Emily Cunningham

Back to @monteiro's piece. I agree with him: we ABSOLUTELY have a moral responsibility to do what's right, and this most definitely is true for where we work. I have had countless conversations with Amazon tech workers about this very thing. See https://twitter.com/emahlee/status/1212950616361730049 …

Never before in the history of our species have our actions mattered so much. We have a terrifyingly small window to act to avoid catastrophic warming, and this window is rapidly closing.

The climate crisis is not a fair crisis and it's disproportionately killing and harming BIPOC, young people, women, people in poverty, those in the Global South. This will only escalate as the climate crisis escalates. Yes, Amazon workers -–ALL workers– need to be standing up.

The issues I have with @monteiro's piece are twofold. 1) emphasis on individual, personal moral failings, 2) the wisdom of using shame as motivation (spoiler: I don't think it's wise or that effective).

I appreciated that @monteiro got to collective action and organizing toward the end of his piece, but wow, it took a while to get there! We live in a system that has almost all of us living compromised lives. Babies may be the only exception to this.

Sure, that doesn't give us a pass. But we have to ask: why are so many humans in that position? Why are so many tech workers (and other workers!) working for companies that compromise our integrity? This must be a systemic problem, not individual moral failings.

It's our job as designers (and organizers) to think about systems, not just individual moral responsibility. We have to think about the whole goddamn, hard, complex thing.

We need to put moral issues in the right framework and context. Otherwise we end up blaming blaming blaming individuals for systemic problems. Doing this isn't good for organizing workers because it gives people a warped perspective of the real struggle which is a system issue.

Often change happens when one person says, "this isn't right." There's a quote I love: "Courage calls to courage everywhere." But this isn't about "those of us with morals" banding together. No. This is about a movement for ALL OF US.

Most people have been so beaten down by our society that being part of enacting real change is outside their imagination. Most feel powerless even when, as tech workers do, we have real power. So how do we help expand their imagination?

I've found the most effective way to do this is by *inviting* people in, helping them confront the choices in front of them. Showing them real possibility that things could be different. This requires a lot of deep listening, love, compassion, humor, flexibility. Not shame.

Shame might work for a limited amount of people, or in certain time periods. But it doesn't work well for inspiring a movement. And what we need is a movement. People are drawn to courage, community, laughter, support for feelings and being their full selves, fun!