113: Privilege as Legacy Code with Amr

Greater Than Code

In this episode, Amr talks about the fact that it’s not just code: people need to own their privilege and use it for good by calling out others, being good allies, and avoiding biases. If you like Greater Than Code, you should check out The Transatlantic Cable Podcast from Kaspersky Lab. They condense the most interesting InfoSec and Cybersecurity news in 20 minutes or less! Check it out and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Panelists: John K. Sawers | Christina Morillo | Coraline Ada Ehmke Special Guest: Amr: @amrAbdelwahab Amr is an African Egyptian native who crossed continents to work with his passion in digital environments. Amr's interests span technology, tech-communities, politics and politics in tech, all enriched through various software engineering roles in Egypt, Hungary and Germany. Amr Abdelwahab - An empathy exercise: contextualising the question of privilege (EuRuKo 2018 Video) Show Notes: 01:53 – Amr’s Superpower: Seeing the bigger picture. 04:24 – It’s Not Just Code 11:18 – Privilege 17:37 – Strategies For People with Privilege Who Are Open to Learning 22:57 – Why Diversity Matters and Avoiding Burnout 27:24 – Biases, Allyship, and Calling Out Others Implicit Bias Test Reflections: John: The metaphor of sexism and racism and cultural baggage being legacy code. Christina: Listen and learn. Also, pushing organizations to contribute to bigger things, but making sure they understand why they are doing it, and not doing it blindly. Coraline: We are currently living in an “unnatural state”. Equality is the natural state and we need to return to that. Amr: The ability to have a politics-free life is a privilege of its own. Want to help keep us a weekly show, buy and ship you swag, and bring us to conferences near you? Support us via Patreon! Or tell your organization to send sponsorship inquiries to [e-mail]. Are you Greater Than Code? Submit guest blog posts to [e-mail] Please leave us a review on iTunes! This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode. To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well. Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks! Transcript: [If you like Greater Than Code, you should check out the Transatlantic Cable Podcast from Kaspersky Lab. They condense the most interesting infosec and cybersecurity news in 20 minutes or less. Check it out and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.] JOHN: Welcome to Greater Than Code, Episode 113. I'm John Sawers and I'm introducing Christina Morillo. CHRISTINA: Hi, John. Thank you and I'm so happy to be here. It's been a while, so happy New Year to everyone and I love to introduce the amazing Coraline. CORALINE: The Amazing Coraline, I like that. That make me sounds like a circus performer or an escape magician. CHRISTINA: Okay, how about the fantastic Coraline? CORALINE: So the same. I love it. We have a really amazing guest with us today. I met him at EuRuKo in Vienna earlier this year. He really impressed me. He had an amazing presentation that I'm hoping to talk about today. I'm happy to welcome Amr. Amr is an African-Egyptian native who cross-continent to work with this passion in digital environment. Amr's interest span technology, tech communities, politics and politics in tech, all enriched through various software engineering roles in Egypt, Hungary, and Germany. Amr, welcome to the show. AMR: Well, greetings everyone and Happy New Year for everyone. Thank you for having me here. CORALINE: Amr, as you know, as a long time listener of the show -- I'm sure, you are a long time listener of the show -- we always start with a ver...