Ah, it is Black History Month. The wonderful time of year where White people pretend they don’t participate, facilitate or have anything to do with racism of any sort because they posted a black square back in the summer and an MLK Jr quote recently for the selfish sake of virtue signaling/moral grandstanding. It’s less about actually amplifying Black voices, it’s more about amplifying themselves while they use Black folks as a pedestal to stand on (so, business as usual, basically). It’s pretty obvious because by the end of the month, they’re no less prejudiced than when the month started. And they go back to drowning out Black voices unless it’s Black pain, misery or trauma – then they try to put a price tag on it or chat about it to chalk up some awards. Basically, the ye olde White Man’s Burden concept, but the 2020/2021 Edition. I usually like Black History Month – for me. Instead, it gets hijacked by “well-meaning” (read: self-serving) White people. Which makes me dislike looking at anything to do with Black History Month more and more. I just want to engage in Black history in peace.

What many look like right now

Here is one very good example – Google:

Google likes to pretend they care about Black voices and Black people. For example, the bottom of Chrome would have little tickers that makes them look like they want you to learn about Black people, history, culture and more. Even the Youtube logo is something in reference to Black folks everyday. Then there’s the lip service note they posted back during the summer [link] from Google’s current CEO Sundar Pichai (inb4 “He’s not White!” You’re right, he’s is a South East Asian man – funny though that Non-Black PoC love being anti-Black or ignoring anti-Black issues … even when talking about Black issues). There’s other things Google has done since the summer that is basically lip service touring meant to make Google look good, not improve the Terrible Plight of the Modern Negro, as they no doubt see it:

“Google to launch internal anti-racism training programs by early 2021” (HR Drive)

“Black Googler Creates Anti-Racism Resource Guide for All” (Colorlines)

“You can’t be anti-poverty without being anti-racist” (Google Fiber)

Google says it will hire more black workers at senior levels (Fortune)

There are more and other examples but we would be here all day if I were to list all of Google’s racist shortcomings. I remember when I was younger and Google showed a video of what is it like to work at Google when I was in school (back when Google was just starting to become important) and everyone was White – except for the security team, which was all Black. (By the by, that’s usually a pretty good sign a company or place of work is pretty prejudiced, when Black folks are always in security and janitorial (and usually contractual) positions – no matter how many “anti-racism” efforts they say they have. Ditto with Brown folks being put in these positions as well.) So Google’s bias is pretty deep seated. For a super quick overview, just watch Watch Dogs 2 version “Noogle”. The basic by-line of Google for Black workers is “Just because you’re finally in the door doesn’t mean we won’t look for endless ways to shove you back out of it”.

Here is Google being more honest than they think:

Google ouster of top AI researcher Timnit Gebru draws sharp new scrutiny of how it treats Black employees  (USA Today)

#SiliconValleySoWhite: Black Facebook and Google employees speak out on big tech racism (USA Today)

Second top Black female Google employee says she was recently ousted (NBC News)

Diversity, HBCU Recruiter Allegedly Fired At Google Over Her Baltimore Accent (HBCU Buzz)

That last one is pretty important to me: I’m a Black Baltimorean with an extensive background in tech (I even previously worked at NIST Library and my mask is self modded with fans and a voice amplifier). I always knew this was how Google was so I’m not surprised that they would go as far as say an accent was a disability. These issues also sprang up since the summer but have been forever long standing. Nice to know that I could rebuild a Hadron Colider in my basement and I still wouldn’t be allowed in simply because I have a regional accent. I wonder what Pichai’s accent is to get to the CEO position – super aggravating Valley accent? The kind that makes you sound like an extra from Clueless? Nice to know Google are worried about accents, because that’s somehow super important to technology, where most of it is text based. I hope they can one day explain how spoken regional accents affects the act of sitting down and writing code and how dialect is a disability. And wait, Google doesn’t like hiring or keeping people with actual disabilities? Do job interviews at Google include speech tests to see how you pronounce “Arduino”? Funny, despite my accent, the robots and inventions I build still run and my 3D printer works fine. And I have actual disabilities, none of which are the dialect I was born in.

Google likes to present itself as a forward-thinking company but they’re just as bad as all the others. They just dress it up as “oh, it’s just no big deal”. That’s why it is always weird when they support young Black projects – it’s not like they would hire any of those kids later or want to keep them.

They’re not the only company that acts like this – there’s Facebook, Twitter, Electronic Arts (especially as it pertains to The Sims series), Twitch, etc etc. They all have long, marked histories of being very anti-Black, even when they say they are standing beside Black folks. Nah, not really, they’re just grandstanding to make themselves look better and make money. It’s also part of why they rush to donate to Black places when Black focused tragedies occur, I mean, it worked for Harvey Weinstein when he donated to feminist and pro-women projects to cover up that he’s a serial rapist.  Didn’t change the fact that he’s a serial rapist, he just kept donating and harming women. These companies posting squares and donating doesn’t change the fact they participate in harming and undermining Black people, whether individually or as a group. For example, Facebook likes reprimanding Black users who speak out about anti-Black issues or simply vent that dealing with racism sucks. It’s been a long standing problem.

For those going “That’s Instagram, not Facebook” – guess who owns Instagram?

And these are large companies, not individuals – which is what companies, big and small, are made of. If non-Black people want to participate in Black History Month, do it quietly. No point in pretending there isn’t a prejudiced bone in their body by basically showing the “nice” version of it everywhere they can. Besides, they’re already showing it by waiting for a single month in a year to get out all their performative allyship. You can tout Black people you want to tout any time of the year, even when we’re not being brutally murdered in 4k definition or in a special designated month.