FIRST Experiences as a Person of Color

[Shrub]

Originally Posted by Katie_UPS

It's definitely not any PoC's responsibility to educate white folk, but if anyone is willing, what are some ways we (non PoC) can be allies? What type of things would you like to see at events? Should volunteer coordinators try to focus on making a more diverse judging pane/volunteer crewl? Should we (the collective FIRST community) try to get more distinguished guests/speakers that are PoC at events?

Hey! I just wanted to chime in. I think a great way to begin allyship is becoming aware of, and developing language to combat microagressions, which were previously mentioned. In my experience, microagressions add another layer of stress to FIRST functions and events as I happen to check so many "diversity boxes". They're also hard to deal with when one is a token student with no idea how to explain why something makes them upset. Having an environment that challenges stereotypes and microagressions also becomes more inviting to students who may have been wary of the environment beforehand.

A second thing is to learn about "nerd culture," which can be elitist and exclusionary to those who are not constantly surrounded by it. It's also extremely common in FIRST due to the overlap of students into general nerdery - especially video games - and also robots. I'm not saying one has to dismantle nerd culture signlehandeldly, but becoming aware of how one may be exclusionary to others (and then learning how they can personally change that) is always good. NPR Latino recently posted a podcast about nerd culture that may be worth a listen (link, scroll down to Diversity in Geekdom). I don't have many links on the issue sadly.

Forcing or deliberately highlighting student diversity is often harmful to students, as is shown in mrnoble 's post. It's kind of like when college brochures try to include every minority in a photograph. This can backfire on team dynamics and the students who are being highlighted due to the "diversity boxes" they check.

[I'd also love to see more diverse judging and volunteer crews, but that's heavily based on the demographics of the area. Seeing speakers and guests that are also PoC is also really awesome whenever it happens. Even little things like the naming of Championship fields can go a long way-this isn't to say that only little things can work. These are all things that can only happen (or usually only happen) as collective communities, and I really wanted to focus on what individuals can do for allyship. I do not speak for all PoC, obviously.]

Thank you all for the positive messages so far as well!