Metafocus: Diversity in VR, Games, and Education

I stood in the center of the room at a VR meetup in Austin,Texas, spinning around, gaping at a sea of young white male faces surroundingme. I estimated that a vast majority of the 300-plus attendees were in their20s and 30s. I counted only a handful of women in the entire crowd, an evensmaller handful of people of color, perhaps only two women of color in theentire building, one of whom was my date.

I already knew the tech world was not known for itsdiversity, but at this moment, I realized the overwhelming magnitude of theproblem. It made me want to start a VR game development company and hire onlywomen of color over 40, simply out of the anger I felt at thisinjustice. I know I shouldn’t and legally can’t hire people based on race,gender, or age (even if to the benefit of disadvantaged minority groups), but does anyoneelse in this industry realize that fact? I’m in ultra-progressive Austin, forGoogle’s sake. What is going on here? What are the implications? Moreimportantly, what can I do about it?

The lack of diversity in tech is nothing new. Facebook, theparent company of Oculus Rift (a major VR headset manufacturer), employs a 90 percent white or Asian workforce in the US, with men accounting for 83 percent of its technical jobs. Other companies in the VR hardware space aren’tany better. Women comprise just six percent of executives at PlayStation, another big VRplayer. The video game development industry is similarly overwhelmingly whiteand male worldwide.The thousands of people working in these companies aren’t all overtly orintentionally biased, bad, or evil, so why isn’t there more equality in VR,gaming, and tech?

Roots of the problem

People much more eloquent than I am have explored thisdismal state of affairs at length. The roots of the problem are complex,far-reaching, and controversial, including but not limited to “brogrammer”culture, stereotypes, stereotype threat, mindset, code switching,microaggressions, the pipeline problem, income disparity, lack of role models,lack of media coverage, cultural narratives, and the countless -isms (racism,sexism, ageism, etc.). Stanford professors Carol Dweck, Geoff Cohen, Claude Steele, and Deborah Stipek have done important research on these issues, especially stereotype threat,where people feel impelled to conform to stereotypes of their social group (e.g., young women not wanting to be seen as “the smart girl”).

Two fantastic recent films also explore many of theseissues. First, Code: Debugging the Gender Gap is a documentary about the lackof women software engineers. Second, Hidden Figures tells the story of three African-Americanfemale mathematicians who were critical to the early development ofthe NASA space program.

Hyphen-Labs is “aninternational team of women of color working at the intersection of technology,art, science, and the future” (quoted from their website), and they’re workingon several truly inspirational projects that explore many of these issues. NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism is one of myfavorite Hyphen-Labs projects.

Because the problem of discrimination is so complexand embedded, no single “silver bullet” will solve it. The “silverbuckshot” approach, however, may just work. In other words, many smallerbullets can simultaneously target many different aspects of the problem. I don’thave the space to explore them all in this column, but I do have a few thingsto say.

What I’m doing about it

Before I offer my solutions to thesilver buckshot, I must note that as a white, able-bodied, straight, cisgender,American, middle-class, highly educated male, there are certain things I couldand should never say, having not experienced much injustice that directlyimpacted me. Some perspectives are best shared firsthand. However, I haveprivilege that others do not, and it’s my responsibility to speak up in waysothers cannot. For example, no one will accuse me of being an “angry black man”or a “shrill, bossy woman” for calling out injustice when and where I see it.So how can I use my privilege for positive change? What can I do? How can I bean ally?

Every company I start will be, by definition, owned by astraight, white, male founder and CEO. Great, that’s all the world needs,another one of those, right? Not so fast. Though I can’t do anything to changemy status as a straight, white male, and I’m not going to stop being anentrepreneur anytime soon, there’s still a lot I can do and have done in thepast.

First, I hire more women, people of color, LGBTQ people,people with disabilities, people of widely varying ages, immigrants,people with different religious or spiritual backgrounds, and people from otherdiscriminated-against groups. For example, because the US is roughly 63 percentwhite and 49 percent male, I hire white males at a rate below 31 percent—and Ioften hire far fewer, just to bring a little more balance to the industry as awhole. I also pay everyone equally. Please, please, please do the same. It’sinexcusable not to.

Second, I don’t just hire people different from me; Ipartner with them, buy from them, sell to them, and collaborate with them.Third, I listen to their ideas, learning from these different perspectives andgrowing as an entrepreneur and a person. Fourth, I help them propel theircareers in the VR, serious games, and eLearning industries, continuing tosupport them as a colleague, mentor, professional reference, and friend, wellbeyond their relationships with my companies. Lastly, I can speak up when I seeinjustice without (much) fear of consequences. If people listen to me becauseof my privilege, then it’s my responsibility to say something.

I can use my privilege to simply advance myself, or I canuse it to lift others up, too. That’s what this article is about. I don’tmention my practices to build myself up—believe me, I have more flaws thanmost, and have made more mistakes than most—but rather to provide acounterexample for how we can collectively take a new, more just course ofaction. Regardless of your race, gender, sexual identity, age, religion, placeof origin, or body type, I hope you’ll join me.

The financial argument

The argument goes beyond ethics and justice. The financial incentive aligns with the moral imperative for equality aswell. Consider a scenario where you have two apparently equal jobapplicants. One is a white male, the other a woman of color. Their resumes, jobexperience, and skill sets appear effectively identical. They both interviewedwell. Should you flip a coin? Absolutely not. Hire the woman of color. Why?Because she’s the stronger candidate.

While you may not know the obstacles she’s had to overcometo get where she is, the odds are good that she’s had to work twice as hard toget noticed, promoted, accepted into schools, or even to simply gain access toa computer throughout her life. If this were the 100-meter dash in track andfield, the white male got to run 100 meters, while the woman of color had herblocks set back, say, an additional 100 meters, having to run 100 percent fartherand faster just to get to the starting line. Her lane also had lots of extrahurdles along the way. This woman is not likely to let any obstacle keep herfrom reaching her goals. At every step of the way, she’s had to be twice asambitious, have far more and better ideas, and work twice as hard. In manycases, “100 percent more difficult” is a vast understatement of thisdisadvantage. Leadership maven Seth Godin would say she is precisely the kindof linchpin you need everyone on your team to be. I’m sure the white guy wouldbe fine, would get the job done. Perhaps he’s even talented and ambitious and areally nice guy. But she will help you set the world on fire.

Diverse perspectives

If fairness and financial incentives aren’t enough, there’syet another reason to hire the woman of color over the theoretically equallyqualified white man: Creativity suffers from a dearth of perspectives. If mostvideo games and software projects feel like they are made by 20-something white tech guys for 20-something white tech guys, it’s because theyactually are made that way. Theseteams do not include enough diverse perspectives that would help shape andimprove the end products so they could also be purchased and enjoyed bynon-young-white-tech-guy demographics. Better yet, diverse teams could evencreate all-new, highly effective, highly profitable products targeted atentirely different audiences.

What you can do about it

While the VR and game industries are overflowing with youngwhite males, education is the reverse. The education industry in the US is 69 percent female. Although it’s only 18 percent people of color, which is not great, this is far better than thetech world. No one knows how these opposing trends will play out when educatorsstart developing VR and serious games en masse. Will the need for diversity andeducational experience win out over the quick-fix solution of simply hiringwhite male VR game developers because that’s who is easiest to find? The convergenceof education, VR, and games is an opportunity for eLearning professionals tohave an outsized impact on the VR and gaming industries by hiring, training,and promoting the next generation of leaders with diverse backgrounds anddemographics. It’s also an opportunity to bring more voices into theconversation, improving the products and projects that eLearning professionalsare creating.