The Future Is Here, And It Won’t Wait for You to Be Ready
If you’ve ever felt a pang of existential dread at the sight of a 30 Under 30 list, you’re not alone. From Forbes to Fortune, these lists typically promote the people who are already winning “the game.” More often than not, though, those lists serve to reward a very particular kind of person: usually white, overwhelmingly male (as high as two-thirds, according to one study), and often wealthy or angel investor-backed. But, what if, as a culture, we placed that kind of value and attention on folks from all walks of life and all ages who are rewriting the rules entirely? What if our definition of success wasn’t just about what one could accumulate but about one’s tangible impact?
photo credit: Omar Lopez, via Unsplash
Lists like The Root 100 and the Bitch 50 are paving the way for a different kind of metric, one based on community engagement that highlights creators, activists, and artists who are using their cultural or political capital to create meaningful change for communities that are often overlooked and under resourced. At the core of these lists, I think, is the understanding that the only way to get the future that we want to see is to support the people already doing that work — because so very many people are already doing the work.
There is this idea that progress just happens by mere virtue of time passing, but do you remember the Brett Kavanaugh hearing in 2018? The Senate Judiciary Committee at that hearing still had members on it from the committee that heard Anita Hill’s testimony against Clarence Thomas in 1991. Another recent example is the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag in 2015 calling out the demographics of the Academy’s nominee pool? Here we are in 2020 with a roster of nominees that is almost entirely white and male still.
Systems don’t inherently change on their own over time. They change because people fight for them to do so. As we begin to see the effects of an entire generation burning out, and the cracks in our capitalist system begin to show under the pressures of climate change, the next generation of thinkers and leaders are already at work. These new leaders aren’t just trying to go further than those that came before them; they’re trying to build something entirely new, even if it means breaking down everything we hold familiar.
From Gen Z climate activists to scientists and archivists determined to ensure that women’s contributions to science are not erased, we’re looking at a wave of leaders across various generations that are no longer content to simply fight for a seat at the table. There is a greater understanding that gender parity in and of itself is not enough (as Rachel Charlene Lewis points out in this article about female founders) if all it’s doing is replicating the same structures that led to gender inequality in the first place, or that joining the ranks of a 30 Under 30 doesn’t mean much if the needle of equality and justice doesn’t also move along with it.
The work is being done, but the hardest part might be the part where those with decision-making power listen, take a step back, and actually make room for the change to happen. It’s time to go beyond the symbolic diversification that still ultimately leaves existing structures intact (this piece on the relatively recent and ultimately ineffectual phenomenon of Chief Diversity Officers is worth a read). Ask yourself instead: Do you have systems in place for your staff to offer honest feedback without fear of repercussion? Are you always looking towards the same schools, or the same kinds of work backgrounds and resumes when looking at potential hires? Are you coming in with preconceived notions about a person’s skill set based on their age? How are you engaging with your local community (businesses around your workplace or your neighbors at home) in your day-to-day? Prioritize the impact on marginalized and underserved communities. Period. Is there a reason you’re doing something a certain way or is it just because it’s the way it’s always been done? Do you have opportunities, on a regular basis, to listen to folks that don’t look like you?
As the internet continues to democratize access to media and DIY platforms, it’s on us to actively seek out the voices and perspectives that have not historically been given mainstream platforms. It’s on us to look beyond the Forbes and Fortunes of the world and start listening to the folks who have been doing this work for years. The future is coming whether we’re ready for it or not, and I, for one, am hopeful.
Soraya Membreño is a writer, public speaker, fundraiser, and digital strategist. Her writing has appeared online and in print at Catapult, Post No Ills, BeVisible Latinx, Bitch magazine, and The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind, among others. Currently, she serves as the Director of Community at Bitch Media where she obsesses over funding models and the future of independent nonprofit media.