I just finished listening to EricaJoy’s fantastic interview on the Re/code Decode podcast and yeah, I’m done.
When asked by host Kara Swisher what would be [her] message to Silicon Valley, Erica Joy’s said “Care, just care.”
This absolutely and totally breaks my heart. No offense to EricaJoy (I ADORE that woman); I just think we shouldn’t be put in the position to have to provide the answers, to de-marginalize ourselves. Ta-Nehisi Coates has it right
If they didn’t care when they owned us, when we lived and worked in their homes and raised their children, when will they care? If they didn’t care as we were waterhosed and chased by dogs in the street, why would they care now? They feel like they’ve already done the caring. We’re better off now and where’s their thanks, right? They think they’ve ceded the ground that they had to cede. What ever we get or don’t get now is up to us. What else do you want? is clearly the thinking and as such it seems they’ll get to us when they’re feeling particularly charitable. It is not a responsibility, it is not how they define themselves. Shaming them in the press only means they need to bail a little water and that’s when we’ll get a little something to drink…and is that what we want? Because, I can tell you. That’s not what I am out for.
Getting more excluded people into exclusive organizations can’t be the actual discussion. The goal isn’t really just inclusion, is it? Because it feels like it is and, yeah, that is not something I *really* care about. I am interested in TRANSFORMATION. So just let it be known that from now on ,I don’t want to talk about increasing inclusion in tech without talking about social and economic justice. Diversity efforts without a truly transformative vision are just ego play.
“So we are fighting our pc battles for the rights of ethnic minorities, of gays and lesbians, of different life-styles, and so on, while capitalism pursues its triumphant march…” — Slavoj Žižek, Multiculturalism or the cultural logic of multinational capitalism?
Camille E. Acey 
Leave a Reply