This originally appeared in Issue 035 of UX Writing Events.
Twitter finally did it. Big whoop. I wrote on LinkedIn recently that I’m embarrassed to be a tech worker right now, but if I can be even more honest with you, the feeling is closer to shame.
I’ve never worked at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Discord, Shopify, Spotify, or any of the many other tech companies that have knowingly platformed white supremacists and white-supremacy-friendly grifters in recent years. But I am still a tech worker. Today, I’m feeling no less culpable, certainly no holier, than the folks who do and have worked at those companies. The whole damned industry is guilty. We’ve got a lot of work to do.
What to do with this feeling, beyond my general call-it-like-I-see-it “activism” through my own channels and throwing money at good causes, is still something I’m working on. It’s a tired refrain to say that talking about it isn’t enough, but I’m not going to not say it because I’m tired. I took briefly to Twitter recently to implore folks to ask hard questions of speakers from big tech companies at any events you’re part of, and am reminding myself now to do the same.
Anyway, that’s where my head is at, entering just the second work week of 2021. Hope you and yours are safe and well amidst everything.