“The privilege of native English speakers in reaching high-status, influential positions in EA” by Alix Pham

Huge thanks to Konrad Seifert, Marcel Steimke, Ysaline Bourgine, Milena Canzler, Alex Rahl-Kaplan, Marieke de Visscher, and Guillaume Vorreux for the valuable feedback provided on drafts of this post, and to many others for the conversations that lead to me writing it. Views & mistakes are my own. TL;DR Being a non-native English speaker makes one sound less convincing. However, poor inclusion of non-native English speakers means missed perspectives in decision-making. Hence, it's a vicious circle where lack of diversity persists: native English culture prevails at the thought leadership level and neglects other cultures by failing to acknowledge that it is inherently harder to stand out as a non-native English speaker. Why I am writing this I’m co-directing EA Switzerland (I’m originally from France), and I’ve been thinking about the following points for some time. I’ve been invited to speak at the Panel on Community Building at EAG Boston [...] ---Outline:(00:25) TL;DR(00:52) Why I am writing this(01:38) An unconscious bias against non-native English speakers(02:00) Non-native English speakers sound less convincing(03:43) Poor inclusion of non-native English speakers means missed perspectives(04:30) Native English speakers are overrepresented in EA's thought leadership: a vicious circle(05:47) What can we do about it?(05:50) Some prompts(06:35) Let's talk about thisThe original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: December 20th, 2023 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/F7qzoWhiCTK8KpuTM/the-privilege-of-native-english-speakers-in-reaching-high --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.