Resources from people who’ve been doing the work

We use this newsletter as a weekly opportunity to share resources with the user research community.    The resources that are needed right now—the resources that have long been needed—are different.    At dscout, we condemn and grieve the violent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the countless others killed as a result of inhumane police brutality and white supremacy. We stand resolutely in opposition to all forms of systemic, institutionalized racism and oppression.    And we know that in order to make that stand, we as a company have a lot of work to do. Right now, that means less time spent speaking and sharing our work, and more time listening, learning, and making changes.   Here are some resources we're learning from, and some voices worth your attention: individuals and organizations within the UX and research community who have long been doing the work to implement, and advocate for, real anti-racist change:   Creative Reaction Lab has always had redesigning systems of oppression and inequality at their core. Follow them on Twitter, read about their Redesigners for Justice program, and get their field guide for equity-centered community design.    Vivianne Castillo has long been making the case for the connection between empathy and equity in UXR. She has this series on self-care in the field worth reading, and this advice on What Not To Say To Your Black Colleagues Right Now (more advice in this article, in which she is cited).     AIGA has a whole host of Diversity and Inclusion resources specific for designers, design thinkers, and design-adjacent folks—including original research, articles, and an extensive reading list. It's also worth following the folks on their task force.   Essential reads: Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need by Sasha Costanza-Chock, Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble, #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice by Sarah J. Jackson.   Read this thread on data-backed, research-backed solutions to stop police violence. Follow the rest of Samuel Sinyangwe's work and support his police scorecard project.    Bryan C Lee Jr hosted a Design as Protest National Call and is hosting a follow up Day of Action June 5th. Learn more here, or sign up to get involved here.   For hiring and making our companies more inclusive: Victor Ray is a sociologist who writes about racialized organization—here's his piece on Why So Many Organizations Stay White. Here's the Blacks Who Design directory (they also have a Slack community). Here's Shanae Ullman's UXPA piece on Workplace Culture + Microaggressions in Tech.   For the tech + data adjacent: read and follow Mutale Nkonde's project on Racial Literacy in Tech. Follow Tawana Petty for more on data justice, and read the Racial Equity Throughout Data Integration toolkit. For critical historical context, here's a paper on How Technology Perpetuates Racism by Design.     dscout, 222 North LaSalle St. Suite 650, Chicago, Illinois 60601, (312) 880-9715 Unsubscribe Manage preferences