These are shared resources and thoughts from our CAT Salon and #d-antiracism channel.
Links to other resources
List of tech & antiracism resources by Dr. Noble at the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry
Racial justice and climate justice reading list from the Purpose Disruptors
CAT Salon: Processing the climate crisis in times of social upheaval — summary
In one of our CAT Salons (#d-cat-salon) we talked about processing the climate crisis in times of social upheaval (Presentation slides).
Take-aways
- Show up in real life
- Conversations
- Talk about things that are too often not talked about (this includes issues around racism and climate but lots of other issues too)
- Don’t just talk about those things in a superficial manner but be willing to open up and have (potentially uncomfortable) conversations about what we’re thinking and how we’re feeling
- Be open to make mistakes and be willing to learn from them
- Communities
Just inviting Black people and people from minority backgrounds into conversations and groups isn’t enough. People staying in the conversation and not feeling left out is equally important.
Recommendations
Newsletters
- Anti-Racism Daily by Nicole Cardoza (who you can support on Patreon)
Podcasts
Yikes podcast — Ep 7: Black Lives Matter Is More Than A Trend (support them on Patreon)
- The inseparable link between climate justice and racial justice
- Hot Take hosted by Mary Annaïse Heglar
Organizations
- Climate Reframe, amplifying BAME voice in the UK environmental movement [PDF list of all the speakers]
People
- Mary Annaïse Heglar [Medium] [Twitter]
- Ijeoma Oluo [Website] [Twitter] [Talk at Google]
Videos
Bourdieu’s social theory and our work in tech (00:57:56)
Describes how our societal system creates violence and how the concept of cultural and social capital fits into this. I learned about Bourdieu at university and it’s really good to see the theory applied to the tech industry [specifically agile & peer programming]
Key-takeaway: Perpetuating inequity doesn’t even require prejudice or bias on the part of the person with power. Inattention is enough.
TED talk on code switching (00:10:43)
Code-switching is originally defined as the switching between different languages but has been redefined to encompass non-verbal communication and the way we behave in different groups of people as well.
Twitter threads
Chevron using the current [June 18th 2020] discourse around race to delay climate action. Twitter thread
Shared articles
- Read Up on the Links Between Racism and the Environment [NY Times]
- What Climate Grief Taught Me About the Coronavirus [New Republic]
- Talking about Race, Learning about Racism: The Application of Racial Identity Development
- Theory in the Classroom [Racial Equity Tools]
- Why climate changes is a civil rights battle [The Correspondent]
“If people really matter, and especially if Black and marginalised people really matter, then everything changes. Confronting that truth can feel like a personal attack, but it can also feel liberating. Our job, if we care about the climate and our future, is to make it feel liberating.”
It touches on a few examples of inherent racism in a lot of the policies proposed around climate like ‘sacrifice zones’ when people talk about bangladesh and so on. This paragraph is good on how effective work on climate won’t just look like EVs and high tech:
“Viewed through this lens, the most effective climate policies may not look like traditional climate policies at all. Expanding low-carbon access to food, healthcare, and housing become cornerstone climate policies. And being actively anti-racist is perhaps the most important climate policy because the new system can’t come from the failures of the past.” - I’m a black climate expert. Racism derails our efforts to save the planet [Washington Post]
- Black Environmentalists Talk About Climate and Anti-Racism [NYT]
- Racism is Killing the Planet [Sierra Club]
- People of Colour Experience Climate Grief More Deeply Than White People [Vice]
- Dear Allies You will be tired but you must persist [Medium]
- Climate Change Isn’t Racist — People Are [Medium]
- Language of Appeasement [Inside Higher Ed]
It talks about going from diversity and inclusion to equity and justice in the higher education system but some of the thoughts can be applied to the workplace just as well. Here’s one little excerpt of the article:
Diversity asks, “Who’s in the room?”
Equity responds, “Who is trying to get in the room but can’t? Whose presence in the room is under constant threat of erasure?”
Inclusion asks, “Have everyone’s ideas been heard?”
Justice responds, “Whose ideas won’t be taken as seriously because they aren’t in the majority?”
Diversity asks, “How many more of [pick any minoritized identity] group do we have this year than last?”
Equity responds, “What conditions have we created that maintain certain groups as the perpetual majority here?”
Inclusion asks, “Is this environment safe for everyone to feel like they belong?”
Justice challenges, “Whose safety is being sacrificed and minimized to allow others to be comfortable maintaining dehumanizing views?” - What we’ve learned from seven years of working to make RC 50% women, trans, and non-binary [Recurse Center]
If anyone’s working on changing hiring & recruitment practices, this post from Recurse Center (a programming retreat) shares strategies & tactics for gender-based diversity. There is a lot of overlap with racial diversity as well
- So you want to talk about race in tech with Ijeoma Oluo [TechCrunch]
Author Ijeoma Oluo used to work in tech and talks about how the tech industry sees itself and how it’s like a religion. She also talks about the potential of the internet and mentions Nigeria as a positive example.