Sunset Racism: A White Anti-Racist’s Take

Inclusion Catalyst

Today on the show, Julien speaks with Jamey Harvey. Jamey is a technologist and white guy from Washington DC who in 1999, with a collective of multi-racial friends, founded the 2020 Project. Their goal and commitment to one another was to be accountable to each other for pursuing the end of racism in the United States by the year 2020. Though the group dissolved in the early 2000s, Jamey has successfully founded multiple tech organizations and the 2020 Project’s founding principles have underpinned his leadership and work. Today, we’re talking about the intersection of racism and technology and why white men, like Jamey, who benefit from compounding privilege and occupy many positions of power are instrumental in dismantling and sunsetting racism. Jamey is the CEO of Agilian, a business and technology consulting company that empowers clients to solve complex technology transformation challenges with agility and elegance. He's a veteran innovation architect and change agent and has 25 years of technology innovation leadership experience in both startups and the government ecosystem. Jamey was the chief technology and ERP architect for Washington DC. His startup experience includes online gaming, social networking, location based mobile apps and blockchain development. For all the success he’s enjoyed in his professional career, Jamey feels still very much like the aspirational entrepreneur that in 1999 thought the end of racism might be just two decades away. Underneath the salt and pepper George Clooney styling lies a man who owns his white privilege and works actively to fight racism, discrimination and genderism through his organization called Sunset Racism.

Today we discuss:

• Why an end to racism should be possible, normalized, and not viewed as some aspirational and unreachable goal.
• The pervasive and problematic persistence of white fragility and why white folks need to be holding each other accountable for dismantling systems of oppression—wherever they exist.
• The origins of the race as a technology concept and why exploring it as such is critical to effectively address and sunset it.

Our host, Julien Geiser, is the Director of Corporate Support at Greatheart Consulting. Greatheart develops inclusive leaders for courageous cultures by focusing on practical behaviors that can help build relationships of trust and accountability across all aspects of identity. To learn more about their work, visit www.greatheartconsulting.com.

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