 Great. Hi, everybody. Greetings to those of you who are able to join in person and also virtually. My name is Jen Madriaga. I'm the Senior Manager for Global Community Events Strategy at Red Hat. And I'm also the Chair and Co-Founder of the Red Hat Asian Network. So I'm really grateful to be here with you today to talk about intersectionality and the work that I've been doing in the DEI space within Red Hat, but actually I've been doing work in this space since I was an undergrad many, many moons ago. So I just want to start with a story for I go into my presentation because I'm reminded why it's important to engage in this type of work, this DEI work. And so I'm going to do a very abbreviated story of what happened to me on the way here when I was at the airport. So due to fly out very early, my husband is also here in Austin, but we were in a separate fly-tea. He wasn't supposed to leave until the afternoon. And I'm a diamond medallion member with Delta. I'm on extended status, and so it means that I no longer have lounge access. And so they told me, hey, I got an email saying, hey, you can get lounge access if you apply for this card. So I applied for the card, got approved, had my temporary card, went to the lounge, and they said, we can't let you in because you don't have the physical card. They're like, you need the number, you need the expiration. I said, well, it's actually here in this temporary card. It's got the number completely spelled out, the expiration date, the security code. They're like, no, you need a physical card. And they asked me to leave. They said, you need to leave because you don't have, you're not entitled to lounge access. And then, and of course, my plane was delayed four times, and I was hoping to get help for being on standby. My husband arrived around 12 noon, and he's basically very waspy looking. He's got dirty blonde hair. He's got very, very blue eyes, about six feet tall. And he met me, and I said, you know, I would like to do an experiment. And he applied for the card because he wanted lounge access, and he has zero status. I love him very much, but he doesn't travel. Like, I've had diamond medallion status for several years running. But I wanted to run an experiment. So I said, can you go up there and see if you can get lounge access? So he goes upstairs to the lounge, and then he texts me, and he says, they let me in. And then he told them, he's like, my wife actually applied for the same card. Can she come in? I'm like, of course she can. So I walk upstairs, and you can imagine the reaction when they saw it was me. And if there's any upside to this story, my husband had a better understanding of the daily interactions that I have to deal with as a woman and also as a person of color. Like, the amount of microaggression that many of us encounter is not something that other people have to think about, you know, particularly my husband. Like, he was like, I never, ever thought anything like this would ever happen. And so I just wanted to give Delta a shout out because I promised on Twitter that I would talk about this story. So now I'm going to go on with my presentation about intersectionality. And so I want to just give a little bit of background about what happened in terms of creating this employee resource group or ERG. So there was no Red Hat Asian network a few years ago. And in summer 2020, there were five of us that met because of stories that I just told you. We were experiencing a lot of things related to all the things happening in the world. And we all found each other independently and said, you know, we need to create a space for each other. And so I want to give a shout out to my founding group. Robin Chan is my co-chair, Laura Fu, Josai, and Tesh Patel. And then I also want to recognize Helen Kim, who's our executive sponsor. And she currently oversees partner marketing at Red Hat. So we officially launched February 17, 2021. So we've just celebrated our one-year anniversary. We launched around the Lunar New Year very purposefully because we wanted to be tied to something that was significant to the Asian community. And now I want to talk a little bit about Red Hat and its Asian population. So we're very different from other tech companies. First of all, we're not based in Silicon Valley or in the West Coast. We have offices in Silicon Valley and the West Coast. But our corporate headquarters are actually located in Raleigh, North Carolina, which is in the heart of the state if you've never been there. People always like to call it Raleigh Durham if they've never been there. But it's actually just Raleigh. And then you've got two other cities, Durham and Shatla Hill, which comprise a region called the Triangle, which some of you might have heard of, like the Research Triangle Park. But because it's based in North Carolina, it's a very, very interesting company, right? It's a company that has a Southern history, right? And so we actually don't have a very high percentage of people of Asian descent that are at this company, which is very, very contrary to what you might find in other tech companies. So as I said, there were five of us that met in 2020. So we got to have a space where we can talk about things. And then we also encountered this report from McKinsey. And I highlighted it there. It says an employee resource group for Asian American colleagues offers robust mental health support or office events based around the effects of a pandemic. And so I just want to talk about the issues that really came in the forefront for us. Obviously, COVID-19 was a really, really huge deal. And the Asian community was impacted in a really massive way, right? So I'm a Filipino descent. And so a lot of my relatives are nurses. And so they were hit very, very hard by COVID-19. In fact, I think they make up 20% of the nursing population in California. So there's a very significant personal effect related to COVID and my family. And then, of course, we dealt with a rise in anti-Asian violence. And this was the part that really motivated the five of us to meet and create this group, because there was so much secondary trauma coming from the stories that we were witnessing in the media and also it affected our elderly. And, of course, the elderly, it's a population. They're highly treasured, right? It just, I don't know how to explain, but it just hits you right in the heart. Like it's this very visceral reaction to have to think about your parents and your grandparents being at risk. And honestly, it was like emotionally and mentally exhausting. But because we were in North Carolina, so to be clear, all five founding members were all in Central North Carolina. There is no way to really explain it in a way as individuals and to show that it was impacting us collectively. And so that's part of the reason why I think it's very, very important to be able to have groups like this, right? So at Red Hat, employee resource groups are actually called communities, and that's because that's a shout out to our open source roots. And so I'm going to talk a bit about the partnerships that we've done with different communities. But I just want to highlight a couple of other things. So another thing that came into play was the bamboo ceiling, about the fact that Asian Americans are at least likely to be promoted within tech. And that was something that became very top of mind for us. And we realized it rolled into a continuum of so many different things. Like these things don't happen in isolation from each other. So mental health and wellness was such a huge priority for us, right? Trying to ensure the well-being of folks who are within our community, particularly after incidents like the shootings in Atlanta. And just also the day-to-day of being the only on your team. So maybe some of you can identify with this. Being in a room full of people and you're the only one of your background. And it can be a very, very lonely place to be. And if you're in a community that's under duress and you're also personally experiencing lots of emotion from everything that's going on in the world, that exacerbates the feeling of loneliness and isolation and exhaustion and everything else that comes with being within a community that's under duress. So this brings me to the intersectionality part. And one thing that's super cool is that we do have several DEI communities besides the Asian network. And so I've got them listed. I'm going to call them out because I think they deserve to be recognized. So we've got PRIDE, Native and Indigenous, BUILD, which stands for Blacks United in Leadership and Diversity. Diversibilities, Neurodiversity, Women's Leadership, Military Veterans, and Initos. So written within our community vision is actually intersectionality. So you see in the second paragraph that we recognize the intersectionality of our members and not only do we recognize intersectionality, but we wanted to engage in advocacy. Not just for ourselves, but in partnership with other groups. Because we realized by partnering together with other groups, it amplified each other's voices and also just gave us more credibility because there are numerous people who are interested in having the conversations we were. So how did we start with intersectionality? I mean, honestly, it was just very simple, right? We started scheduling monthly cadences with other communities and not just communities within Red Hat, but also communities that were other ERGs that were external to Red Hat. Which honestly is really, really, I think important because it helps to benchmark what's going on in your company and other companies. And I guess it's a little bit of a gut check to be able to do that. And then we also provide feedback and advice on community building. So as I said, we were just launched in 2021, so a very young community. And so we actually leaned on more established communities, build Neurodiversity and Pride. They reached out to us and they helped us. And they said, hey, here are some of the things you want to think about. Hey, you might want to know that this is a possibility. And honestly, it was so gratifying and also just uplifting to be able to have conversations and very frank ways about the challenges that each of our communities were having. Diverse abilities is a newer community that came after us. And so we worked with them very closely to launch their community. And there is a really gratifying feeling about also kind of being able to mentor and give advice in that way. Particularly because we were so lucky to be able to receive that from other communities. So we've got lists, we cross promote each other's programming. And then we also could create programming. And so I want to talk about the programming that we were able to partner with. And some of it I think is super, super cool. And I'm really excited to talk about the last effort in particular. So for Asia Pacific American Heritage Month last year, we actually partnered with the Native Indigenous group. Because people are not aware that within Asia there is actually a lot of indigenous groups there. And also we wanted to highlight that the issues that were happening to the Native indigenous groups, they were focused mostly in North America, but they're wanting to scale globally. And since I'm Filipino and I'm familiar with indigenous groups within the Philippines. And I also knew folks who were professors of indigenous studies. I actually know a few folks. And so I recruited Professor Lily Mendoza, she's out of Oakland University in Michigan to talk about basically the wisdom of the indigenous peoples. And one thing that was really cool about this is that she talked about the indigeneity of everyone. Like if you go back far enough, every single group has indigenous roots. And so she talked about this book called Ethnobiography, which you can get on Amazon, to basically kind of explore a new way of framing identity, a new way of telling your story. That isn't about what you do for a living, where do you live, how much money you make. She talked about something called the long body, which is basically a story that spans generations. And so it was really cool to be able to bring programming like this to Red Hat. And people were just kind of blown away by this. And another great thing is we were able to amplify our friends and allies within a native and indigenous group. Because people can now map out, their story is not just about North America. It's also in a global capacity. And so that was one of our first efforts to do intersectionally within the context of Asian Pacific Heritage Month was to also feature other groups in partnership. So as I said before, we were in really close collaboration with the Neurodiversity Group, and I am also a part of the Neurodiversity Group because I have ADHD. And so I felt very much at home within Neurodiversity as well. And so this is just an example of one of the programs that we featured from the Asian network that Neurodiversity also helped to amplify. So this is one example. And this one was a particular conversation around coronavirus specifically. And so it was Justine Ong Fonte, who actually is a Filipino descent. And she did an amazing job in terms of presenting kind of these things that even people within our own community maybe didn't even think about, right? Sometimes when you are in a space where you're learning, and I think all of us are continuous learning, and I include myself, sometimes when you go into a presentation that talks about all these different layers of your identity, it can be kind of mind-blowing and actually pretty emotional. And so we also had another workshop that we did with a consultant, Kay Fabella. And she did basically a self-care workshop that was actually just targeted for our community. I was not open to allies. The previous talk that I showed was open to allies because we did want to have a place where people could have conversations without having to need to feel like they had to explain things to other people. Like I think it's very, very important for people to have a space where there's a mutual understanding, a mutual experience that sometimes allies, they just, they're not going to experience that. They're not going to view it in the same way. They're not going to be impacted in the same way, no matter how wonderful they are as an ally. It's super, super important, I think, to create spaces and to talk about things that are particular to our racial ethnic experience. So this is the part that I am super excited to talk about and I'll try to leave some room for Q&A for people that have questions. But it was really, really important for me to do a partnership with Red Hat Build. And why did I want to partner with them, right? So we're actually two of the largest DEI communities at Red Hat. We are both communities that experience violence, very visible violence during a pandemic in our communities. I mean, both of them were in a state of trauma, like we were under duress as communities. But also, we wanted to address the complexity that exists between our two communities, right? One thing that we're very committed to within the Asian network is combating anti-blackness. And I was really frank about it. I was like, I want us to be accountable about those stories. We're not going to deny that that stuff happens. And then the bill will show, well, we have anti-Asian sentiment within our community. And so that's not an easy conversation to engage in, right? Because you're like airing out your dirty laundry in a way by admitting those things exist, but ignoring it doesn't do anything right. So we wanted to really engage with each other in a way that was really purposeful and really meaningful. And so I put the Third World Liberation Front, if you've never heard of it, you should look it up. It was a group out of UC Berkeley during the 60s, where it was a coalition of different groups that came together. And included Asians and Blacks working very purposefully together to create change in the world. And so I was like, I love that. I love this kind of historical context around it. And so let's model something like that now and show that can be done, right? And we also wanted to feel like we could do something that was really empowering, that could be really uplifting for both our communities. Like it was really important for us to feel like we weren't at the mercy of circumstances in the world. We wanted to take the opportunity to really create change within our communities and also within Red Hat. So what did this entail, right? So Rob and I, you know, the coach, my co-chair, and then I met with the chair and co-chair of Red Hat building. We met regularly to try to figure out what this collaboration looked like, right? So it actually started with a brainstorm. Like, hey, what are ways that we can have conversations, right? And what ended up happening is we ended up getting the help of a consultancy app co-worldwide. And how we got involved was actually I know the managing director of the D.C. office from when I was an undergraduate. So we'd known each other, I'm going to give my age away, for over 30 years. And so I knew him when he had braces and we were both in the first year dorm together. But we both have been engaged in this work literally since we were like 17, 18 years old. And so I wanted to entrust this kind of help to someone I knew. So Lisa, you know, as a black man who grew up in Boston and now lives in the D.C. area. We also had to make sure that we could enlist the support of executive leadership because obviously a consultancy costs money. And so what we did is we talked with our executive sponsors and with several other folks to get buy-in. At the time we had another chief diversity officer. We have a new one now that came in March. But we asked that we be supported in this way. And the project ran from summer 2020 to spring 2021 that included the planning. So what did this consultancy entail? So one part of this consultancy entailed intake interviews with members of both communities. So there were about 20 Red House associates from Asian Network and Bill who the leadership teams identified. So it wasn't just the chairs, it was those of us that had other leadership positions either as committee chairs or they had spearheaded projects within communities. And we asked, hey, you know, who would be good to talk to this consultancy about their experiences? And then we felt like it was also really important to have allies in this conversation because we did want to provide, you know, more layers to these interviews that were being conducted. And so the questions that were asked were basically around the sentiment about DEI, so very general questions. We asked specifically about intersectionality and then we asked also specifically about people's workplace experiences. And then the second part of the consultancy actually involved three moderated sessions and I just popped up the titles of the three sessions that we did. So one of the things that we talked about the co-chairs of Asian Network and Billed was that we wanted to also kind of frame this in a much larger context. And so we started off with a session that was more general in scope about what was going on within the corporate world and then more specifically within the tech industry. I will say that I think it was maybe honestly a little bit too broad because you were like, you know, we want to talk about Red Hat, which I think was fair. And so we tweaked it for the second session. We talked about Red Hat and we also did small group breakout sessions for this. So people from both communities from Asian Network and Billed were there, but we also had other communities there. We had folks from Pride and Neurodiversity, Diversibilities, Women's Leadership, Unidos, they were there too. And so it ended up being really amazing because it wasn't just Asian Network and Billed. It was like all these other communities that were super like, wow, we love that you're modeling this, let's get engaged. And so they are involved in the small breakout sessions, which we didn't record. There were note takers, but we didn't record anything because we didn't want people to feel unsafe about sharing their truth. And then we have a third session that was much smaller in scope where we identified people. A lot of them were from the intake interviews that were done earlier. And we did a working session where we identified different themes that we really wanted to talk to and basically brainstorm like a list of things that maybe we could see happen. And that was a really great experience too because they felt like there had never been a space like that for them to ever talk about those things. And it's funny, you don't realize what you don't have until you realize what you don't have. And so it was a great experience. It was what was hard about, it was the first time we had done anything like this. So there was a findings report that was given to us by APCO. But it wasn't even the findings, which weren't surprising, they were consistent with a lot of other companies. But it was really actually the relationship building that happened between our communities because we got to know each other on a very personal level. And then we also got to know the leaders of other DEI communities in different ways. And then they were also just really excited about possibilities that could happen next. And so that was one thing also that I think is super important is to feel like you can inspire other groups. You can be of service not just to your respective DEI community but to everyone. And I think that's a super, super important thing to do is that if you engage and work like this, if you seek to amplify each other's voices and to shed light on issues, particularly issues that you may share in common across communities, that it can make a really, really huge difference. And of course, this provided groundwork and additional support for further DEI efforts because now we could say, hey, here are some of the things that we've done. Here are the things that were really, really successful. Here are some things that maybe need to be tweaked next time around. But it was really, really great to have that kind of information and to go through that process together over several months. So one of the things I think is really important to remember is obviously people are intersectional beings, right? So like I said, I'm really also engaged with the neurodiversity community. So I'm a woman of Filipino descent who has ADHD, who has a son that has ADHD, some parent of someone neurodiverse. You realize that people's identities aren't just one thing. There are many things. And one thing that was really striking to me is that you may be a member of several communities, but you may feel more affinity for one and less for another. But if you create a space like the Asian Network or BUILD, that creates a space for people to do additional exploration maybe around an identity that they hadn't thought about exploring before. And one interesting thing that came about when we did the Asian Network was we had quite a few Asian adoptees who approached us and said, you know what, I've never thought about the Asian identity and now I feel like I have a space where I can ask questions about it to have curiosity. You know, I had white parents, I had white siblings, I was the only Asian in my family and my community and I was never allowed to really talk about it in a way that felt like safe. And so that to me was like super meaningful that we actually created a space for people who didn't even know they wanted to explore identity and to see groups of people engaged in conversation about what it meant to be Asian, what does it mean to be, you know, particularly Asian-American because we have ours as the North American chapter. It was a really powerful and honestly a very emotional experience for a lot of our members. And I think that's super important for people to be able to have that. People may ask, you know, why would we want to have this within the workplace, you know? Obviously the pandemic really changed things. I have actually always worked remote the entire time I worked at Red Hat, but working remote was new for a lot of people, right? And so the things that are happening in the world, the things that are happening at home, I mean, honestly they were kind of showcased in their full glory during the pandemic. And you realized that the line between work and home and your experience just out and about in the world were all really tied together. You know, and that seems so obvious right now. You kind of find yourself thinking, how come that wasn't obvious before? Because I think we were able to stay dizzy and not have to think about these things. And I don't think it's a mistake that the Asian network was created during the pandemic when things really slowed down, when we had time to reflect things. And reflection sometimes involves thinking about painful things and not just about thinking about painful things but having to process them. And so I am actually really grateful in some ways for the pandemic because first I met a phenomenal group of people in the founding group and then in the community that we eventually built. And then I ended up having phenomenal relationships and friendships with people across the DEI space. And there were a few folks that I'd worked with for years and they were just colleagues, right? And actually, this applies to my co-chair Robin. We'd known each other for years. And then once we started Asian Network together, I found out that she was a Japanese American who had families that were interned during World War II. And then it was so important for her to know that that story existed for her. And I would have never known that if we didn't have this group to talk about those things. And we laughed because it's like we never talked about these things to each other. And now that we've given permission to ourselves to do that, our working relationship is so much richer. It's not just a personal relationship, but our working relationship in the workplace is so much more meaningful. Because at the end of the day, a company is composed of human beings. And I think it's super, super important to remember the human story. Like I said, I feel like I'm saying the obvious, but for whatever reason it has been obvious. I just got an article in my inbox a few days ago about the fact that we need to stop framing DEI as a business case. And I absolutely agree with that. Because people who hear that, particularly folks from the younger generation, they know how to sniff out insincerity and inauthenticity. Because basically when you say DEI is a business case, it's basically featuring human beings as commodities and resources and not as people. So I'm gonna end with that because I wanna leave some time for questions, but thank you so much for allowing me to share my experiences and my story with you today. Does anyone have any questions? Yeah, and actually, hold on one second, I think we're gonna have a mic because we have our virtual attendees, so yeah. Hello? Yes. Hi. Thank you so much for your talk. I'm curious about is, to what extent did these the different groups, to what extent did you collaborate or talk with other DEI groups and other companies? Or kind of. Yeah, so we have a quarterly cadence with other groups and I will say that it was facilitated by someone we knew through the National Association of Asian American Professionals because we knew the president of the North Carolina chapter and so she actually facilitated those meetings, but what ended up happening is once you start meeting people from other companies, is that other people who wanna start their own ERGs will start reaching out to you independently or they'll reach out to someone within the company. So I had a bunch of folks that reached out to people that they knew at Red Hat and they said, hey, we heard that you have this ERG, can you connect me with them? And so there really is kind of a domino effect where you can actually collaborate and not work outside of other companies. So we didn't really meet all that often, but once you put that story out there, external to the company, it's kind of amazing how that creates a lot of synchronicity and collaboration all of a sudden. Like it felt like it was like mushrooms that popped overnight in a forest. Like it was not something planned that often here there was all these conversations happening that were really exciting. Jen. Hey, how are you doing, Mike? Oh, very well, thank you. So I was wondering, you mentioned the North American chapter. If you'd had any similar experiences with chapters in Europe particularly and whether things felt different or even in Asia. Yeah. And if you had anything you could share with us about that, please. Yeah, so we actually don't have any chapters in Europe or in Asia, but we do have members that are within EMEA and APAC. And so we're actually in close conversation with a lot of those folks, right? That we actually have a member actually in the UK that approached us. He actually came in as an intern and was trying to get a permanent role at Red Hat and he was really, really super passionate about anti-Asian violence. And so there was definitely a theme about harassment that seemed to be everywhere. Like even some of our APAC colleagues were talking about, you know, things that happen between different countries. But the only thing about that is because the leadership group is within North America, we can only really speak to specificity to things that are happening in North America. Ideally, we would have leaders within, in region, that could explore that well. Like we've got a lot of South Asian members within Asian Network. And they've got a different set of stories related to their community. And so, you know, we've got Tash Patel, an early leadership community who can speak to the experience here in the US. And he's actually originally from the UK. So that was really nice to have that intersectionality at work. But we also have offices within India. And we don't, I don't think we serve those folks as well, but they're just happy to have a space where they can hang out in a G-chat. And they come to me all the time. They're like, hey, thanks for creating this space. It's so much fun to meet other people. And so you can't underestimate the social aspect of how meaningful that is for people just to meet each other. We recently had meetups at the different offices. We were able to fund that through Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. And the amount of excitement that generated, I think, first of all, because it was the first time people had been back to the office in a while. But also, it was like, I get to meet people that I never knew existed. And they want to meet me and I want to meet them, right? So that seems to be pretty universal globally, to be honest, is the need to connect and share stories and just say, hey, you know, I love knowing that I'm part of this larger community, this larger story. I think that's super important. Any other questions? We've got, I think, three minutes left. So I can answer one last question. It looks like I've got one last question here. Can you take the mic and then I guess we'll wrap up. Hey, great. Thank you, great talk. Thank you for sharing. How much involvement do your people team or HR have in these user groups? I know you talked about the difference between communities and allies, but is there like a red hat corporate presence? Yeah, there is. So we have a center of excellence rated to DEI that was created. It does map to people team, which is what we say red hat to HR. And so we have a new chief diversity equity inclusion officer. And I think she rolls actually into our chief people officer. So yeah, they're very, very much engaged. So our new chief diversity equity inclusion officer just started in March. And I'll say that red hats very, very young in DEI efforts. And so we're still kind of figuring things out from like a structural way or policy way to implement. Like right now I would characterize a lot of our efforts as being kind of ad hoc. I mean, there were a couple other consultancies that were happening simultaneously with ours. But right now it's just about kind of getting that data together and trying to figure out what's the best path forward from an HR perspective. So that's very much still in the work. But yes, we are partnered with them. And I think I'm about at time. So I just want to thank all of you for coming. And I want to ask people to keep in touch. Here's my email. I'm on Twitter. And then also find me in LinkedIn. And then I will be at the red hat booth afterwards if you want to have a conversation. I'd be glad to meet with you. So thank you so much.