Speaker 1: To make a real difference in the world. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is a powerful one, and I am fortunate to participate
Speaker 1: in this important discussion. I think there is no way
Speaker 1: to express how tumultuous twenty twenty has been that hasn't
Speaker 1: already been said a million times by this point. The
Speaker 1: United States and the world at large continue to grapple
Speaker 1: with enormous problems, ranging from the COVID nineteen pandemic to
Speaker 1: economic recessions to climate change. But one issue that really
Speaker 1: ties into all of those when you look into it,
Speaker 1: and frankly has for centuries, has been the need for
Speaker 1: racial justice in the United States. The stories of George Floyd,
Speaker 1: Brianna Taylor, Eric Garner, and so many more have prompted
Speaker 1: crowds to protest in the streets and call for systemic change.
Speaker 1: And it's not that the underlying issues of systemic racism
Speaker 1: are new. In fact, what makes them systemic is that
Speaker 1: these issues are woven into the policies and social structures
Speaker 1: of the United States. Rather, it is that they are
Speaker 1: undeniable and we have a responsibility to address that. To
Speaker 1: that end, within IBM, a group of employees began to
Speaker 1: formulate a means to lean on the company's enormous spectrum
Speaker 1: of technologies towards the goal of attaining true racial justice.
Speaker 1: The company's history of programs and initiatives that aim to
Speaker 1: make the world a better place served as a sort
Speaker 1: of launching ground for the call for Code for Racial Justice.
Speaker 1: Today you'll hear a conversation I had with three important
Speaker 1: members of that initiative. Dale Davis Jones is a Vice
Speaker 1: president and Distinguished Engineer at IBM and the leader of
Speaker 1: IBM s gts are cotect Community. Lisa Banks is a
Speaker 1: distinguished engineer working within the CTO office of the IBM
Speaker 1: Cloud Engagement Hub. And Brittany Lonesome is a creative architect
Speaker 1: with a deep experience in cloud systems. Listen to their
Speaker 1: stories and how they and other IBM r s were
Speaker 1: able to take the incredible emotional response to the racial
Speaker 1: justice crisis and turn it into actions that anyone can
Speaker 1: contribute to. We have a lot to cover today. We've
Speaker 1: got a really big and important topic. But before we
Speaker 1: jump into that, I would love to get a little
Speaker 1: more information about my guests today and to learn about
Speaker 1: your professional background and what brought you into the jobs
Speaker 1: that you you currently hold and what you find exciting
Speaker 1: about it and why it matters to you and really
Speaker 1: to the whole world. But let's start with you, Dale.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me a little bit about what it
Speaker 1: is you do and how you got to where you
Speaker 1: are today. Okay, so Hi, I'm Dale Davis Jones, and
Speaker 1: I'm in the Global Technology Services part of um IBM,
Speaker 1: where we serve more than four thousand clients in transforming
Speaker 1: their I T infrastructure, which means we look at what
Speaker 1: they're doing to run the infrastructure to ensure that they
Speaker 1: are continuously evolving to meet the needs of the world today,
Speaker 1: and we help them on that journey with cloud, with AI,
Speaker 1: with automation. For for those of us who are not
Speaker 1: in it. UM you go to the store and you
Speaker 1: know the air condition works in your grocery, the food
Speaker 1: is um is not tainted, the hospitals are running with
Speaker 1: the right systems, and the patient records are in order.
Speaker 1: And UM I leave the architects who work with clients
Speaker 1: on these engagements, and I'm also the global leader for
Speaker 1: the architect team. My background really briefly is undergrad I
Speaker 1: was UM a math major with a minor and computer science. UM.
Speaker 1: I did graduate school in UM in Systems, UM and controls.
Speaker 1: And I've had I would say, a checkered career at IBM,
Speaker 1: and that I have had many rules in many different
Speaker 1: parts of the business, from the mainframe organization to consulting
Speaker 1: technology services and a standing corporate headquarters. UM. As someone
Speaker 1: from a small island, which is Trinidad and Tobago, it's
Speaker 1: really exciting to me to get up and know in
Speaker 1: a given day I can be talking to clients and
Speaker 1: IBM or is in UM, you know, almost any country
Speaker 1: in the world. Yeah, Lisa, can I hear a little
Speaker 1: bit about you? Sure? Absolutely so. I am a computer
Speaker 1: engineer and mathematician by degree. I've reinvented myself several times
Speaker 1: throughout my career and IBM. I started as a mainframe developer.
Speaker 1: I've worked in corporate technical strategy, where I had the
Speaker 1: privilege to meet and work with Dale. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, and one thing she did not tell you
Speaker 1: about her professional background is that she's actually the first
Speaker 1: black female distinguished engineer in IBM. Uh. She saw something
Speaker 1: in me, put her arm around me, mentored me, and
Speaker 1: I'm very happy to say that with her support, I
Speaker 1: became the second black female distinguished engineer and IBM. But
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, I've I've reinvented myself several times. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, starting the mainframe development, moving on to
Speaker 1: corporate technical strategy, I've worked as a industry solutions architect
Speaker 1: UM in cloud for IBM. I've helped IBM with several
Speaker 1: acquisitions including you Stream, Clearly, the Weather Company, and helped
Speaker 1: define a new business unit UM around those acquisitions. Within IBM,
Speaker 1: I've worked with teams to do DevOps transformations UM too
Speaker 1: adopt cloud technologies and architectures for legacy applications you know.
Speaker 1: Right now, I am on a team called our Cloud
Speaker 1: Engagement Hub where we guide and advise IBM's top clients
Speaker 1: on their journey to cloud UM, making sure that we're
Speaker 1: able to help them rethink, re engineer, reimagine their legacy
Speaker 1: application portfolios UH to leverage and take advantage of the
Speaker 1: values of some of the newer technologies that are out now.
Speaker 1: And I focus primarily right now on mainframe modernization and
Speaker 1: how we can bring a cloud native developer experience UH
Speaker 1: to the main frame. So it's really exciting to have
Speaker 1: a job that fuses both my my you know based
Speaker 1: fundamental experience and IBM and all of the newer things
Speaker 1: I've learned in some of my more recent roles. Wonderful
Speaker 1: and Brittany, Please, I would love to hear about your
Speaker 1: background as well. Sure, Sure, I wish I could say
Speaker 1: I was I was the third UH black female, but
Speaker 1: not the case. Were very very honor happy to be
Speaker 1: you know, to have worked within me in the company
Speaker 1: of of of Dal and Lisa. UM. I'm a I'm
Speaker 1: a gym, a boy engineer by trade actually, and I
Speaker 1: joined UM IBM after getting my UH Tech NBA from
Speaker 1: Johns Hopkins. I came in through the IBM Summit UH
Speaker 1: Sales Sales Organization UM, so I was a client pacient
Speaker 1: architect UM for stually most of my career. I started
Speaker 1: with the CAMPS portfolio back when it was Cloud and
Speaker 1: a Living to Mobile Social Security UM, and then moved
Speaker 1: UM solding into the cloud organization for UM the last
Speaker 1: six years of my career, SO I helped client with
Speaker 1: their cloud strategy. It's adopting cloud is being successful on
Speaker 1: the cloud and the organizations UM. Lisa and I actually
Speaker 1: did cross paths very briefly. UM. I think it was
Speaker 1: about five years ago when I was working on a
Speaker 1: first of a con project without being research. Um, it
Speaker 1: was a it was a a high gpustrating and cloud
Speaker 1: plant for for for various use cases and in the
Speaker 1: gaming and healthcare something some other industries. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: just really excited. It's happy to be here. UM. But
Speaker 1: the sectually about ib as well is the this is
Speaker 1: the flexibility and control that I've essentially had over over
Speaker 1: over my career. I was able to the previous roles
Speaker 1: kind of create my own roles while within IBM. So um,
Speaker 1: that's that's really what maybe treat not being over other
Speaker 1: of other companies with for was just being able to
Speaker 1: be in the droversy of of of your experience. You're
Speaker 1: just like, my next question is one I feel like
Speaker 1: the importance is sort of evident on the face of it,
Speaker 1: but I feel that this is one we need to address.
Speaker 1: So in your own words, can you explain why, since
Speaker 1: we're talking about call for code for racial justice, why
Speaker 1: everyone should care about racial justice? Why is this an
Speaker 1: issue for everybody? When you ask the question, why does
Speaker 1: it matter to everyone? I think we've I think the
Speaker 1: first thing is to understand what we mean when we
Speaker 1: say racial justice, UM, and what I have learned and
Speaker 1: read and believe is that racial justice is a systemic
Speaker 1: and um systemically fear treatment of people of any and
Speaker 1: all races that results in equal and equitable opportunities for
Speaker 1: all people as well as outcomes for them. And I
Speaker 1: think if we are clear on that, then it is
Speaker 1: not about black versus white, or um other you know,
Speaker 1: any race you know versus another, But it is a
Speaker 1: systemic fair treatment of all people. And if you think
Speaker 1: of this as we're all humans living in a civilized society,
Speaker 1: then it is incumbent on any human who wants to
Speaker 1: preserve a civil civilized society to understand that injustice for
Speaker 1: any race takes a tool on the society. Um. It
Speaker 1: leads to unrest. It affects um everything that we hold
Speaker 1: dear as human beings, a right to life, to a
Speaker 1: quality of life, an a right to good health, a
Speaker 1: right to justice and fair treatment, a right to education,
Speaker 1: a right to vote. And once you introduce where you know,
Speaker 1: um racism and racial bias into a system, you you
Speaker 1: you create an imbalance that really damages the fabric of
Speaker 1: how the that entire society functions and creates uh an
Speaker 1: environment where it is not possible for anyone who is
Speaker 1: a civilized human being to function um the way that
Speaker 1: they need to. And and and there's one other thing, right,
Speaker 1: It's not just a matter of not discriminating and not um,
Speaker 1: you know, promoting inequities. It's also being deliberate and ensuring
Speaker 1: that we support others and each other as human beings
Speaker 1: to achieve a sustained level of racial equity, UM, to
Speaker 1: achieve the rights that a civilized society expects UM as
Speaker 1: a human being. And when we get rid of that,
Speaker 1: when we devalue or we don't value each other as
Speaker 1: human beings equally, we create an instability that has a
Speaker 1: long lasting impact on our health, our safety, our well
Speaker 1: being as human beings. That's my view. Well, I think
Speaker 1: that's a good segue for us to talk about Call
Speaker 1: for Code for Racial Justice. Can you tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about what that is and how it even
Speaker 1: how it even came to be, and how each of
Speaker 1: you became involved with this project. So UM that we
Speaker 1: of the George Floyd in our protests, which again came
Speaker 1: about via video. UM, that's when the conversations really you know,
Speaker 1: started to come to come into the workplace, you know, finally,
Speaker 1: after after many years. And so the way I got
Speaker 1: involved in in a in the project that that first week, UM,
Speaker 1: we you know, we had a lot of talent call
Speaker 1: in talent hall discussions, asked me anythings, UM, just various
Speaker 1: discussions across ib with the black communities, Allied communities, UM,
Speaker 1: not just in the US, but but literally across the world.
Speaker 1: And UM and and as part of those discussions, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, the black community asked for you know, a
Speaker 1: call for code, you know, an initiative to apply technology.
Speaker 1: Can can we you know, put our heads together, our
Speaker 1: expertise together to to to UM to find technology to
Speaker 1: this issue. So UM and and do and much who
Speaker 1: is also UM one of our leaders for this initiative UM.
Speaker 1: I worked with him on D on the Cloud Advisor
Speaker 1: UM team. So he called myself, Lisa dell um and
Speaker 1: asked us to be you know, a part of this
Speaker 1: initiative and just and to build it and to build
Speaker 1: us into what you know the program is today. So
Speaker 1: when he called it, it was a no, it was
Speaker 1: a no brain and there wasn't even I thought it
Speaker 1: was like, of course, this is a lived experience. We're
Speaker 1: black in the office, were black outside of it. So
Speaker 1: it was something we couldn't we we could couldn't pass.
Speaker 1: You know, Brittany's right, right, I feel there there was
Speaker 1: a sense of anger, of pain, of frustration, of just
Speaker 1: just so much emotion right from the black IBM community
Speaker 1: in the wake of recent events George Floyd, Brianna Taylor,
Speaker 1: countless others. Things kind of came to a head and
Speaker 1: the Black community spoke up and IBAM listened, you know,
Speaker 1: And and I have to stop and say that I'm
Speaker 1: incredibly proud of what IBM's response has been. Within two
Speaker 1: weeks of George floyd murder, IBM was taking action and responding.
Speaker 1: They were listening. There were a series of town halls,
Speaker 1: of small round tables, fireside chats, discussions, in in team meetings,
Speaker 1: in slack and email. IBM wanted to understand. And the
Speaker 1: Black community spoke up and IBM heard the pain. IBM
Speaker 1: listened to the frustrations. We took all of that information,
Speaker 1: all of that feedback, and we synthesized it. And when
Speaker 1: I say we, I mean a group of black IBM
Speaker 1: rs uh in concert uh you know, with the you know,
Speaker 1: senior executive sponsor of the Black Community and IBM. We
Speaker 1: worked together. We synthesized it. We used design thinking to
Speaker 1: really understand what are the common themes, the common threads,
Speaker 1: and we found some, right, I think we found maybe
Speaker 1: you know, Brittany can keep me honest here, she's been
Speaker 1: in this since to start with me. Um, you know
Speaker 1: several themes maybe ten fifteen different common central themes around
Speaker 1: systemic racism in our society and how we wanted to
Speaker 1: combat those. Uh. We distilled them down. We put them
Speaker 1: to a vote to the Black community and IBM and said, look,
Speaker 1: we listened, we heard. Let us play back to you
Speaker 1: what we heard. Are these the right things or these
Speaker 1: the the activities the initiatives that matter to you? Are
Speaker 1: these the problems you want to see us as an
Speaker 1: IBM community as a whole tackle. And we put them
Speaker 1: to a vote because we know that we can't do
Speaker 1: everything as much as we might want to. But if
Speaker 1: we bring focus to a few things that we can
Speaker 1: move the needle, we can apply our technology are best
Speaker 1: and brightest to try to solve some subset of the
Speaker 1: problems that we face as a society. Uh. We put
Speaker 1: them to a vote. They voted, and those are the
Speaker 1: three themes that we have UH externalized as part of
Speaker 1: Call for Code for Racial Justice, Diverse Representation, UH police
Speaker 1: and judicial reform, and policy and legislation reform. Dale, you
Speaker 1: want to share yours, as Lisa and Brittany shared, and
Speaker 1: dow mch Um IBM fellow pulled me into our Call
Speaker 1: for Code Challenge team and I started to say, Wow,
Speaker 1: I have you know this other project. I'm running this
Speaker 1: other initiative and it's it's morather than just IBM. And
Speaker 1: then I had a really hard talking too with myself
Speaker 1: and said, IBM is listening as Lisa's said, right, um,
Speaker 1: we have IBMS attention. The world is looking for help,
Speaker 1: the US is looking for help. I could choose my
Speaker 1: choose to loose sleep over the fear I'm feeling, the
Speaker 1: frustration I'm feeling, or I can channel my energy right
Speaker 1: um and my waking hours to doing something. So I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna jump in and I'm going to help. And
Speaker 1: it worked out that and had some challenges that took
Speaker 1: him away from this right at the end of August,
Speaker 1: and I ended up having to manage both of these.
Speaker 1: But Jonathan, I will tell you this, right I sat
Speaker 1: at the beginning that one of the best things in
Speaker 1: IBM is waking up every morning and knowing I can
Speaker 1: talk to people in many countries of the world and clients.
Speaker 1: But one of the things I didn't say is that
Speaker 1: the people in IBM from all of life came together
Speaker 1: to help me and and do and Lisa with both
Speaker 1: of those initiatives. Right, I have a team of sixty
Speaker 1: people who have been working with me on the I
Speaker 1: T Language initiative, and the passion and the drive is
Speaker 1: unbelievable that they bring to the table, all volunteering to help.
Speaker 1: We have more than five hundred people from IBM plus
Speaker 1: Red Hats who have come together to work on the
Speaker 1: Call for Code initiative. And for me, it was cathartic.
Speaker 1: It felt like I was able to do something I
Speaker 1: I was. I was going around, I would almost say,
Speaker 1: in a daze, and I turned on me my turned
Speaker 1: my emotions on and off for survival. And we got
Speaker 1: people from you know, all ages, right um, all different
Speaker 1: parts of the company, all different kinds of skills coming
Speaker 1: together to build this out. I think was cathartic for
Speaker 1: all of us, and it helped us to channel what
Speaker 1: we're doing, what our frustration, our numbness, our exhaustion, um
Speaker 1: and our fear. But I will say for me, Call
Speaker 1: for Code really helped me to feel that I could
Speaker 1: contribute in a tangible way and bring others along. And
Speaker 1: everyone who's been working with us on this has been
Speaker 1: really touched by the power of our technology, the support
Speaker 1: of our leadership Bob Lord, Aravin Krishna or SeeU to
Speaker 1: create a space for us to make this happen. And
Speaker 1: I know it's a long answer, but I really want
Speaker 1: to do to understand, you know what what it meant
Speaker 1: for me, right because I was shutting down, literally shutting
Speaker 1: down and operating in you know, sort of an automatic
Speaker 1: mode just for you know, my my personal and mental
Speaker 1: and emotional survival, and Call for Code for Racial Justice
Speaker 1: allowed me to feel and then channel those feelings into
Speaker 1: helping the team. I'm really really incredibly impressed with what
Speaker 1: I'm hearing, not just by you know, knowing that this
Speaker 1: is such a critical topic in the first place. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the fact that we have IBM ers dedicating precious
Speaker 1: time to really tackling this. That really speaks to how
Speaker 1: critical an issue it is. It also speaks highly of
Speaker 1: the character of you and all the other ib M
Speaker 1: r s who have uh participated in the Call for
Speaker 1: Code for Racial Justice and I'm I'm humbled again to
Speaker 1: be part of this conversation. Can you talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about some of the actual work that you have
Speaker 1: created with Call for Code for Racial Justice so far? Sure?
Speaker 1: So at least I mentioned and in betid out of
Speaker 1: the podcast, we synthesized UM, you know, input from the
Speaker 1: black communities down to three themes and their police and
Speaker 1: judicial reform and accountability, policy and legislative reform, and UM
Speaker 1: diverse representation. So for police and judicial reform, we're looking
Speaker 1: at how can we use technology UM to better analyze
Speaker 1: broad data, provide insights, and make recommendations that will drive
Speaker 1: racial equality and reform across criminal justice and public safety.
Speaker 1: For policy and legislation reform, it's the question is how
Speaker 1: can we use technology to analyze, inform and develop policy
Speaker 1: to reform the workplace products, public safety, just legislation and
Speaker 1: society at large. And then for diverse representation, we're looking
Speaker 1: at the prevention, detection and the remediation of bias and
Speaker 1: misrepresentation in workplace UM products in society. And like we've
Speaker 1: been saying before, you know, full corporations and for the
Speaker 1: you know, for the world to succeed if it's critical
Speaker 1: to have light representation at every level. UM. So within
Speaker 1: the Police in Judicial Reform theme where we're gonna release
Speaker 1: a couple of solutions. One looks like the capabilities for contribution,
Speaker 1: management and analysis of categories of trust and information about
Speaker 1: incidents for both the police and their stakeholders. So for
Speaker 1: Police in Judicial Reform and accountability, one solution UM is
Speaker 1: a web bag that allows the defense attorney or public
Speaker 1: defender to upload information about a case and and they're defendant,
Speaker 1: and we'll send this data to a bias detection engine
Speaker 1: and using the results from that, we can create a
Speaker 1: report outline and possible charges, the range of possible sentence,
Speaker 1: peach charge, evidence of passed bias UM indeed biased recommendations
Speaker 1: for police bargaining sentences. So again, how can we trans
Speaker 1: form the process when someone is going to trial. We
Speaker 1: also have another solution that predicts how likely UM a
Speaker 1: charge the sentence sentencing will be very different if the
Speaker 1: convicted person was of a different race. FIRD solution for
Speaker 1: Police in Judicial Reform is a content management application that
Speaker 1: will allow civilians to contribute uh statements and evidence to
Speaker 1: police Internet reports and create a tamper proof record with
Speaker 1: all accounts of the Internet. For policy and legislative reform,
Speaker 1: we have a web advocation to enable and empower black
Speaker 1: people to exercise their right to vote by assuring that
Speaker 1: their voice is heard. It's a it's a virtual one
Speaker 1: stop shop for but voters to assist them with all
Speaker 1: of their their voting needs. And another solution for policy
Speaker 1: legislative reform is a web based application to help advocates
Speaker 1: find legislation of interest based on the advocates preferences for
Speaker 1: impact areas and geographical location. UMAN. Finally, UH, we have
Speaker 1: a platform as capable of story curated PRNL information as
Speaker 1: a termined by the community. It provides a mobile friendly
Speaker 1: way for users to examine that information, increasing their legal
Speaker 1: awareness UM and to allow them to communicate their reactions
Speaker 1: and thoughts via the recording of video testimonials to be
Speaker 1: shared with the community and that people responsible for the
Speaker 1: creation of that And for diverse representation, I'll turn it
Speaker 1: over to them to talk about the work that we're
Speaker 1: doing there. So diverse representation UM is a theme that
Speaker 1: really cuts across all of the three themes. And if
Speaker 1: you think about racial intstice and bias UM. If you
Speaker 1: don't have a society that UM is diverse and UH
Speaker 1: those uh and and you don't have a way of
Speaker 1: eliminating both explicit and implicit bias from your society, then
Speaker 1: you run into some of the challenges we see where
Speaker 1: policy and legislative reform or police UM legislation and reform
Speaker 1: accountability isn't UM isn't performed in an equitable way. So
Speaker 1: for the but for the diverse rich representation solution, what
Speaker 1: we really have focused on is providing a means for
Speaker 1: us to detect bias and content that promotes negative stereotypes
Speaker 1: about the black community that UM promotes both in an
Speaker 1: avert and a subtle way UH, racial language and themes
Speaker 1: that continue to reinforce the perception of one race, in
Speaker 1: this case blocks as lesser than or less value than
Speaker 1: another race or other races. And also to provide a
Speaker 1: way for the community to come together two work on
Speaker 1: this issue, which is a lot less UM a lot
Speaker 1: more difficult to tackle than overt racism in many ways
Speaker 1: because it gets into the UM language we've accepted as
Speaker 1: part of the norm for a very long time. Can
Speaker 1: people get involved in build upon the work that you
Speaker 1: are doing with Call for Code for Racial Justice, So
Speaker 1: we will be announcing the solutions next week. UM. We
Speaker 1: have a Call for Code for UM Racial Justice site
Speaker 1: where if you're a developer, you can register, you can
Speaker 1: get involved UM, you can start contributing code ideas UM.
Speaker 1: If you are a on GEO or private sector company
Speaker 1: or other interested community entities like community governments, you can
Speaker 1: UM engage and share that you are interested in partnering
Speaker 1: with us, maybe as a tester, maybe as an end user,
Speaker 1: a deployer, or someone who wants to take what we're
Speaker 1: doing and build a community around it to implement with
Speaker 1: their own developers. So we have created a site. These
Speaker 1: solutions will be featured on those on our websites UM
Speaker 1: under IBM Developer Call for Code, UM for Racial Justice
Speaker 1: and UM we will be ruling these solutions out and
Speaker 1: any developer or or UM par ecosystem partner can join
Speaker 1: us UM to be part of the journey of taking
Speaker 1: these solutions and bringing them to our communities in America
Speaker 1: and the world. And all they have to do is
Speaker 1: click on a link and sign up and if they'd
Speaker 1: like to go learn about it at All Things Open
Speaker 1: and the Inclusive in the inclusion and diversity. Um uh
Speaker 1: tracks they can um, they can hear and do talk
Speaker 1: about those solutions in a number of sessions a Lisa
Speaker 1: or or Britney. I don't know if there's anything else
Speaker 1: you wanted to add. Yeah, I just wanted to add
Speaker 1: one thing, which is partly you know, why it's so
Speaker 1: important that we've open source these, these starter kits, these solutions,
Speaker 1: and also how people can get involved. Right. Yes, this
Speaker 1: is technolog legy, but you don't just have to be
Speaker 1: a developer, right. I think the the net of it
Speaker 1: really comes down to the fact that you know, I
Speaker 1: think I mentioned this before, you know, we want to
Speaker 1: address the community. We want to apply you know, technical
Speaker 1: know how as well. And so that's why really the
Speaker 1: premise around open sourcing these, right is we know, we
Speaker 1: recognize that there is a diverse representation issue in the
Speaker 1: tech industry. Um. And I think by open sourcing these
Speaker 1: it allows us to open the aperture and get a broader,
Speaker 1: uh set of contributors working with us, whether it's developers,
Speaker 1: whether it's people in the community who want to make
Speaker 1: a difference, who have an idea or see a problem
Speaker 1: that they think technology can help. Solve and so I think,
Speaker 1: you know, open sourcing, this really helps us to bring
Speaker 1: all different types of skill sets, all different different types
Speaker 1: of um people together to really form a community. And
Speaker 1: you know, for folks to get involved, please don't think
Speaker 1: that you have to be a developer, that you have
Speaker 1: to be a coder. You know, there's room for everyone
Speaker 1: and and all types of skills UH to participate in
Speaker 1: in in Call for Code for Racial Justice. I it's
Speaker 1: hard for me to put into words how inspirational I
Speaker 1: have found this conversation. You look at a problem as
Speaker 1: enormous as the addressing injustice, racial injustice, and I think
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, the first reaction is this
Speaker 1: problem is too big for me to do anything that
Speaker 1: will make any difference. And I think that this initiative
Speaker 1: proves that wrong, and it gives people that opportunity and
Speaker 1: that hope that I think a lot of people are
Speaker 1: really searching for right now. So, from the bottom of
Speaker 1: my heart, thank you all so much, not just for
Speaker 1: being on the show, but for doing this incredible work
Speaker 1: and and for opening up the doors for other people
Speaker 1: to be a part of it and to make the
Speaker 1: world a better place. It is a truly phenomenal story,
Speaker 1: and I am so thankful that I get to be
Speaker 1: one of the people to tell it. No, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for having us. Thank you, Jonathan M. Really
Speaker 1: appreciate this opportunity. Yes, thank you. I have covered the
Speaker 1: tech industry for more than ten years. In that time,
Speaker 1: I've talked about topics ranging from inconsequential two critically important issues.
Speaker 1: Racial justice clearly belongs in that second category, and I
Speaker 1: mean it when I say it is a problem so large,
Speaker 1: so deeply ingrained in the systems that run our society,
Speaker 1: that it was really hard for me to get a
Speaker 1: feel for what the average person like myself could do
Speaker 1: in response to it. The Call for Code for Racial
Speaker 1: Justice is a great example of how anyone, whether they
Speaker 1: are a developer or not, can get involved to make
Speaker 1: real world change happen. The work that comes out of
Speaker 1: this project will help address wrongs that have been part
Speaker 1: of our world for far too long, and in the end,
Speaker 1: righting those wrongs will help everyone. Systemic racism really does
Speaker 1: harm everyone within a society, and when there is real
Speaker 1: justice that is equitable across the board, we all benefit.
Speaker 1: To get involved. Please visit developer dot IBM dot com
Speaker 1: slash call for code slash, racial dash justice. You don't
Speaker 1: need to be a developer to be a part of this.
Speaker 1: You just need to have the desire to make the
Speaker 1: world a more us and a better place. That's all
Speaker 1: for today, Thank you for listening. I'll talk to you
Speaker 1: again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.