Being other-ed
Seen Yet Unseen: A Black Woman Crashes the Tech Fraternity by Bari A. Williams
non-fiction
Blackstone Publishing, May 2024
An introduction, twelve chapters that report and examine, a conclusion, acknowledgments, and extensive notes, together reveal the numerous ways in which excluding Black women from every aspect of the tech industry perpetuates harmful stereotypes (despite feedback supported by legitimate hard data) that are ultimately problematic for everyone, eventually.
Maybe that's the intention.
from Chapter 7: This Is What True Allyship Looks Like
Diversity exhaustion is the feeling of being tired of hearing about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and fatigue with doing the work it requires... There's another form of fatigue in which companies are frustrated with the lack of progress with their DEI efforts, no doubt because proper allocation of budget and resources haven't been afforded to those doing the work.
Since the slaughter, forced relocation, involuntary reprogramming attempts of indigenous people at Indian boarding schools, the enslavement of kidnapped Black and African people, and the internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent happened over the course of hundreds of years and multiple generations, why do so many people, companies, organizations, and societies expect to eradicate entrenched systemic racism in a few quick years, with ease?
Maybe their stated intentions to do so are mostly PR lip service.
from Chapter 12: We Would've Stayed Had You Done This: How Tech Companies Could Have Made Us Want to Stay
Tech executives seemingly think that employee recruitment is a one-time occurrence. It is not... If the goal is to retain Black women, then you have to provide us with an environment that is actually welcoming of us.
Maybe the actual goal is to appear to want to retain Black women at tech companies.
Gatekeeping, maintaining the racist, sexist, classist, elitist, ableist status quo while promoting the idea of a color-blind meritocracy seems to have gained momentum since the publication of this text as a growing list of major companies dismantle their DEI initiatives. Seen Yet Unseen provides accessible strategies for healthy, productive workplace inclusion that benefit everyone. Time will reveal which people, companies, and organizations are genuine in their dedicated motivation for working toward mutually beneficial outcomes.
This author's vulnerable candor in sharing the details of her personal experiences in the tech industry makes this an emotionally intimate read as well as an intellectually rigorous engagement regarding the intersection of workplace, society, and information technology. in many unhealthy, counter-productive ways the brave new world resembles the same old world.
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