Reflections - 1 year on

1 Year on reflections 

If 2020 wasn’t already a challenging year for many with the onset of COVID-19 pandemic which tragically disrupted so many people's lives, on 25 May 2020 the world changed forever. 

The brutal and mindless killing of George Floyd, on the streets of Minnesota, was something even those at the very top perches of our tech society could no longer ignore. The distributing final 9 minutes and 29 seconds of George’s life mercilessly killed by Derik Chauvin, was beamed via technology into the streams of everyone's traditional and social media. Technology had become more than a passive tool, but innocent bystanders were relying on it to forge a path of justice, critique, and mobilize a sense of momentum behind the simple idea that Black Lives Matter.

As I reflect a year on from the events that fateful day, 5 key things come to mind 

There is more work to be done 

We asked our community @ Black Tech Fest, if anything has changed one year on. The Data was quite telling.

1. 42% stated they had observed ‘no change’ in terms of awareness of racism by senior leaders in their organization.
2. 51% of respondents said they had ‘observed no change’ when it came to witnessing instances of racism whilst 30% believed ‘things have gotten worse in terms of race relations in the UK.
3. 47% of respondents involved in UK tech say they have not witnessed a positive change with regards to the treatment of Black people since the tragic murder of George Floyd and ‘things are exactly the same or ‘significantly worse.’

Yet I sat here in London a year on 25th of May 2021 emploring with many of those very leaders that indeed Black Lives do matter. One year on, it is fair to say we have grown our influence (after all, we wouldn't have even been discussing this in 2019 but yet the work has a long way to go. It cannot stop. Too many across society are disenfranchised, wary, and tired (I'll come back to this), but we should not stop at the viewpoint that since 2020, enough work has been done, or our pledges were enough. The reality is for many, nothing has changed, you are just more aware of how they feel. I am, despite many questionable things I see, enthused by the activities I see over the last year, but it must continue

A lot of the sentiment was empty

Our research suggests that 38% of respondents believed their employment or place of study’s response to the protests and killing of George Floyd last year was tokenistic and much of the data proves that out. After all, those who had the least representation actually said the most. A new study of diversity in the technology industry found companies that made statements of solidarity had 20% fewer Black employees on average than those that didn’t. Perhaps more concerningly those were just how little of that manifested into delivery, Afterall saying one thing is different from doing something. $50 billion was cited to be pledged toward racial equity following Floyd’s murder, according to a study by Creative Investment Research. Since then, only $250 million has actually been spent or committed to a specific initiative.

I’m not duped by this. As someone who runs an org that should be in line to be a direct recipient of such funds, I know first hands it's been considerably harder to come by than it was (i hope) intended to be so. The picture is also similar in Europe too.

The macroeconomic circumstances of this youth unemployment crisis are exacerbating disparities

34% of black graduates are unemployed. Let that settle in your mind. 1 in 3 students who are black who have a decent if not good degree, still cannot find ANY job. This is up over 50% from 22% pre-pandemic and sits at just 13% for white graduates. Now let's make this clear, none of those statistics is what we want to see for our young people, and the pandemic has made it worse. The sad thing is, beyond my own work, I don't see what (apart from natural economic growth, and time) is going to improve the situation. I fear a lost generation and a year on I'm no more optimistic about that outcome despite the attention to racial injustice and disparities we’ve seen. Even in that much-maligned government report, this disparity was largely washed over and reduced to confusingly conflating muddling with other factors to somehow hide the fact that if you are Black, your chances in this society are worse even when taking educational attainment into fact.

The tiredness many have and are experiencing must not be allowed to be exploited

I’ve seen some worrying musings of folks who have recently been exposed to such injustice say that they are now tired. The old adage is, imagine what it's like to be a Black Woman then (and the stats say you’ll be paid less for your time thinking about it if you are one too). Companies such as Coinbase and Basecamp’s attempts to ban politics at work are seemingly fine if you’re a white straight male CEO whose problems with racism boil down to disgruntled employees, rather than any direct racial discrimination you've faced when building your org. We must not allow the reclamation of “tiredness” (and let's be clear you can be tired and a White straight male CEO) for reasons of discussing racism to take root by a privileged few in society who are able to shut down discussion. 

My reflections here are simple, there have been a few worrying instances of it, and I do hope these do not take root.   

I couldn’t be prouder to do the work I do 

Having tripled the size of the team, doubled Revenues, and 3x‘d the number of our partners in the space of a troubled year, I reflected on a conversation I had today when someone asked me why I left some of my previous roles. Whilst I won't talk about the push factors, a few things are clear, I'm enjoying focusing my time and attention on something I am passionate about, I’m producing the best work of my life, managing my own time, output, and autonomy with it. I’ve scaled a team I'm incredibly enthused to work with every day, and a combination of all of those things has led to a number of personal successes, many of which would not be possible anywhere else. 

Thank you to those who have been part of that.

So what do you take from this? Well, it's a bit like 2 good 2 bad, but to be honest there is a lot to be hawkish about on this journey for Racial Justice, and more equitable technology industry. The challenges are still numerous and pressing, and we have only taken one meaningful step forwards in the year. We haven't bought everyone along with us, and we do need to make sure that happens to be successful. We shan't let folks who want to dissuade us that other things are more pressing, profitable, or proportionate and through that, and entirely that we will produce work everyone can be proud of!