That isn't a strawman argument: the point that the detractors were making was "This is not the correct assortment of speakers because there aren't enough of X race or Y sex."
They are arguing against speakers only because of their race and gender. Would more diversity be welcome in the Ruby community? Absolutely, but judging a speaker based on their race and gender is idiotic - it says nothing about what they'll bring to the table.
Imagine if people were criticizing a lineup because there were too many women? We would flip a shit - and rightly so! Pointing out verbally militant discrimination that causes a conference to be cancelled isn't a strawman, it is a reality.
> That isn't a strawman argument: the point that the detractors were making was "This is not the correct assortment of speakers because there aren't enough of X race or Y sex."
Was that the detractors' point? I can't tell because the OP doesn't link to any. But just to be clear, I think there is a difference between:
1) Why is this panel completely made up of white males?
2) There aren't enough of people of x/y category
Argument #2 is, I think everyone here agrees, is not a strong one, since this wasn't a conference to discuss diversity issues.
Argument #1, however, could be countered with examples of people they asked but who could not make it. And I for one would completely understand if they wanted to invite Japanese Rubyists, but could not because of schedule conflicts or costs. I don't know enough about Brit Ruby to see if it's meant to be just a local gathering of all-Brits...and even if that were the case, the U.K. strikes me as a very diverse place where it would be odd to see any group that was just all of one demographic.
i don't think the OP's intentions are bad and I don't think it's right to fault someone for being a poor debater when their heart is in the right place. But Argument #1 does not equal #2 (though obviously, the two are somewhat correlated)
To your point:
> Imagine if people were criticizing a lineup because there were too many women? We would flip a shit - and rightly so! Pointing out verbally militant discrimination that causes a conference to be cancelled isn't a strawman, it is a reality.
Well, unless the conference were depicted as "The Women of Ruby", I most definitely would question a general Ruby conference in which all the top panelists were females (or Japanese. Or Japanese females), especially given the demographic of computer science. This same demographic makes it more likely that an all-male Ruby panel could be selected, but doesn't automatically invalidate questions about its makeup.
They are arguing against speakers only because of their race and gender. Would more diversity be welcome in the Ruby community? Absolutely, but judging a speaker based on their race and gender is idiotic - it says nothing about what they'll bring to the table.
Imagine if people were criticizing a lineup because there were too many women? We would flip a shit - and rightly so! Pointing out verbally militant discrimination that causes a conference to be cancelled isn't a strawman, it is a reality.