How can we do less harm to communities of color with the technology we create? In their new paper Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech, Data & Society 2018-19 Fellows Jessie Daniels and Mutale Nkonde and 2017-18 Fellow Darakhshan Mir urge tech companies to adopt racial literacy practices in order to break out of old patterns.

Conceived and launched under Data & Society’s fellowship program, this paper moves past conversations of implicit bias to think about racism in tech at a systems-level. The authors offer strategies grounded in intellectual understanding, emotional intelligence, and a commitment to take action.

“The real goal of building capacity for racial literacy in tech is to imagine a different world, one where we can break free from old patterns. This will take real leadership to take this criticism seriously and a willingness to assess the role that tech products, company culture, and supply chain practices may have in perpetuating structural racism.”