LongformMay 22 2019

Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech

Jessie Daniels,
Mutale Nkonde,
Darakhshan Mir

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.”

To follow the project and learn more, visit https://racialliteracy.tech/.