Photo by Lan Nguyen from Pexels

This past summer in 2020, America was shaken by the murder of George Floyd, and protests across the country shouted “Black Lives Matter.” In response, companies from multiple industries issued statements condemning the murder and acknowledging that they were dedicated to diversity, inclusion, & belonging in the workplace.

That summer, a vast majority of people scrambled to read books on anti-racism, watch Netflix specials, educate themselves on systemic racism, and created committees & plans to make their teams more diverse and therefore the world a better place. All of that work seemed to slow down and fade into the background come fall.

Since then, I’ve heard sentiments like, “It’s exhausting,” “What can I personally do?” “When will we be ‘diverse’ enough?”

My response to those reflections is this:

The hard truth is that the reason why it never feels like it is enough is because it will never be enough.

As a woman of color, I have felt exhausted justifying my experiences of microaggressions and inequity in light of White complacency.

As a previous educational researcher, I have felt exhausted from battling a systemically racist education system and felt like I could never do enough to fix such a broken system.

And as a UX researcher, I have felt exhausted from constantly feeling like my recruitment, my analysis, and my “actionable insights” are never representative enough of the true human experience.

The question then, in my experience, can’t be “When will it be enough?” but instead, “What can I do consistently to never grow complacent and yet take care of myself to recharge to take on that fight again?”

As UX professionals, we are in a particularly unique position because we are literally the translators and representatives of the human experience. Our jobs in user experience are to listen, empathize with people, represent, advocate, and design their experiences. That means our perceptions, our biases, and our cognizant work to fight against systemic racial injustice (or lack thereof) will literally shape and impact other people’s lives.

So in that case, here are a few calls to action to the UX community. These are some of the many ways to do anti-racist work, and of course, I don’t speak for the whole community:

Keep reading. Keep wanting to learn. But don’t stop when it feels like you know “enough.”

Read more about our history of systemic racism. Read stories and novels written by BIPOC to further empathize. Read about psychology to understand people and ourselves more. If reading isn’t your jam, look into podcasts, artwork, film, community events, etc. The point is to continually develop a curiosity for learning. Just because you read a book or two on anti-racism doesn’t mean your work is checked off.

Keep having discussions with your UX and Product teams about who you are designing for, and keep questioning and trying. But be mindful of who is in the room, how you position these questions, & the emotional toll it might take on BIPOC to hear people question the importance of their existence in this space.

Conversations around target audience tend to center around who we think the typical user is — the “average” user. But truly question what qualities make up who we think this average user is? Who is it an average of? What led us to these assumptions?

Keep these discussions honest but consider how they may impact others in the room. In my past experience, I’ve typically been the only or one of the few people of color in the room. Every time when I hear, “I don’t think it’s important compared to our other priorities,” “I’m tired of hearing about D&I,” or “Why should we hire diversely if they’re not qualified?” I felt alienated, unheard, and angry. What might be a thought experiment for a team may sometimes be yet another traumatic experience for BIPOC.

The best way around this, in my opinion, is to provide training to management & leadership on how to discuss these topics and to hire a BIPOC consultant who specializes in D&I (and of course, pay them equitably).

Keep. hiring. BIPOC. But once you hire them, ensure they stay.

Just keep doing it. Systemic barriers have kept BIPOC from going into tech, yet alone Engineering & Product fields. Biased hiring practices have kept BIPOC from obtaining roles and leadership positions. Intentionally hiring to build a diverse team beyond “diversity of thought” will help fight against systemic racism. But don’t stop there.

Once BIPOC are in your company, consider what retention of BIPOC looks like overall at your company and especially in your team. Are they paid equitably? Are their voices heard in decision-making? Always remember, when we uplift BIPOC, we uplift “all lives.”

I’ll repeat it again: the hard truth is that the reason why it never feels like it is enough is that it never will be enough.

However, you are allowed to breathe. You’re allowed to take space to heal and take care of your mental health when it all feels to heavy. Come back when you’re ready and do not grow complacent. But also remember that the space you take to heal is a privilege that many don’t have in this country.

Especially in light of the domestic terrorism we experienced at the Capitol on Jan 6th, it is ever more important now that we fight against a whole history of White supremacy and anti-blackness, and we must do it every day of our lives.

We are in the marathon of our lives. It’s not a sprint. It can’t be a sprint. Once we accept that truth as a profession, our call to action is to actively be anti-racist, to not grow complacent, and to truly do our best to advocate for the human experience.

The UX Collective donates US$1 for each article published on our platform. This story contributed to Bay Area Black Designers: a professional development community for Black people who are digital designers and researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area. By joining together in community, members share inspiration, connection, peer mentorship, professional development, resources, feedback, support, and resilience. Silence against systemic racism is not an option. Build the design community you believe in.