- It was so nice to read everyone else’s assignments and see all the different directions we chose to pursue even though we were given the same prompts. I found it really interesting that the majority of us chose very different topics and yet still managed to stay connected under the umbrella of diversity in the workplace. Personally, I chose to narrow down the larger topic of diversity by concentrating on the smaller issue of women working in the police force, so I also really liked how Joanna did the same thing but with a different group of marginalized people: members of the LGBTQ+ community. Joanna utilized many images that really helped drive her points home and I found it very moving when she included the quotes from LGBTQ+ people and their real life work experiences. Another expansion to the canon that comes to mind is Sherri’s. Her decision to include a trailer to an HBO documentary was very enticing and made me much more interested. I also liked the direction she took with the prompt because it expanded on the topic of hiring and the troubles that people with autism tend to experience during that process.
3.The transition that stuck out to me the most occurred between paragraphs twelve and thirteen. The last line of the twelfth paragraph is “”Diversity is just membership,” Isbell said. “Integration is influence, power, and partnership.”” This line leads into the next, “But integration is much harder than diversity”. This particular transition was very compelling for me because I believe it is the one that changed the direction of the entire article. Before paragraph twelve, the article mostly concentrated on representation in computing, but as we can see with this transition, its new focus is now on integration and its importance. Leading up to this transition, Bogost quotes Isbell saying “Are we interested in diversity, or are we interested in integration?”. This makes the reader contemplate everything they had previously heard thus far and prepared them for the change in tone for the rest of the article. After these paragraphs, the article focuses more on bigger companies and how discrimination occurs despite some of their good intentions.
Caitlin,
It really is fascinating how many different areas of diversity can be explored. I think everyone did a fantastic job at finding an area that they were interested in and presenting it to the class as well. I also think Sherri’s media clip was excellent, usually trailers to TV series have to be engaging and make the viewer want to learn more. This is exactly what it did.
I also thought that how the author included the difference between diversity and integration was great, as it brought up some questions for me about what is important in the workplace. Before this, the article also focused on examples instead of questioning company intentions. I think that questioning intent is essential in creating change. Do we want to just have diverse people in the office place, or do we want to work with others to create a positive impact in the world? Having a diverse workforce may be beneficial, but integration and creating a partnership, that creates real change. I think by highlighting this in your post, you pointed out one of the important takeaways in the article. Positive intent does not always translate to positive impact, we need to do more than have just good intentions.
Hi Caitlin,
Similar to you, I found Joanna’s use of media to be excellent and really helped illuminate many issues that LGBTQIA+ individuals face. Her use of screen captures of people describing their treatment in their own words was much more powerful than if the quotes were incorporated into the text of her post. I also enjoyed the practical tips in the YouTube video she embedded: How to be a good LGBTQIA+ Ally. As you point out, the video Sherri used was very powerful as well.
I wanted to mention that your post on the challenges faced by women in the police force struck a personal note with me. I have a cousin who just retired from the police force after 20 years. I always wondered what it was like for her to interact with the public. But now I have even more respect for her knowing that she likely experienced a great deal of sexism on the job.
You point out the key moment in Bogost’s article. It really does get to the heart of the issue that diversity is really not the goal, but inclusion is. Diversity programs alone won’t lead to progress. I think there’s plenty of proof of that in the real world.
Hey Caitlin,
I completely agree! It was shocking to see how many different topics could be related back to the idea of diversity in the workplace. I really liked your take on expanding the cannon because it opened my eyes to diversity on the premise of gender, something that was not discussed heavily in our past readings. I also liked Joanna’s post and I feel like both of you did an amazing job of showing what disparities take place across the diasporas of gender and sexuality.
Hi Caitlin,
I think the transition between paragraphs you identified was spot on. You can see how the article ties together and shifts to the new topic in that section. I agree with your analysis of the quotes and how you identified the change to be about integrations and its importance.
Also thank you so much for your kind words about my expanding the canon! I also enjoyed reading yours because your topic of police diversity has never crossed my mind before! I really enjoyed your graphs at the beginning of your canon piece and would be interested to see what has happened since they were generated. Thank you for teaching me something new : )
Agreed–that sharp turn that Bogost takes in that segment of the article (the big “BUT”) is an important turning point for the text. Abrupt transitions like this can be really effective when your goal is to highlight a contrast, which is precisely what he’s doing at that moment in the text.