The death of George Floyd put a powerful spotlight on issues of police violence and racism that have unfortunately been around for generations. For TEN7, the incident and the aftermath were particularly poignant, because Minneapolis is our home. We watched in horror as our community became ground zero for this struggle. We saw the anger and the anguish of those who have dealt with inequity at the hands of police. We witnessed our streets being taken over first by peaceful protesters, and later by looters, rioters, military vehicles and the National Guard.
Having our headquarters in Minneapolis gives us a unique perspective. As painful as it was to see neighborhoods burned and businesses destroyed, we also understand the deeper pain and injury that have been inflicted on communities of color.
It’s tempting when faced with something as overwhelming as institutional racism, to throw your hands in the air in hopelessness. Public safety, gun violence, housing, education and health care… many of the issues related to racism are decidedly outside the scope of a web development firm. At TEN7 we had a different response. We decided to take a look in the mirror, to examine our own practices and approaches and find ways to help. There’s an old saying that “the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.”
The path to social justice is a huge elephant, and we all need to start taking bites.
Change your language
During a staff meeting soon after George Floyd’s death, I raised the idea of changing some of the languages we use in our everyday work. Commonly used words like “master,” “slave,” “whitelist,” and “blacklist” may seem innocuous, but in reality, they are based on and help perpetuate, foundations of racism. We decided to stop using these words and to develop new practices and terminology that will not alienate groups but will instead equalize the playing field.
I know that taking this stand will feel like “political correctness run amok” to some people. After all, these are terms that are used everyday in the technology sector. Some would argue they are so mainstream, they don’t have anything to do with race.
I disagree. In fact, the accepted use of these terms despite their racist roots is the very definition of “institutional racism.” Moving away from these words can make a difference and at least help us move a little closer to larger solutions. You can do this within your own organization, too. A recent Twitter post laid out a series of examples, including:
“Denylist” instead of “Blacklist”
“Allowlist” instead of “Whitelist”
“Leader” instead of “Master”
“Follower” instead of “Slave”
“Legacy Status” instead of “Grandfathered”
Scrutinize your hiring practices
Another way we can all contribute to a more equitable world is with our hiring practices. I believe strongly that bringing in a diverse workforce is the right thing to do. Perhaps even more important, we need to focus on inclusion, making sure diverse voices are encouraged, listened to and valued. We have worked hard at TEN7 to create an atmosphere of respect for every voice, and an understanding that we need to uphold our company values at all times. Still, no matter how much we talk about inclusion in team meetings and one-on-one, the first step in all of this is hiring. The reality is that finding diverse job applicants can be challenging, particularly in a place like Minnesota.
That’s one reason we made a switch, long before the pandemic, to a distributed workforce. Allowing all of our team members to work from home, or from whatever location best suits their needs, not only increases productivity, it also opens up our hiring pool. Suddenly we can attract talent from across the country without the need for people to relocate for the job. We’ve recently brought on several new people -- from Massachusetts, California, Hawaii and Texas -- bringing a diversity of skill sets and backgrounds to our team.
I know there are no easy answers. Simply changing our language and our hiring practices will not make this a fair and just society. But we can’t let the difficulty of this journey prevent us from starting it. Simple steps can get us to start moving forward toward a better path for everyone.
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