[Last Week in AWS Extras]: Snarking For Racial Justice

Snarking for Racial Justice

This was originally going to be a wonderfully crafted treatise on why multi-cloud is nonsense. But if we look outside in the United States, or in the headlines of any paper in the world, it's clear that that's not what's top of mind for anyone right now.

Talking about racial justice isn't easy; there's a terrific temptation to say "that's not my area," or "that's a topic better left for people of color to opine about." The trouble is, silence can easily be taken as acceptance of the status quo, a statement that "what is happening now is okay."

What is happening now is most assuredly as far from okay as you can get.

My voice is not the most important in this conversation--far from it. However, I have a platform, and I believe it is my moral obligation to use that platform when the times may call for it. That said, I don't know what to say that isn't being said better by many, many others.

But I can snark.

It's my first language.

And this week, I'm using that snark to benefit a cause that's been overlooked for far too long by far too many.

Two days ago I started a thread on Twitter:

So far the people engaging on that thread have collectively donated tens of thousands of dollars for an incredibly important cause, while also giving me license to absolutely shred a wide variety of companies. I want to be very clear here that I don't take any credit for inspiring these donations (many of which were made before I posted my tweet); every last one of them was made because we all care about furthering the cause of racial justice in our society.

In the meantime, every single reminder I can contribute to keep people excited about giving money where it is needed is time well spent. And, selfishly, if I can provide some brief moments of light entertainment for myself and others for a few seconds in the midst of an important and difficult conversation - without distracting from that conversation - then I hope that net-net I've contributed something at least slightly worthwhile.

If you make or have made a donation to an organization whose mission furthers the cause of racial justice and would like to see me skewer a tech company on Twitter, I hope you'll hit reply and let me know.

Three that stand out are:

http://www.pisab.org/we-are-undoing-racism/

https://nmaahc.si.edu/connect/give

https://www.naacp.org/

Thank you for reading.

#BlackLivesMatter