A little over a week ago, I got the following email:
Hi Dan —
I was updating the link to your Technician study guide, and was VERY disappointed to see that you’ve changed the “human” image on the front cover from the gender, race and age neutral red blob to a white guy. I am so sad about this, you have no idea.
We’re working hard over here to expand the demographics of Amateur Radio and one of the things I most LOVED about using your manual with our courses was the non-specific image of the radio operator. Any way I can convince you to change it back? Actually NO image at all is better than this new one.
We have around 100 demographically mixed new students who are queued up to attend our next wave of courses that will be starting in about 3 weeks. PLEASE consider a quick change. At least just for the free PDF. I really don’t want to have to apologize to all of my students on the first day of every class about why Ham Radio materials continue to be so blatantly biased.
I was seriously taken aback by this. My intent was certainly not to be biased. Anyone who knows me that I am maybe the least biased when it comes to helping others get into and enjoy amateur radio. I never did like the “red blob” and I wanted to put a more human face on amateur radio.
I suggested deleting the cover on PDFs that were distributed to the students, but that suggestion was dismissed:
I don’t distribute the PDFs of your manual, just the link. So my deleting the cover for your product is not what I view as a good fix. I also know that you have long used unbiased covers for your books, so I should not need to provide suggestions.
My correspondent then provided a few links to articles about the need to be inclusive in advertising. She continued:
I feel very dismayed that you, of all people — a highly recognized online influencer in amateur radio, with a leadership role in AR|DC — believe that the continuation of the perception that a white male on the cover of your latest technician training manual IS “a good image for amateur radio.” Gender and race bias in any product, is NEVER appropriate, especially in U.S. ham radio and STEM, where people who are not white males often lack confidence and feel unwelcome. Speaking from personal experience over 4 decades as a licensed Ham, as well as in my professional career as an Engineer and Computer Scientist, I know very well that these perceptions are not imagined. Rather, it is because in some of these settings we are actually NOT welcome, can be treated as inferior, verbally chided, and even literally pushed aside (such as by not being given mic time or mentoring in club shacks, or relegated to non-technical roles in Ham clubs).
We swapped a few more emails about what I could do. She suggested that I use pictures of amateur radio equipment instead of a person, but I’m bored with pictures of equipment. As shown at right, the 2014 Tech study guide actually did have an image of an HT.
I noted that the latest version of the ARRL license manual features a young woman on the cover, but she replied, “I’d say no on the female (as ARRL has, after many decades finally done), because that raises other issues — what race should the female be? ”
After all this, I’m still unsure about what I should do next. I’m definitely not going back to the “red blob.” It’s just too impersonal, and even though it’s gender-neutral, not a good image for amateur radio. On the other hand, I certainly don’t want this cover to dissuade anyone from taking up ham radio.
So the question is is there a way to put a human face on amateur radio and not be biased? I’m open to suggestions.