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[DRAFT - Please feel free to edit, thank you! - Bohyun]
The 2016 US election season has been followed by many appalling acts of hate around the country. For this reason, Code4Lib is re-affirming our unfaltering support and strong commitment to the fundamental values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Code4Lib has a proud history of recognizing the lack of diversity in the technology sector as a serious problem and acting to address it head-on. In the Code4Lib community, diversity, equity, and inclusion are not mere words. They underpin all we do, through Diversity Scholarships, the Newcomer Dinner, our Code of Conduct, or our decision regarding the speakers, presenters, and location of our next Code4Lib conference. They represent and reflect our shared and cherished understanding that we always solve difficult problems better together
As technologists, we always look for ways to make things work better. We love efficiency; we love elegance; we aspire to be free of any pain point or bug in everything we design and build. We do this not solely for the sake of efficiency, elegance, and our deeply-rooted desire to improve things. Rather, we look for ways to make things work better for the sake of people. Our ultimate aspiration is to help people get things done with the tools we create with delight. For this reason, we try to understand our users with all their differences in race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, national or ethnic origin, language, socio-economic background, and citizenship status. This is why we rely on empathy as one of the most important guiding principles in all we do as technologists. Without our caring, our work as developers, designers, information specialists, and IT professionals would be missing its heart.
As a community that deeply values diversity, equity, and inclusion, Code4Lib will always be a welcoming and safe community for all who are passionate about information and technology. Everyone in our community is valued and respected regardless of what they look like, what their faiths are, what disabilities they may have, how they identify their gender, who they love, where they come from, what language they speak, where they live, or what level of expertise they have. There is no place for bigotry, intolerance, hatred, harassment, or violence in Code4Lib. Today, we stand together in our most forceful support of diversity, equity, and inclusion.