QotW [5-04-03]: Discrimination

[Tully]

Originally posted by Erin Rapacki
It's only when the mentors know they're qualified and still refuse to let them show off their skills that I'd call it discrimination.

I'm an animator and I don't work on the 'bot. I'm a girl. I'm also a freshman,
To me, none of these things ever really came up, in my mind at least, as being different. My team members treated me the same as everyone else.
However, I realize, more so in hindsight, that this season I was slightly descriminated against. What am I gonna do about it? I can't change how people feel about something by putting them on the spot or explaining it to them. Sometimes words just aren't enough.
I chose to work harder, make sure I mastered 3dsmax for next year so that I can be more assertive and make sure I'm allowed to work. Sort of proving them wrong.

Also, our team had quite an issue ((which I'm really not going to get into)) before nationals and it occured to me that I had not seen any discrimination from the students this year. The mentors ((not all)) were a different story. I noticed some discrimination against students and other mentors and one mentor even brought it up as an issue when it wasn't there. The way it was brought up made me realize that if the mentors teach us that that's the way everything's going to be in the "real world" then that's how it's going to be because we are the next generation and it's up us how it's going to be.

Well, that's my opinion. I'd like to note that my team members and mentors, in my opinion, are so awesome even if we have our issues. I believe that's the main reason why we won our Regional Inspiring Engineering Award. ^.^

((Does any of that rant make sense??))

EDIT: spelling and tyops

[Marygrace]

Originally posted by Erin Rapacki
I am a female and heavily involved in FIRST, but I bearly touch the robot during build season. Just because of my personality and nature, I enjoy the organizing, spirit, awards, fundraising, and other "people aspects" of a FIRST team... and sometimes I consider myself exemplifying the "FIRST female stereotype."

(Nowadays I do everything but the actual designing and building on the robot... but it isn't uncommon to see me in the machine shop helping out. But if you think about it, I give the people who DO build the robot a big advantage because then they don't have to worry about such things. You can't have one group without the other.)

My point, we all would like to see more girls designing, testing, and machining on FIRST teams, and girls are not uncapable of doing such things... but the in most cases the interest just isn't there.

Unfortunately, females in the world today are mostely raised to do 'girly' things. I wouldn't say that it's because of discrimination that there are not many girls are on FIRST teams, if a girl came to a team and told them that she was interested in the robot or already had skills... I'm sure the team would be more than happy to accept them.

It's only when the mentors know they're qualified and still refuse to let them show off their skills that I'd call it discrimination.

I believe that unless there is a drastic change in the American culture, there will NEVER be a 50/50 ratio between guys and girls on FIRST teams. The only way that there could be is to reverse descriminate against guys... which is also wrong.

Ok, so I've just babbled for a little while too long... last year I tried to get my sister to join FIRST, and I learned that it's IMPOSSIBLE to drag anyone on a team unless they have a personal interest in doing robotics.

There are many things that girls can do on a team, it's just unfortunate that most of them won't want to build the robot.

That's the fact... accept it
(But congradulations to all the girls out there who break the stereotype! Keep spreading the word and the enthusiasm of being techy's... and maybe a culture change will occur someday)


ByE

erin

p.s. I'm not completely mechanically inept... I am doing well as a Mechanical Engineering student. I just agree with the more experienced guys on my team that they have the better ideas when it comes to building robots... lol

Yeah, we debated about that in this thread .

Personally, I am against discrimination. (Ok, that was stupid, everyone is, LOL) Coming from a family that has gone through a lot of it, i know the effects of it. Our team doesn't really expirience that much direct discrimination. It is just assumed that a friend of mine and I can't do a lot of stuff because we are the "Blonde Ditses: of the club. We like to laugh and mess around alot, ok, all of the time. But give us something to do and show us how to do it, and we get it done. I admit i do not know that much about the function of the robot, but that is because i spent most of my time welding the frame. Even though i was voted to be Captain this year i still get some, whats the word....criticism. Some one even came up to me and told me the only reason that i won the "election" I guess you could call it, was because of my mom. |Granted, my mom is one of the mentors in charge, there were ten other people there that voted. I worked my butt off welding that robot. They changed the design three times and we had to do tose over a couple of times because someone did the measurements wrong. (I am not pointoing fingers or anything), and at one point i broke down into tears, and still, i get discrimnated against. I think that the only thing that can solve this problem is by learning to step into another person's shoes. I know, everyone has heard this saying, but it really needs to be taken seriously.

I don't think i really answered the question, but those are my thoughts.

[Mercutio]

just some random observations:

to date, my team has only had two human players who played more than one or two matches, and both of them are girls. no idea why.

a canadian team won last year's FIRST regional in Grand Rapids.

many of the teams i've seen are either mostly black or mostly white... there are few even mixtures. i've only been to in-state regionals, tho, so maybe it's just in my area.

if you put all of us together, my team this year is fluent in five different languages, speaks two others, and understands about eight more.

and here's something i found on google.

i am the king of irrelevancy!

[Elgin Clock]

Wow... You always go for the hard hitting questions don't you?



Now for my answer, I do believe discrimination is wrong.
I also feel that this country in whole, as well as FIRST are making strides to correct this.

BUT, I feel it is being done in the wrong ways.

Case in point: This year in a certain regional one team was followed around the whole regional by the media who were attending the event just because, I believe, that they were an all girl team.

Now I believe that an all girl team is just as qualified to be in FIRST as an all boy team or an all black team, or an all white team, or even a mixed team.

BUT, is the way to change the old ways to just all at once emphasize the new?

I heard from a girl on my team that a member of the media came up to her and asker her flat out, "Are you a member of the all girl team?", and when she said no, they said, "Oh, OK", shrugged her off, and kept walking.

Like I said, I have no problem with an all girls competing, but when the main thing that got the media to attend was the inclusion of an all girls team, well then that is wrong.

Also, I personally felt like they got an award from the judges just because they were an all girls team as well.

Also, this year at the Kickoff, FIRST was guilty of this "rapid non-discriminating turn around" as well. The round table discussion this year featured two team members who came from an inner city gang, and were transformed by their involvement in FIRST.
I THINK THIS IS WONDERFUL!! But as I said before, why the rapid change in who is in the spotlight?

I know I might be biased because of the fact that I am the typical all-american white male, but this is just my opinion.

Discrimination is a two way street.
The words discrimination and minority does not only refer to blacks or women, but all races, creeds, sexes, and nationalities.

So even I as a typical all-american white male can be discriminated against, and considered the minority.