Have You Tried Restarting it Rebooting Diversity in the Tech Industry
Transcriber: Jiaye Wang
Reviewer: Leonardo Silva
At the age of 13,
I had already resigned myself
to a life of mediocrity.
I, unlike all of the boys
in my eighth grade class,
had not yet written an iPhone app.
At this rate, I was never going to be
the best programmer in the world.
So I figured, “Why even bother?”
Obviously, becoming a doctor
would be much easier.
And believe it or not,
my medical school plan
was actually my way of rebelling
against the expectations
that I felt had been put on me,
not just by my parents,
but also by the world that surrounded me.
I grew up in essentially
the heart of Silicon Valley.
I went to school with the children
of tech giants and industry magnates.
And yet, I already felt at that young age
that tech did not have a place for me.
I ended up having to take
my first computer science class
because it was a requirement
for my psychology major.
But I had already made this arrogant
promise to my first-year dorm mates
that I would never step foot
in the Tufts computer science building:
Halligan Hall.
So I devised a scheme to keep up the ruse.
I would take my required
computer science classes over the summer
and no one would ever be the wiser.
Unfortunately, it turned out
that I enjoyed my data structures courses
much more than my organic chemistry,
and I was much better at them.
No small part of that was due to the fact
that my first computer science class
was taught by a renegade female professor,
decked out in tattoos,
who had legally changed her name
to match that of a superhero.
Dr. Strange made complicated concepts
seem beautifully simple.
But more importantly,
she taught me that wanting to be
the best programmer in the world
would be missing the true promise
of computer science
and technology overall.
Because technology is,
at its best, a wonderful tool.
It has the potential
to solve so many issues -
not all of them.
I don’t know if it’s possible
to hack poverty or hack world peace
in one 48-hour event,
but when used responsibly,
technology can make a huge impact
on the world’s most pressing issues.
It seems we’re having a bit of trouble
figuring out how exactly to go about
using tech as a tool for good.
We still tend to conceive
of the Internet and AI
as these nascent tools
that we can watch with anticipation.
But in reality, over the past two decades,
technology has permeated our social fabric
at whiplash-inducing speeds.
Its surveillance capabilities are becoming
increasingly clear to the public.
It’s even been weaponized
to suppress the democratic process.
So right now, we are at a crossroads
between tech becoming a force for good
or continuing to pose a threat to society.
I’m here to show you
that the key to tipping that balance
is surprisingly simple.
In order to change tech for the better,
we simply need to put
the power of technology
in the hands of a diverse group of people,
people who have never before had access
to that kind of power
and people who are ready to use it
in order to make a difference.
My path to this realization
began this past March,
when Covid hit and lockdowns
had gone into effect.
Tech companies around the country
had begun to announce cancellations
of their summer internships,
which meant that students
were losing their career prospects.
Around this time, my friend Wahhab,
an advocate for diversity
and inclusion in tech,
reached out to me.
He asked if I wanted
to help him find a way
to support underrepresented students
who had lost their
tech internships due to Covid.
I obviously agreed, and from there
we built the dream team.
Wahhab, Iris, Bori, Zohaib, Obum and I,
along with the help of countless others,
spent the next couple of months
building InternHacks.
InternHacks ultimately became
a six-week internship program
in which we placed hundreds of students
on teams to build projects together.
Along the way, interns were given
opportunities to interface with recruiters
and receive mentorship
from industry professionals.
Many of the students came from
nontraditional educational backgrounds,
over 40% identified as Black or Latinx,
and more than half identified as women.
This was really exciting to us,
especially given the fact that
the tech industry at large
only reports a combined total
of 28% Black and Latinx professionals.
Simply put, our little internship program,
which we had thrown together
within a matter of months,
was significantly more diverse
than the tech industry at large.
So the team and I were really excited
to have built such a diverse cohort,
but I know I personally didn’t anticipate
how it would affect the program.
A part of me expected these projects
to resemble the projects
that my largely homogenous group of peers
had pursued throughout college.
As one of the few women of color
in many of my classes,
I struggled to feel excited
about the ideas
that my mostly white male peers
were coming up with.
Often, they would be apps
for finding hookups
or dupes of misogynistic
and even violent video games.
I naively assumed
that this was the kind of thing
that people pursued for side projects,
and it wasn’t particularly
interesting to me.
So obviously, I was shocked
when nearly every InternHacks project
featured a civic or social impact tilt.
Now, we had not explicitly mandated
that the interns pursue social issues.
These were just the problems
that were at the forefront of their minds.
Remember, this program was underway
during the summer of 2020,
amidst the resurgence
of the Black Lives Matter movement
and during an ongoing global pandemic
that magnified existing
issues of inequality.
During their presentations,
the interns shared how they had come up
with their problem statements,
and in many cases,
they had chosen problems
that either they themselves were tackling
or their communities were facing.
Let me give you a few examples.
One team’s goal was
to make food bank inventories
easily accessible to the public.
They called it Project Ample.
Project Ample was a double whammy
in that it provided real-time,
accurate information
to both those who are in need of food
and those who are looking to donate food.
The team is currently working
on building up their app in New York City
as it was one of the hardest hit
early on in the current crisis,
but they’re looking forward
to expanding it.
Another team created
a fintech solution called Ready Ball,
which provided, next of kin, a secure way
to access financial insurance
and will-related information
in the event of a tragedy.
It allows them to do all of this
without any legal or cost-related
complications and hassles.
After hearing our interns pitch
impactful and frankly refreshing projects
like these and so many more,
I realized something:
our communities have the solutions,
just not the power to enact them.
Technology can change that.
If the tech industry looked anything
like the InternHacks cohort,
we would see it being used
to solve sweeping systemic issues
and making a positive impact.
Now, I’m by no means
the first person to call
for more diversity in the tech industry,
but I do think that the motivation behind
those calls needs to be re-evaluated.
Early on in my undergraduate career,
I spent one and a half years
working in the Harvard psychology lab
that pioneered the idea
of implicit or unconscious bias.
During that time,
I worked on diversity trainings
for some of our big industry partners
that position diversity
as something that was good
for the company’s bottom line.
Now, this was a successful
approach in many cases,
and we weren’t the only ones to try it.
I’m sure you’ve seen headlines
claiming that diverse teams
improve economic performance.
And while that may be true,
the tech industry still tends
to conceive of diversity initiatives
as auxiliary or even charitable.
So clearly, this old mantra
of diversity being good for business
hasn’t exactly produced the results
that we hoped it might.
We have to reimagine this framework.
Diversity in tech is not charity.
Diversity in tech is not even
about the bottom line.
Diversity in tech is about power.
InternHacks was compelling
because we saw students from the community
empowered by technology,
working for their community
to build stronger solutions.
And why were their solutions stronger?
They understood their users.
It’s a basic principle of technology.
“Know your user.”
“Know what they want
before they even know it.”
And in many cases,
our interns understood the problems
they were tackling on a personal level,
which is not to say
that any given problem in a certain
community is that community’s problem.
Far from it.
It’s all of our problem.
Those who have the privilege
of being in leadership positions in tech
can begin to use that privilege
by supporting
underrepresented individuals,
thereby investing long term
in more equitable solutions and products.
Because the burden to fix an issue
should not be put on those
who are most affected by it.
But their perspective is invaluable
in the path to finding a solution,
and they should get to benefit
from its success.
In practice.
this looks like more diversity not only
amongst those who create our technology,
but also amongst those who lead.
Without diverse guidance
and ideation at that level,
the tech industry will never
fundamentally change.
If everyone’s going to use a product,
everyone should have a say
in how it’s made.
And just as important as it is
to recognize the myriad of perspectives
that a diverse group offers,
it’s equally as important
to recognize the variety of experiences
within each of those groups.
For example, as a South Asian woman
who grew up in the California Bay Area,
my experience is likely very different
than that of a South Asian woman
who grew up in Fargo, North Dakota.
All of those nuances are important,
and we need all of them at the table
while building tools
for the next generation.
So this is important to you,
even if you’re not in the tech industry
and don’t ever plan on entering it,
because technology is a part of your life,
no matter who you are.
It’s shaping the world you live in.
So making sure that it’s built by a group
of diverse, thoughtful individuals
who care about
the implications of their work
is in your best interest.
As consumers, we can make an effort
to be more aware of what our tech does
or even who builds it.
But to a certain extent,
technology is ubiquitous.
That’s why the public
can and should demand action
and, where necessary,
regulation of the tech industry.
The first step is knowing
what we do and don’t want
in our tech and in our communities.
If you are part of the tech industry
or you’re considering dipping your toe in,
take a moment to consider why.
What unique perspective do you have?
How can you use tech as a tool?
As you go through your education
and your career,
don’t let anyone tell you
that you’re just an engineer
so you should keep your head down.
Stay up to date with what’s happening
in the world and, more importantly,
how your work affects it.
If you’re interested in social justice
and making the world
a more equitable place,
I implore you to consider
technology as a tool on your side
rather than something to be avoided.
Because technology is the future,
but you have the power to shape it.
So what are you going to do with it?
Thank you.