Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
I first watched the first episode of When they finally see us and couldn’t watch further episodes. It was a difficult watch and didn’t get around to finishing the show. Part of the reason is I remember the case as I grew up, it was just before the murder of Stephen Lawrence from memory.
If you have not seen the series, go watch it and look out for the Opera interview with the 5. You will be in tears…
Its worth noting this clip was from the TV show Black-ish in 2016.
Its a powerful but simple speech which speaks volumes about where we are in 2020. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to bring up children in the system of racism we live in.
Emmanuel Acho sits down to have an “uncomfortable conversation” with white America, in order to educate and inform on racism, system racism, social injustice, rioting & the hurt African Americans are feeling today.
Its still early days but I quite like it, especially the discussion with Matthew McConaughey who brings up the notion of “White Allergies” – I have never heard the term
Where we were raised and how we were raised in our history growing up, there’s certain just imported obvious ways that we’re prejudiced in ways that we don’t even understand. We got white allergies and may not even know it. And so, I was sitting there, you know, looking at my own life, and I go, all right. To me, Longview High School, it’s over 50% Black. I applied to Grambling (a historically Black college). I was the first white [person] to ever work at Catfish Station, [a] Black blues bar on 6th Street. I am married to a non-white immigrant. I have Black friends all through my life and still do. But, what prejudices may I have via white allergies that I may not even be aware of?
I think like myself Acho hadn’t heard the term but got it… He pointed to a example of backhanded compliments, such as “You don’t talk Black,” or ”You’re pretty for a Black girl.”
This reminded me of an experience I had in America on the road while getting some food, I think I was in Iowa or Wisconsin
I walked in to a takeaway place, the white woman with blonde hair behind the counter. Says to me
“Yo yo brother, whatsup, how ya doin, whatdu want?”
I looked shocked and said in my normal English accent…
Ummmm what….!?
She was so shocked like I had suddenly changed my form completely. I can’t forget the way her face and posture changed.
It was clear she hasn’t heard a black man with a British accent and you could see her world view evaporate like a magician.blowing a puff of smoke.
I recently watched 13th and learned a lot including about ALEC (plus the companies which have dropped support) and the effect of systematic racism on the crime & punishment systems.
Some quotes to think about…
Prison industrial complex, the system, the industry, it is a beast. It eats black and Latino people for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I think a beast is exactly right. The beast no one wants to talk about?
Police violence, that isn’t the problem in and of itself. It’s reflection of a much larger,brutal system of racial and social control known as mass incarceration, which authorizes this kind of police violence.
Exactly what I’ve been saying. This isn’t about the police, its about the system which encourages excessive force as black lives don’t matter.
People say all the time,
“I don’t understand how people could’ve tolerated slavery. How could they have made peace with that? How could people have gone to a lynching and participated in that?
How did people make sense of the segregation, this white and colored-only drinking…
That’s so crazy.
If I was living at that time, I would have never tolerated anything like that.”
And the truth is, we are living at this time, and we are tolerating it…
Its a quote which sums it up. Its hard to see how the status-quo is the problem when you are in it.
Updated
Just today John Oliver from Last Week Tonight, makes clear the threat of Covid19 and people stuck in Jail and Prison where social distancing isn’t an option and nor is soap! As most people in American prison’s are people of colour, it doesn’t take a lot to realize how devastating this virus is in a prison.
Well worth watching if you have access to HBO or a VPN.
I think this says so much…
Black communities have been telling the nation, for more than a century, that they have been targeted, beaten, falsely accused and killed by the police and other institutions meant to protect them.
They have not been believed until recently, when the rise in camera phones and social media finally enabled them show and disseminate proof.
Even after the video of George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, there remains defensiveness and denial among white Americans and institutions—a defensiveness that prevents change to the root of the problem: systemic racism. In this video, eight powerful voices share perspectives on blackness in America, and why white inaction and white politeness must end.
To learn more about what you can do to end the racist status quo, educate yourself and take action. Here is Robin DiAngelo’s list of resources: https://robindiangelo.com/resources/
I saw this piece from Vice and was shaking my head in agreement going through the list.Heres some key ones for me…
2. Don’t assume that all people of color share the same views. We are not a monolith.
Absolutely… Can’t tell you how many times people assume they know what my views are simply because of my race
6. Oh, and rest assured that literally no person of color ever wants you to get back from holiday, show off your tan and excitedly exclaim, “Look, I’m almost as dark as you!” Cease and desist.
I always find tans super strange, especially when people compare them to my skin. Stop doing it…
20. Understand that some days are even more mentally exhausting for people of color thanks to the news cycle. Try not to badger us for our opinions on the latest atrocity that has occurred. Leave us to grieve.
I generally ignore the news cycle as I know it doesn’t help my mental health. If you want thoughts on news items, let it sink in first and see what other people of colour are writing.
22. Share articles relating to the everyday experiences of race and racism written by people of color.
There is the hashtag #everydayracism, use it, repost, retweet and retoot. Just like there is #everydaysexism. More people see it the more peopel will realise.
23. But don’t be that person who is weird and sycophantic and loves to demonstrate their wokeness constantly to the people of color around them. Be thoughtful.
You don’t think I notice when you say Yo to me but not to anyone else? We notice
26. Have a critical eye when watching TV and movies. How are they portraying people of color and why? What purpose does it serve?
Just like the Bechdel test you should check out the DuVernay test
31. If you have kids, buy them dolls of color and books with characters of color.
I don’t have kids but I was very happy when a friend bought his daughter a black doll. That child will hopefully grow up being much more comfortable with people of colour
42. People can be Black and gay and disabled and trans and middle class. Blackness is expansive. It doesn’t look one way. Keep this in mind.
Indeed! This is why we need to start thinking much more intersectionaly.
48. Never try and pull any uninvited “race play” shit in the bedroom. Seriously, what the fuck?
I had quite a few times while dating, discussions about never having sex with a black man. Its massively upsetting and is like number 50, being called exotic! If this happened in the bedroom it would be over in a heartbeat.
59. Look around your workplace—are the only people of color cleaners or assistants? What can you do to change that? (The answer is almost never “nothing.”)
One of my biggest problems, companies who have a diverse workforce but all the people of colour are cleaners, security guards, assistants, etc.
70. Don’t? Vote? For? Racist? Politicians? Can’t believe I need to say this one but it seems like possibly, maybe, some of y’all did not get this memo.
Its simple, don’t vote for those who make their views clear about which side of the fence they sit. People seem to forget this when election time comes around.
78. If you have ever thought a phrase like “Black lives matter” is too assertive, consider why you’re so uncomfortable with Black people standing up for our humanity.
Absolutely… You need to check your white fragility because people of colour of dying
90. Care about race on the 364 days that aren’t Martin Luther King Jr. day.
Black history month is something which bugs me, I get there are seasons but it feels so insulting that everything is held to then or not bundled together because of that month.
96. Understand that nothing in your life has been untouched by your whiteness. Everything you have would have been harder to come by if you had not been born white.
Its hard to discuss but we are getting closer to the point when we can finally have those conversations. That is progress
99. Recognize that fighting racism isn’t about you, it’s not about your feelings; it’s about liberating people of color from a world that tries to crush us at every turn.
The problem is systematic racism, we need each other to make things better for everyone.
I found this on the black leaders facebook network which I was invited to a while ago. I have had at least a couple of these thrown at me in the past. Usually with people who just met me. I do tend to look up thinking here we go again…
Most minorities face microaggressions. If you are woman, LGBTQ+, have a disability, are neurodiverse, etc.
Its tiresome and the people who say it just don’t think. But its certainly time to start making super clear its not alright by playing the question back on the other person.
Spoiler alert!!!
If you have not seen the Watchmen the TV series, Do not watch the explainer above. Instead watch this one,
I can’t tell you how amazing the TV series is and its excellent follow up to the excellent film.
I’m watching it again because although its amazing, and I needed to watch it all again to understand it all. However I also wanted to watch it during the black lives matter protests for its extremely strong race in America storyline and references. This is how I found out about Tulsa in 1921.
There is so much to say about Clearview AI. If you never heard of them, well put it this way…
They have amassed a database of peoples faces by illegally scraping the likes of facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube, flickr, etc, etc… All the companies have sent legal cease and desists but Clearview don’t seem to really care too much. Recently they were hacked allowing exposing all those pictures and training data to attackers.
Because of this and my experience with the IBM Dif project, I wanted to know if I’m in the database and the best way to find out is to send a GDPR request. This all follows my GDPR request from Houseparty just recently,
I think they have gotten serious about the EU and the UK because I didn’t need to send my usual email. I filled in the form using my junk mail and used my Estonian digital ID for verification.
Look forward to seeing what comes back. I’m expecting quite a lot.
Of course IBM, Microsoft and Amazon have backed away (for now) from their facial recognition systems because the huge amount of bias of the datasets have against black people. We will see how long they will keep this line over the year and next year?
Update
In my inbox from for the two requests…
EU/UK/Switzerland Data Access Form Request
EU/UK/Switzerland Data Objection Form Request
This e-mail is to confirm that we have received your EU/UK/Switzerland Data (Access/Objection) Request. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Team Clearview
There is a lot happening around black lives matter and sometimes its worth celebrating some of small things as we move closer to a much more antiracist stance (don’t get me wrong I know its a long long way off, but hearing some news it feels closer than ever)
BLM supporter speaks out after carrying counter-protester to safety
When I saw the picture on twitter I was blown away, I read the story and then found the channel4 interview.
Reddit’s co-founder resigns, asks to be replaced by black candidate
This happened quite soon after the first set of protests and I was surprised. Reddit has had its problems in the past and this could be actually a genius move.
Removing slave and master from openZFS, GitHub abandons ‘master’ and ‘slave’ and theres been moves to remove terms like whitelist.
I remember the first time I learned to build a PC being faced with the IDE/UDMA bus with master and slave devices. It bugged me but just lived with it. Its about time it was changed because it can easily be called something else. Its only legacy which has kept it as it is.
A number of movies and TV shows have faced up to their bias and racist prejudice. This of course has upset people but they will likely return with a content warning.
List of companies supporting black lives matter (at least on social media channels)
A nice list with a archive which will be very useful to look back in 6, 12, 18, 36 months time.
A friend (thatgirlvim) shared with me this fundraiser for a research study into Diverse & Equal Black Tech
Finally another good friend floated this lecture series to me recently. Modernity + Coloniality A free online summer course on coloniality and decoloniality. Looks really good but I’m not so keen on the open zoom, after my experience of zoombombing.
Lots of people are focused on whats happening in America, but its super important to remember we are facing a worldwide system of racism. From judges to the police. It happens everywhere including the UK and doesn’t always manifest in death.
I found Trevor Noah was right on the money this week. Especially in the wake of the reaction to the Bristol police’s decision not to stop people pulling down the statue last week.
Warning there are some more shocking scenes of the police throwing their weight around, no one dies (this time).
I also haven’t posted this intense interactive piece on my blog. Its the last 8min 46secs of George Floyd’s life without video or sound. If you haven’t seen the videos including the NYTimes one which I posted about a while ago, this will give you a sense of the last moments of a black mans life, under the knee of the police.
"Whilst I am disappointed … I do understand why it’s happened"
Supt Andy Bennett from @ASPolice on the toppling of the Edward Colston statue… pic.twitter.com/eWYL3CPt5c
— BBC West Live (@BBCBristol) June 7, 2020
Sorry but Chief Constable Andy Bennett was absolutely right to leave the protestors last week alone as they torn down the statute of Edward Colston.
Any kind of confrontation would have ended up in something far worst. Can you even imagine the police standing in the way of protesters defending a slave owner!
No, Andy Bennett showed incredible cultural intelligence. No matter what anyone else says.
“To arrest suspects would likely to lead to injuries to suspects, injuries to officers, and people who were not involved in damaging property being thrown into a very violent confrontation with the police that could have had serious ramifications for the city of Bristol and beyond,” Mr Marsh said.
“Can you imagine scenes of police in Bristol fighting with protesters who were damaging the statue of a man who is reputed to have gathered much of his fortune through the slave trade?
“I think there would have been very serious implications and whilst I certainly do not condone crime or damage of any sort, I fully support the actions of my officers.
I found this tragically funny… enough said.
During the Bristol Black lives matter protests on Sunday, Colston’s statute ended up in the docks. I did say there will be larger questions hung around the necks of other slave trade statutes around the UK and maybe elsewhere including America.
A lot of the discussion have been bubbling under but it feels like things are actually changing? Ok so far Robert Milligan: Slave trader statue removed from outside London museum is the only one. But questions are being asked…
Cecil Rhodes: Protesters demand Oxford statue removal
The Scottish streets and monuments built on the slave trade
Slave owner statue debate ‘long overdue’ says Sturgeon
Winston Churchill: Hero or villain?
Updated
Bill Thompson made an excellent point to me via another person he knows.
Those statutes were never permanently fixed to the base. Almost like someone knew their day would come one day. So much of what we see seems unmovable but they are built on poor foundations.
Its an analogy which can apply to many different things including the system of racism or the massive tech corps currently in play.