Show For The Tech, Stay For The People
I began writing this article while live reporting from Nikema Prophet’s Twitter Space: “Center Black voices and prioritize Black people without announcing it.” For those of you who do not yet follow Nikema, take the time to do it now. She works tirelessly every day to uplift and encourage the Black community in tech. I try never to miss even one.
My favorite thing about Nikema’s spaces is that she does not shy away from the topics that often float in the air as elephants in the room. I’d followed Nikema on Twitter before Spaces were introduced, so when I saw a few weeks ago that she was speaking about mental health and preserving one’s peace within the tech industry, I had to check it out. After attending several of her Twitter Spaces since then, I can say that Nikema has sold me on the platform’s ability as a whole to create widespread change.
In Thursday’s Twitter Space, Nikema described the possibility of hosting Black spaces - both virtual and live - without explicitly calling them Black spaces. Of the many reasons she presented for this restructuring, the one that resonated with me most was protecting Black spaces from the infiltration of White people looking to capitalize on Black power without throwing any of it back. The idea, as Tanni, a fellow attendee, expressed, is to “center our Blackness without making it the sole purpose for why we do everything.” A global tech conference that happens to have only Black speakers is as central to innovation as the tech spaces that have been White-only for years upon years. So why do we always need to announce events that are pivotal to our collective growth as a species and happen to center on the Black community as “Black spaces”?
I run into the same conflict of interest branding and rebranding #DataFemme. A large majority of my episodes feature women and women of color like myself. I couldn’t be prouder of my guests and their work. But the fear is that marketing #DataFemme how I originally intended may not actually promote the change for which I created it. Unfortunately, we aren’t yet at the point in our society where we should be - where the White decision makers show up for our content for its inherent value knowing it is created by us and for us. Throwing them a bone in my case meant rebranding #DataFemme as a term used to describe me as the host. The audience knows just by listening that my episodes mainly consist of guests who are women of color. But technically, I am the #DataFemme who could interview everyone.
I hope that this strategic way of defining our projects soon becomes unnecessary. But until that is the case, Nikema and her Twitter Spaces soften the gap between how the world is and how it should be by simply being unafraid to tell it how it is: “We don’t have to be the first to set ourselves aside because we are already aside.” I have so often meditated on this very issue but had failed to express its essence so succinctly. We don’t announce ourselves to apologize, but it can often feel that way after experience so many instances in which our designated events are not taken as seriously as White-created ones.
After all, it’s not as if we never want White people in our spaces. Some spaces are, as Nikema puts it, “for the family,” where the goal is to inspire and innovate without needing to explain ourselves. In these spaces, we can gain the energy and confidence to share our missions, feelings, work and ideas with a larger audience. “When I’m sharing my Black experience, I want White people to hear it,” said Nikema. “Otherwise how will they know?”
I look forward to all the amazing 2022 versions of the events I love: #BlackInData, Nolavate Black and AfroTech. I’m also committed to using my #DataFemme platform and influence to ensure that events such as, but hardly limited to, Grace Hopper, NOLA Entrepreneur Week, Collision Conference, RStudio Conference and more have a large percentage of Black speakers and organizers. And as for my own upcoming episode releases and events, I will keep Nikema’s brilliant advice in mind: “Make it a Black event. Share your Black face if you organized it. Don’t say it’s for Black people but make it about Black people.”
Inspired by this article? Join the #BlackTechTwitter community to participate and support! Many links to relevant spaces are available on my own Twitter profile here.