The Tech World is Squandering the Opportunity to Show Up For Inequality
In failing to contribute real solutions, tech has become part of the problem.
About a year ago, I came up with an absolutely amazing idea for an app. Details aside, the software would have filled a tiny hole in the existing technology solution space. It would have a very niche market, a really specific customer base, but that was okay — I just had to figure out who my customers were and how to reach them, right? So I signed up for a two-week intensive workshop in customer base research, to be held over Zoom, of course. I was so excited.
Then George Floyd was murdered. And the police brutality started. And, boiled together in the pot of COVID-induced anxiety, unemployment, and collective outrage at governmental systems, the anger around these issues reached a fever pitch. From inside our temperature-regulated, Cloud-encapsulated atmosphere of app development, my workshop cohort and I merely watched.
And as I began presenting my product idea to the rest of the group, as I heard the words coming out of my mouth, I thought, “who cares?” They felt sullied and bitter, like I wanted to spit them out and leave. I spaced out during discussions and while other groups were presenting. When contrasted with pain and suffering of the…
