2024 Election: The Stakes for Racial Equity are Higher than Ever Before

By Mimi Fox Melton

It’s late October as I’m writing, just days prior to a historic presidential election. The leaves are changing, the hours of daylight are shortening and nights are growing longer. It is a time when rest and deep replenishment are being called for, and yet we are living in urgent, demanding conditions. We are in a season that holds the possibility for immense, transformative change. For those of us interested in the collective good, in building worlds that are more free and more livable for us all, there are many critical and emergent sites for attention and intervention. Equity, accountability, and justice in tech spans across all of them. The tech industry is critical terrain in our fight for the future.

The stakes of this election are high, and while its outcomes will alter the terrain of our fight, it’s clear that we will need to continue to organize for racial justice long after Tuesday, November 5th. We are living in a moment of technological military expansion, and we must refuse warfare as the driving force of the innovation economy. Unregulated and unchecked, AI will continue to threaten our communities and decimate our ecologies. Over the last year, we’ve seen tech workers organize and rise up against the use of their labor to fuel genocide, and increasing numbers of AI experts calling for safety protocols to protect against the dangers of untethered AI development. In response, Big Tech has fired workers and poured upwards of a billion dollars into this election cycle to keep tech unregulated and innovation moving recklessly toward destructive futures.

We’ve seen the power and influence of Big Tech money on this election. From Elon Musk’s cash “prizes” to the excessive amounts of venture capital dollars spent on this election cycle, the relationship between the tech industry and our system of governance is undeniable. At the same time, we’ve seen a continued proliferation of AI generated deep fakes and the use of the digital information economy to mislead voters. Tech shapes democratic discourse, and in this moment of political upheaval, we must protect against the exploitation of digital means toward destructive futures.

At Code2040, we know people have the power to change systems. We will continue to stand in support of tech workers everywhere who are invested in designing tech for our collective, social good, and are holding the tech industry accountable. Code2040 understands the ways that Big Tech and the proponents of the backlash against anti-racist, social justice organizing utilize and weaponize technology against formations that are pushing back against the status quo. A part of our mission is to support and flank these movements and to help create more pathways for technologists to join movements for social justice.

This is the power of the work Code2040 does. Year after year, we learn that the most impactful aspect of our programs are the relationships that our Fellows make—the community we create together. The relationships built during the Fellows program sustain Black and Latinx technologists throughout their careers, and create a foundation for driving change in the industry. The power of being in community is that we stand in the gap for one another, flanking each other as we navigate the inequities and imbalanced distribution of power in our industry. Tech needs a major redistribution of power, and we know this is possible by building community and worker power among technologists. Just this month, we welcomed over 100 new Fellows into the Code2040 community, and we will continue to create the networks that make possible radical change in the tech industry.

Code2040 is committed to leveraging the power of our community to be a part of the movement to democratize information, ensure full access to technology for all, and build technological solutions that fuel social justice movements across the globe. As we face white supremacy and deeply entrenched systemic racism across the country, our work for racial equity in tech is needed now more than ever.