Everytime people discuss the hacker community and its diversity, I see someone waving the "meritocracy" argument. "It is not our fault those minorities are not well represented, if they knew more stuff or did more stuff, they would have a better status".
It is easy to see how that argument would be flawed, as meritocracy is a power structure, and whenever a power structure is created, after some time it tends to reinforce its own community. But that is not my point right now.
I realized that the idea of meritocracy is so deeply ingrained in the hacker mindset that we lost sight of what was important. I can see how that idea is appealing. Once you prove you know stuff, people will recognize you, and that will be enough to motivate you to learn. Except it is not. The meritocracy is just another way to exclude people. Once you consider someone's status by how much you perceive they know, things go downhill.
Some are good at faking knowledge. Some know their craft, but do not talk that well. Some are not experts, but have good ideas. Some would like to learn without being judged. Everytime you dismiss someone's opinion because of their apparent (lack of) knowledge, everytime you favor someone's opinion because of their apparent knowledge, you are being unscientific and unwelcoming. You are not a hacker, you are just a jerk.
Somewhere along the way, people got too hung up on meritocracy, and forgot that you hack for knowledge and for fun, not for status. It is all about testing stuff, learning, sharing what you learned, discussing ideas and helping others do the same, whatever their skills or their experience. Status and power structures should have nothing to do with that.
Guess what? I pointed out that bad behaviour, but I am guilty of it too. I have to constantly keep myself in check, to avoid judging people instead of judging ideas. That's alright. Doing the right thing always requires some effort.