Tech Support Issue #2: just a brand here to listen and learn....

*juts a hand out from under the leaden black square that was this week in America, limply wiggles a few fingers* hi, you’ve reached TECH SUPPORT, how can I help?

Dear Tech Support,

My company got called out, both internally and externally, as hypocritical after posting a statement this week in support of Black Lives Matter. This is understandable because our company’s record on diversity among other related things isn’t great. But I was surprised and even proud to read the words “Black Lives Matter” coming from our leadership and official channels. Do you think staying silent would have really been better? 

Signed, 

Just a Corporation Standing In Front of the World, Asking It to Love Him 

Dear Corp, 

I just reflexively let out a full sixty seconds of a buzzer-like “ehhHHHHhhhhhhHHhHHHHHH.” 

Not really a shining moment for the “brand” of capitalism, huh (how it must long for the dumb fun of the SuperBowl, the dizzying highs of Amazon Prime Day…). Taken in composite, the company statements in support of Black Lives Matter morph into an empty, bland blob (though I’ll concede that Twitter’s “racism does not adhere to social distancing” line is postmodern art). Nonetheless, I’m sure they represent the good intentions of people at these companies, as well as an encouraging shift of the Overton Window. A few years ago at YouTube, we tweeted “subscribe to black creators” during Black History Month and then had to delete it after PewDiePie fans accused us of racism against white creators and leadership got skittish about alienating the right. And now YouTube’s Twitter bio is “Black Lives Matter.” Incredible stuff happening in our lifetime/collective timeline!

Corporations are full of people who genuinely care (look no further than the many tech workers rallying their friends this week for funds that they could then double through corporate gift-matching). But the urgent question for companies is not whether or not individual people care, but what are they going to do with the very big and real structural power they have (and I’ll use the parlance of brands here) to ”make the world a better place”? 

There’s a funny, depressing, predictable thing about FAANG: this insistence on talking the talk about social issues, even as they outright refuse (or feign inability) to walk the walk. At YouTube*, the cycle looked like this: 1. marginalized community points out systemic issues, tells the company exactly how it can use its power to help/protect them from harassment, hate, etc. 2. YouTube shrugs/refuses. 3. YouTube launches splashy, expensive brand campaign to “show up for that community” and expects to generate love and credit for it (and fails). 4. Repeat. Take two years of painful Groundhog Day fracas over Pride: in 2018, it took weeks for YouTube to fix demonetization of trans channels and remove conversion therapy ads that were being explicitly targeted to gay youth; in 2019, they outright refused to remove videos or stop promoting a far-right personality targeting a gay creator with hate speech and harassment. Suffice it to say, the rainbow-washing of the social media channels, launch of a throbbing manifesto video/paean to queer creativity, and over-use of Pride hashtags those years didn’t exactly “stick the landing.”  

There’s so, so much Big Tech could actually do to address social justice (see one idea from a YouTube creator, or the Walkout demands (still freshly un-met and brimming with ideas about racism and inequity in the workforce!), or glean what you will from “Amazon ‘Stands In Solidarity’ Against Police Racism While Selling Racist Tech to Police”! It’s a veritable horn of plenty.). These companies have formidable power. They just refuse to use it or argue that it’s structurally impossible or irresponsible to do so. They’re not really capable of an honest reckoning with this divisive, hateful, tinder-box moment, because of course they don’t just fuel it, they profit it from it. And that’s OK (it’s literally not OK). But excuse my hollow HAHAHA when I read emails from company execs offering employees the day off to “focus on racial equity” or grandstanding about donations (YouTube’s pledge of $1M to unspecified causes “addressing social justice” should be only seen in context with its $15B+ annual revenue, ditto Google’s $12M commitment this week, which is less than 5% of the CEO’s compensation last year). 

So IN SUM, *heaves sulky, teen-like sigh*, sure, yeah, these brand statements are fine. They’re better than nothing. But in a time of massive upheaval/reckoning/possibly real change, shouldn’t we demand way, way better than nothing? 

And in sum part 2, the only brand that we at Tech Support Corporate profess fealty to is Ben and Jerry’s. 

Standing in solidarity with all the brands in these turbulent times,

Claire

*ed note: my husband yesterday suggested that I consider making this newsletter “not all about Google and [my] personal stories/grievances” and while the point is not NOT taken, can you blame me? I’m positively filled to the brim with tea, and I’ve got this shiny new vessel to fill it with! But I digress, back to ME *winks to camera*…