laura says english is not her first language.  So everything I say has
to be translated.  When translating there are a choice of
interpretations.  English has several meanings.

This risks an uncharitable translation, which may result in silently
taking offense, which may set a person against me.

This in turn increases the probability of the next translation being
uncharitable, caused now by a decision to act against all my
interests, despite some interests being held in common.

A positive feedback loop begins, with each communication raising the
ire of each participant.  This may partly explain my stress and tears
in the design meeting; I felt I wasn't listened to, as if a prejudice
had already built to the point of deafness.

For my part, I hope Sebastian isn't the translator.  If so, I'm
doomed.  ;-)

2.  side attack.

A less charitable interpretation is that Laura is searching around for
procedural weapons to use against me, which in itself is a form of
abuse.  This seems less likely now than a misunderstanding, because it
would be such an unwise thing to do.  Laura should not be the one to
propose this motion, because it could look like an attack.  Laura
might instead have asked another to propose it, or the motion could
have been private to slobs at .  It can only be an attack on me if it is
copied to iaep at .


Summary

The proposed policy is not needed, because the code of conduct already
includes a summary form, and says the oversight board will arbitrate.
The oversight board is the response team, and reports would be private
to them.

(As an aside, If I had approached the board alleging harassment under
the code of conduct, I would have written to the board without
including anyone involved in the abuse or harassment.  If Laura had
approach the board alleging harassment under the code of conduct, the
board would have to acknowledge and then discuss without including
Laura.  The proposed policy identifies the same difficulty with the
response team.)

The proposed policy is unsustainable, because we have so few active
people in Sugar Labs.  With GCI and GSoC inactive, most posts are from
myself, Laura, or the oversight board.  It is unlikely there would be
agreement on making a separate response team, and the confidential
nature of the response team would make it hard for them to manage
communication.

Alternatives

However, I welcome any independent third party to assist Laura and
myself to be more charitable in our translations and interpretations,
and defuse what might be seen as mutual harassment born from
misunderstanding.  Others have become silent instead.

As Sugar Labs is so small, I don't expect an independent third party
will make such an offer, so as an alternative I ask that Laura and
others clearly identify any harassment, and in return I'll do the
same.  I've already begun this.  It will increase volume of mailing
list posts, which is unfortunate, but seems necessary.

I recognise that the proposed policy would also protect me, and I
could make a report under the policy; on the issues of employment,
intimidation, and sustained disruption of discussion.

Thank you to the six people who responded privately to my concerns of
harassment, and I hope we can make Sugar Labs a place where you can
speak freely.


On Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 02:03:25PM -0400, Walter Bender wrote:
> FWIW, the current Sugar Labs code of conduct is available in the wiki here:
> 
> [1]https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Legal/Code_of_Conduct
> 
> And translated into Spanish here:
> 
> [2]http://co.sugarlabs.org/go/C%C3%B3digo_de_Conducta
> 
> @Laura, maybe you could explain why you think the current code of conduct is
> insufficient as regards harassment?
> 
> regards.
> 
> -walter
> 
> On Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 12:21 PM, Laura Vargas <[3]laura at somosazucar.org>
> wrote:
> 
>     Hello all, Hola a todos,
> 
>     [Thanks in advance to volunteer translators of this message]
> 
>     I would like to propose a Motion for: "The Sugar Labs Code of Conduct to
>     include the Geek Feminism [4]Community anti-harassment Policy and to
>     dispose resources (if needed) for the complete text to be translated to
>     Sugar supported languages. This Policy contemplates the existence of a
>     RESPONSE TEAM and defining a way and procedure to contact them.
> 
>     Hope to hear opinions and feedback from all Sugar Labs members.
> 
>     Hopefully volunteers to integrate the RESPONSE TEAM.
> 
>     According to [5]Geek Feminism anti-harassment Policy, harassment includes:
>       □ Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression,
>         sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality,
>         physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion.
>       □ Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and
>         practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs,
>         and employment.
>       □ Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names.
>       □ Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour  in spaces where
>         they’re not appropriate.
>       □ Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual
>         descriptions like “*hug*” or “*backrub*”) without consent or after a
>         request to stop.
>       □ Threats of violence.
>       □ Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a
>         person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm.
>       □ Deliberate intimidation.
>       □ Stalking or following.
>       □ Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity
>         for harassment purposes.
>       □ Sustained disruption of discussion.
>       □ Unwelcome sexual attention.
>       □ Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming
>         inappropriate levels of intimacy with others
>       □ Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
>       □ Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their
>         consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from
>         intentional abuse.
>       □ Publication of non-harassing private communication.
> 
>     <quote>
> 
>     Anti-harassment policy text
> 
>     Shorter version
> 
>     COMMUNITY NAME is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for
>     everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual
>     orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or
>     religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.
> 
>     This code of conduct applies to all COMMUNITY NAME spaces, including [list,
>     eg "our mailing lists and IRC channel"], both online and off. Anyone who
>     violates this code of conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from these
>     spaces at the discretion of the RESPONSE TEAM.
> 
>     Some COMMUNITY NAME spaces may have additional rules in place, which will
>     be made clearly available to participants. Participants are responsible for
>     knowing and abiding by these rules.
> 
>     Longer version
> 
>     COMMUNITY NAME is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for
>     everyone. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.
> 
>     This code of conduct applies to all COMMUNITY NAME spaces, including [give
>     a list of your spaces, eg "our mailing lists and IRC channel"], both online
>     and off. Anyone who violates this code of conduct may be sanctioned or
>     expelled from these spaces at the discretion of the RESPONSE TEAM.
> 
>     Some COMMUNITY NAME spaces may have additional rules in place, which will
>     be made clearly available to participants. Participants are responsible for
>     knowing and abiding by these rules.
> 
>     Harassment includes:
> 
>       □ Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression,
>         sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality,
>         physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion.
>       □ Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and
>         practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs,
>         and employment.
>       □ Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names.
>       □ Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour  in spaces where
>         they’re not appropriate.
>       □ Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual
>         descriptions like “*hug*” or “*backrub*”) without consent or after a
>         request to stop.
>       □ Threats of violence.
>       □ Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a
>         person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm.
>       □ Deliberate intimidation.
>       □ Stalking or following.
>       □ Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity
>         for harassment purposes.
>       □ Sustained disruption of discussion.
>       □ Unwelcome sexual attention.
>       □ Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming
>         inappropriate levels of intimacy with others
>       □ Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
>       □ Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their
>         consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from
>         intentional abuse.
>       □ Publication of non-harassing private communication.
> 
>     COMMUNITY NAME prioritizes marginalized people’s safety over privileged
>     people’s comfort. RESPONSE TEAM reserves the right not to act on complaints
>     regarding:
> 
>       □ ‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and
>         ‘cisphobia’
>       □ Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go
>         away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”
>       □ Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial
>       □ Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior
>         or assumptions
> 
>     Reporting
> 
>     If you are being harassed by a member of COMMUNITY NAME, notice that
>     someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact
>     the RESPONSE TEAM at [email address or other contact point]. If the person
>     who is harassing you is on the team, they will recuse themselves from
>     handling your incident. We will respond as promptly as we can.
> 
>     This code of conduct applies to COMMUNITY NAME spaces, but if you are being
>     harassed by a member of COMMUNITY NAME outside our spaces, we still want to
>     know about it. We will take all good-faith reports of harassment by
>     COMMUNITY NAME members, especially LEADERSHIP TEAM, seriously. This
>     includes harassment outside our spaces and harassment that took place at
>     any point in time. The abuse team reserves the right to exclude people from
>     COMMUNITY NAME based on their past behavior, including behavior outside
>     COMMUNITY NAME spaces and behavior towards people who are not in COMMUNITY
>     NAME.
> 
>     In order to protect volunteers from abuse and burnout, we reserve the right
>     to reject any report we believe to have been made in bad faith. Reports
>     intended to silence legitimate criticism may be deleted without response.
> 
>     We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting
>     victims of abuse. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about
>     whom we’ve received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties
>     about them, if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of
>     COMMUNITY NAME members or the general public. We will not name harassment
>     victims without their affirmative consent.
> 
>     Consequences
> 
>     Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply
>     immediately.
> 
>     If a participant engages in harassing behavior, RESPONSE TEAM may take any
>     action they deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from all
>     COMMUNITY NAME spaces and identification of the participant as a harasser
>     to other COMMUNITY NAME members or the general public.
> 
>     License and attribution
> 
>     This policy is licensed under the [6]Creative Commons Zero license . It is
>     public domain, no credit and no open licencing of your version is required.
> 
>     If you would like to optionally attribute it, you could use the below text
>     and link to [7]http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Community_anti-harassment
>     :
> 
>     This anti-harassment policy is based on the example policy from the Geek
>     Feminism wiki, created by the Geek Feminism community.
> 
>     The policy is based on the [8]conference anti-harassment policy, and is the
>     work of Annalee Flower Horne with assistance from Valerie Aurora, Alex Skud
>     Bayley, Tim Chevalier, and Mary Gardiner.
> 
>     </quote>
> 
>     Regards,
>     --
>     Laura V.
>     I&D SomosAZUCAR.Org
>    
>     “Solo la tecnología libre nos hará libres.” 
>     ~ L. Victoria
> 
>     Happy Learning!
>     #LearningByDoing
>     #Projects4good
>     #IDesignATSugarLabs
>     #WeCanDoBetter
>    
>     _______________________________________________
>     IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>     [9]IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>     [10]http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
> 
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> [11]http://www.sugarlabs.org
> [12]
> 
> References:
> 
> [1] https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Legal/Code_of_Conduct
> [2] http://co.sugarlabs.org/go/C%C3%B3digo_de_Conducta
> [3] mailto:laura at somosazucar.org
> [4] http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Community_anti-harassment/Policy
> [5] http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Geek_Feminism_Wiki
> [6] http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
> [7] http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Community_anti-harassment
> [8] http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Policy
> [9] mailto:IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> [10] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
> [11] http://www.sugarlabs.org/
> [12] http://www.sugarlabs.org/

> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.netrek.org/