Launch Week Day 3: The Catalyst
Yesterday I shared how what I learned through giving back helped me see the deeper impact of business decisions.
In 2020, that impact became impossible to ignore.
I was burned out. I'd spent years in the learning and web industries researching, writing, and speaking about accessibility while observing very little progress. I'd worked with the CDC, WHO, and human rights organizations. I'd traveled to the Congo and collaborated with brilliant, mission-driven folks. I wanted to do more, but wasn't sure exactly what or how.
Then, a police officer murdered George Floyd.
In June I joined the Houston protests and was arrested for obstructing a passageway (though we were legally on a sidewalk). The charge was later expunged, but the experience is etched into my memory. We were detained in the Harris County Joint Processing Center. We were zip-tied and packed into a crowded cattle pen. We were denied food, water, and access to a bathroom. We weren’t allowed to speak. It was dehumanizing.
Later, I learned that several of the white men arrested, including me, were released hours before the Black men we were arrested with. That experience was a turning point. I'd witnessed injustice before, but experiencing it firsthand in that facility changed me. Seeing how systems can dehumanize people with such efficiency led me to apply to the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work, a program that prioritized racial justice.
As a white man, I needed to listen more, learn more, and show up differently.
Thank you to everyone who marched that day and every day since, and to those who helped me process what I witnessed and continue to guide my learning.
Tomorrow, I’ll share what came next: how I began to understand these systems better and how we can change them.
☮️❤️
- Brian
This is part three of a five-day series leading up to the launch of Ethical Methods on Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can sign up here to follow along.