Hey Tony,

I hear what you are saying and appreciate you sharing your perspective.

I agree that hearing a panel respond to insightful questions from an under-represented moderator could be insightful. However, I believe that there is more value in hearing from those groups directly. There is a systematic power imbalance that can only be addressed by amplifying the voices of those within underrepresented groups. We've previously had no voice at all. The amount of insights to share are astounding and I can only imagine how eye opening.

I do want to make it clear that I am not making an argument. I am simply sharing my experience. What you are highlighting is the exact necessity for diversity within the teams that we work on. Race/ethnicity not being a profile attribute is a big miss by the folks at ADPList. Site functionality and under-representation are interconnected. I say this because I've been told the importance of Race/ethnicity in a mentor by those who I've mentored. I was in a similar position myself to fully understand this. While studying Industrial Design at Georgia Tech, I didn't see too many faces like mine in the student body or teaching staff which was an isolating experience.

It is our due diligence as creators to create with equality in mind. Not including those attributes highlights a lack of empathy from ADPList. The number one skill that designers are asked to exemplify. Tony, I'd highly reccomend you watch this video by Vox (link below) to understand why it is important to build products with diversity in mind. In summary, this video highlights how ML models were built upon image datasets that lacked diversity and created racial biases within the model itself. This could have been prevented if those on the team were thinking about diversity. Historically, folks from represented groups are not thinking about such things. It is top of mind for those in underrepresented groups because it is our daily lived experience of not benefiting from similar predicaments.

Again, thank you for sharing your perspective. This type of dialogue is valuable.

https://www.vox.com/videos/2021/3/31/22348722/ai-bias-racial-machine-learning