I’m sorry and I’m committed to doing better
Dear Techtonica Community,
Ever since joining the tech industry and realizing how empowering that was, I’ve wanted to help other people enjoy that same empowerment. I started Techtonica to help class straddlers, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), women, and non-binary folks overcome the many barriers into tech.
Starting Techtonica hasn’t been an easy journey, but even during the hard times I continued to believe in the cause. This experience has challenged me in important ways — I’ve had to continuously face my flaws and learn a lot about serving people better. I’ve had to confront the internal and external racism that I’ve upheld and benefitted from as part of a society built upon white supremacy. Unfortunately, at times I’ve hurt the people I wanted to help, both in the past before I started to learn about allyship and more recently. I offer you my heartfelt apologies for the harm that I caused.
I deeply regret and apologize for the offensive and hurtful video I filmed and posted 11 years ago of friends lip syncing to the song “Bootylicious” with pillows stuffed into their pants. I also deeply regret and apologize for the more recent insensitive comments I’ve made and problematic tweets I’ve shared without thinking more carefully about the impact they could have. As I listened to feedback and worked to better educate myself on these matters, I learned about hurtful and problematic actions I need to discontinue and advocate against, like the objectification of Black bodies, sharing offensive language, using colorist words, and using levity at the wrong time.
I will continue to listen and educate myself. I recognize this won’t be an easy or one-time task, but it is important to me because I care about each of you and want you to feel welcome and safe with me and at Techtonica. I want to be able to serve you better, so I am making improvements to myself and the programs and services I contribute to.
I’m profoundly sorry for every bit of pain I’ve caused, grateful for the reminders and lessons learned about the impact of my actions, and dedicated to learning better allyship. Here’s what I’m doing right now to that end:
- Supporting Black-led initiatives dedicated to addressing systemic racism such as the Anti Police-Terror Project, Equal Justice Initiative, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and others
- Supporting petitions and fundraisers for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Atatiana Jefferson, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, Andrés Guardado, Dominique Fells, Nina Pop, Sean Monterrosa, Riah Milton, Tete Gulley, Robert Fuller, and others
- Attending an inclusive allyship class, an antiracism panel, weekly DEI Community calls, Trabian Shorters’ asset-framing webinar, and Change Catalyst’s allyship webinars
- Working through Layla Saad’s workbook, Me and White Supremacy, by July 4th, alone and with family members and coworkers (I will purchase and send the ebook to up to 50 people who need it)
- Reading all the articles and books and watching all the videos listed at bit.ly/ANTIRACISMRESOURCES
Thank you to the many people who have helped me in this journey to becoming better at anti-racist allyship. And thank you for your patience, understanding, and feedback as I continue to learn and grow.
Sincerely,
Michelle Glauser
Founder & CEO, Techtonica
