I have white privilege.
I was born into it, and throughout my life I have been given opportunities simply because I am white. I don’t want to say I have taken advantage of that, but I honestly don’t know that I haven’t … because I don’t know what it’s like to not be white and live in a system that treats otherwise qualified, talented, hard working individuals differently because of the color of their skin.
I didn’t ask for it, but it’s there, and so watching the scenes unfold across the media in the wake of George Floyd’s killing makes me feel ashamed of the system that has given me so much. And I am frustrated that in a day and age that has seen so many amazing technological advancements, we have not as a society managed to further the causes of equality, humanity, and compassion.
I’d like to start to help fix that.
If you have followed my career — from my founding of the Web Analytics Forum, to my publishing Web Analytics Demystified and The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators, to my co-founding of Web Analytics Wednesdays, or the creation and fostering of the Analysis Exchange — you will see that I have tried to be there for the digital analytics community. My efforts have not always been wholly altruistic, I admit that, but in the end I like to believe that I have had some positive impact on our industry as a whole.
Today I want to ask the analytics community to help me give back.
On behalf of Analytics Demystified, I am donating to Black Girls CODE, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that is working to increase the number of women of color in the digital space by empowering girls of color ages 7 to 17 to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology. I chose Black Girls CODE as a recipient because their efforts speak directly to me as a technologist, a business leader, and as a father.
But I am not alone in my efforts.
Jason Thompson, the CEO and co-founder of 33 Sticks, has generously agreed to match my donation to Black Girls CODE. While technically Jason and I compete, I reached out to him because I respect his work ethic and his continual efforts to remind us all that it’s not what we do but how we do it that matters. He is one of the “good guys” in digital measurement, and I knew before I even asked him that he would help if he could.
And Jason and I … would like your help.
We are asking each of you reading this who work in the analytics industry and who have comparatively good lives to join us in donating to Black Girls CODE. And to encourage your donations, Jason and I will match up to a total of $20,000 USD in donations over the next 14 days.
Our goal is to work with you, the global digital measurement community, to raise $40,000 USD for Black Girls CODE to help them bring more diverse voices into technology. By expanding the range of experiences shaping our industry, Jason and I have little doubt that digital analytics, and by extension, the technology community, will be better for it.
To help us, and to take advantage of our matching efforts is super simple:
- Decide how much you can contribute, knowing that Jason and I are matching you dollar for dollar
- Go to donorbox.org/support-black-girls-code and make your donation
- When you get your email confirmation of the donation, which is also your tax donation receipt, forward that to either blm@analyticsdemystified.com or blm@33sticks.com. If you want to redact the email and remove your personal info that is totally fine, we just need to know how much you donated!
- Track our collective progress online at https://tinyurl.com/demystified-33sticks
No donation is too small! If you can give $5 it’s like giving $10! If you can give $50 it’s like giving $100!! Jason and I are confident that if we are able to rally the digital analytics community to raise $40,000 for Black Girls CODE, that together we can have a positive and meaningful impact on their efforts to make our little corner of the world a more diverse, a more inclusive, and an overall better place.
I welcome any questions you might have about this effort, and on behalf of everyone at Analytics Demystified I sincerely hope that all is well for you and yours during these uncertain times.
P.S. Please feel free to share this post with anyone and everyone you think may want to contribute.