I bet you've never heard this one before.

Disclaimer: Asian female. Send dick pics. Just kidding. Send dongle pics though. ;)

I was sitting 2 seats next to Richards the day this happened. I overheard the joke and the fork-the-repo line, and was merely annoyed at myself for turning my attention to it rather than the inane talk (capital-S-Sorry Jesse, but I don't want to hear how much funding PyLadies' auction got, I need something interesting in your 15m talk about how coding will help my toddlers).

When Richards stood up and took the photo(s?), I knew exactly what was about to happen. Call me cynical, but I got up and left the room immediately. You can tell a person has an axe to grind when they behave like that. "That's not cool"? That behaviour is not cool. Normal people confront others when they have a problem with their actions - Richards bullied Hanks into...what, exactly? There was no purpose to her action, she will not be feeling any safer after this, white males will still spell "danger" to her. She might've made herself heard, but she didn't actually say anything, she just screamed "Aaah, get this filthy white male away from me". People think eqsuire (or whatever the spelling is) is wrong to call her out on her father issues, but her words speak volumes; anybody with a psych degree will tell you they have had a case study of someone resembling Richards.

Now I can't help but reflect on how all of this helps PyCon. Well, they've lost me, so +1 there. They made a person apologise for a joke they told in private, so way to go, PyCon. Clearly no room for humour on your grounds, at least not the kinds of humour your attendees might find dangerous. I hope their CoC helps them to keep the Richards and Hanks who fail at the very simple rule we teach kindergartners everywhere: be nice to others.

In hindsight, it is a telling lesson in what not to do in similar situations. These people led a simple situation out of control. Richards more aggressively and PyCon actively (and continuously), but Hanks, too. My view is they should have stood up for themselves. It is not anyone's duty to police themselves against trigger-happy-serial-offendees. If I'm offended that's none of your problem - it's a personal issue, a hole in my worldview, it's my shortcoming and not yours. This world won't slow down for political correctness, as it hasn't in the past.