Boulder Startup Week: DEI issues in tech, UX raise questions with difficult answers

BOULDER – As the technology and user experience sectors grapple with issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, or DEI, many important questions are being asked but answers can be complicated and at times elusive, participants in a Boulder Startup Week panel said Thursday. 

“As a black person in the DEI space, people often think you understand everything and have all of the answers,” Justice Reskill founder Aaron Clark said during the UX and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: What Founders Need to Keep in Mind panel moderated by Google accessibility user experience program manager Alaina Beaver. 

But, Clark said, the world is a complex place, and there often isn’t one perfect answer to questions related to how to make the tech industry more reflective of our society. 

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He cited the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an example of a complicated subject that requires a nuanced approach when it’s being discussed.

Justice Reskill aims to provide training and skills-building support to DEI-centric organizations.

Maiden Labs founder Shira Frank also raised the issue of Middle East peace — or in this case, the ongoing violence in Israel.

Frank, who was previously involved in trying to tackle the issue from a political angle, said, “Empowering people who have been disempowered is not enough” to solve systemic issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

“If that’s the case, then what do we do?” she asked rhetorically. 

Frank’s answer pivoted from politics to the world of cryptocurrency, which is the focus of Maiden Labs. 

“What if you change the entire architecture [of economics and finance?]” she asked. “We’re still very much trying to answer that question.”

One thing is for sure, Clark said: “There just are not enough black folks in tech.” 

Frank agreed, saying she “was terrified by who was shaping the industry” — meaning that the industry tends not to reflect a diversity of backgrounds and views.

Liz Giorgi is the CEO of Soona, a company that provides photo and video services to e-commerce platforms looking to grow their brands. 

She previously worked at a more traditional advertising agency and “was saying no to all of the people I wanted to help in the world,” Giorgi said. Rather, she was focusing her energy on catering to the needs of big corporations. 

Soona gives the people she used to have to turn down for advertising services “the professional assets they need to punch above their weight class,” she said. 

If companies are going to attempt to tackle DEI issues, they must do so genuinely, the panelists said. 

Too often, these efforts focus on “performative and outward diversity metrics” rather than attempt to address systemic problems, Clark said. 

According to Giorgi, “There are a lot of things that look like taking action” such as executives making proclamations and issuing press releases. But those efforts don’t make much difference on the ground. 

Making a systemic change takes an investment in time and especially money, Frank said.

“Funding for radical work is hard, and there are a lot of systemic reasons for this,” she said, as most of the dollars dedicated to DEI efforts circulate between establishment organizations that have little interest in actually challenging the status quo.

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