Thread by @denaefordrobin

Also in this moment, I want to be fully transparent.

WE, Dr. Brittany Johnson-Matthews(@DrBrittJay ) and I, the two social media visible black women in Software Engineering Research community helped craft this statement.

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https://twitter.com/denaefordrobin/status/1268318920898834432

While it is cool that ‘we led a narrative for SIGSOFT’, there's enough content out there about what can be done to support the BLACK community.

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That said, what would be even MORE valuable is if confs (e.g., @sigsoft, @sigchi, SIG*) AND Academic Researchers and leaders in these spaces would write their own *authentic* independent tweets about supporting the BLACK community and follow up with some *authentic* action.

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Some examples of authentic action to benefit the community at-large are donating to community bail funds, sending an email to police departments (tinyurl.com/ycha6nuu), calling senators/mayors/governors, support black-owned business, donate to protestors, attend a protest

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As someone who has RESEARCHED collective action and slacktivism in the (software) engineering community(see my CSCW2018), I know that a retweet is a great start at taking a stance and empower a community––but this low friction stance (especially of allies) is not enough.

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Things that can help black researchers during this time (in addition to what I mentioned above):
#AcademicTwitter
#BlackTechTwitter
#phdchat

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1. Uplift the voices of blackademics in your local research community

2. ***CITE US*** - I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve seen my work and others passed over by PhDs I know on a first-name basis.

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3. Hire us with intention- Don’t string us along with the intent to hire and then drop us like a bag of fleas (more about this another time)
4. PUT SOME MONEY UP - Money talks. Financially support us to attend and be an active contributor at conferences.

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5. Stop tokenizing us- Don’t just put us in the corner and use our photo on your website/ promotion materials when it suits you. You brand it as giving ‘free’ clout to others. We see you trying to be slick.
(...)

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It would be better suited if it's presented as an opportunity to amplify our research that we work tirelessly on. Also, be okay with us saying NO when we do not feel comfortable doing it.

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6. PUT SOME MORE MONEY UP - Put some money on the books for opportunities to connect black researchers and academics at your organization.

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7. Be public about your allyship - To keep it 💯, some of us don’t feel like talking to y’all right now. Be okay with that. It is beneficial for us to know that we can come to you when we’re ready—on our own terms.

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P.S. Don’t do any of these if it’s not authentic. We can sniff out the b.s.

The black community in ALL computing sciences research is small so we know when it happens and we warn others to be wary of you.

#AcademicTwitter
#BlackTechTwitter
#phdchat

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Example of authentic action:

https://twitter.com/denaefordrobin/status/1267678377873305605?s=20