STOP ASIAN HATE
Like and reblog
two weeks
Last Monday, I put in my notice at Tumblr. It’s been quite a wild ride the last four years but, alas, it is now my time to move on to a new challenge like many Tumblr engineers before me. Tumblr has been an absolutely amazing place to work and has challenged me in ways that I would have never expected.
I’ve never really… quit a job before (Tumblr is my first “real” job!) but, fortunately, I had this amazing article by @brianmichel to go off of! After reading it a few times, I think I found a good path to efficiently quit and leave behind a good amount of my knowledge.
the first week
The day I gave notice, I posted on one of our internal P2 blogs that I was leaving and I was looking for documentation requests. Over the years, the Tumblr Security Team has worked on an absolutely incredible amount of projects and, since I was the last member of the team left, I wanted to get all of the historical knowledge out of my head. I also started working on bringing the hackday project that @continuants and I worked on to life. I cut tickets, set some strict-ish deadlines, and got to work.
On Wednesday, I actually sat down and made a list of projects, processes, and services that I was the last one left who had knowledge of. This ended up being a list of ~45 things (woah!). For each of these things, where applicable, I pointed to up-to-date documentation/references and made tickets for the ~7 things that were missing documentation. I also started transferring over my “important” team documents over to the new manager of the Core PHP team at Tumblr.
In the same effort, I also found all of the alerts & email addresses & other things that were only monitored by me and made a giant checklist to kick off the discussion of “do we need this?” and, if so, who they should go to. This approach seemed to work pretty well as there was some instant discussion and some alerts that were pretty instantly transferred.
By Friday, I had a functional version of my final Tumblr project in production and had written documentation for (most) of the things that were undocumented! At that point, I was able to set myself up for a successful second week of finishing up my project and taking as many meetings as I possibly could!
the final week
At the start of my final week at Tumblr, I started redirecting as many requests as I could to do a good test run of what it would be like without me (plus, ya know, I was busy! 😅). I think doing this as soon as I possibly could was a really good idea because it poked holes in the runbooks that had been previously written and provided a chance to figure out who was the new point of contact. As Brian put in his post, it’s “a dry run of what it’s going to be like when [I] actually leave”.
Then, I set up some appointment slots on my calendar for “coffee” (on a Google Meet) and that filled up my calendar pretty quickly! It was really nice to chat with folks one last time before I left. I also did a final round of 1:1s with my team to say goodbye and tie up any final loose ends before I left.
On top of that, I was able to wrap up my project nicely with completing some feature requests from the end users and write some documentation about it to boot. I’m super happy with the amount of work I was able to get done on this project and I’m leaving it in very capable hands! 🙌
—
I will literally never be able to put into words how much being able to work at Tumblr has meant to me and I will forever be grateful for the wonderful folks who have made my first job truly amazing.
💕 & fuck yeah forever.
Today marks the first day of Pride 2020.
It also marks the seventh day of protests held in honor of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. It’s been 634 days since Botham Jean was murdered by a police officer, 233 days since Atatiana Jefferson was fatally shot by a police officer, 2,123 days since Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer, and 2,146 days since Eric Garner was choked to death by a police officer.
It has been five days since Tony McDade, a Black trans man from Florida, was shot and killed by a police officer.
At the time of this post, it has been almost 19 hours since David McAtee was shot and killed by the authorities.
This week has served as a stark reminder that those who have power in this country wield it recklessly and violently against Black people, non-Black POC, and trans people. For some, the power is found in their badge. In others, it’s their skin tone, their socio-economic status, their cisgender privileges, or any other number of privileges one can have. In 2018, with at least 26 trans people who were murdered, all but one was a trans woman, and all but one was a person of color. According to data collected by Human Rights Campaign, this pattern is all too common. It should also be noted that the number of trans people who are murdered is grossly underreported, with many families and newspapers often misgendering those who can no longer speak up for themselves.
On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall riots began as a response to the constant police raids of nightlife establishments frequented by the LGBTQIA+ community. That night sparked a revolution, with many eye-witnesses crediting Black and Latinx trans women for being brave enough to ignite what would become one of the most pivotal nights in LGBTQIA+ history. Without Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, there would have been no uprising. Without them, there would be no Pride.
At this moment, it would be tone-deaf and insensitive to commemorate Pride in the same celebratory fashion we usually do. Instead, we’re asking you to make the commitment to better the lives of the oppressed. Do the work to become actively anti-racist if you are not Black. Spread the word that Black lives matter. Spread the word that trans people deserve to feel safe wherever they go. Reblog this post, make your own, or find someone in your life who doesn’t understand and do your best to make them understand. Donate if you can.
The first Pride was a riot. We stand with you.
#Blackout for Minneapolis. For Louisville. For Toronto. For Brooklyn. #Blackout for Us All.
To the #Blackout Community and Tumblr at large,
We know you must have a lot of questions or are feeling distressed about the news. The world has been dealing with a lot this year, and it is an especially harrowing time for Black Americans and Black folks abroad. We know your biggest question right now could be summed up by a quote from Toni Morrison:
“What can I do where I am?”
Here at #TheBlackout, we have decided to help you start finding an answer to that question - we feel that we need each other. We need unity, organization, a clear sense of direction, but more importantly, a space where you can be yourself without judgement or fear.
So, in addition to boosting your art and businesses, our highest priority right now is to provide you all with resources to help you start from where you are.
This is a masterpost of places you can donate, find mental health + spaces for radical self-care, and just do something fun. We will be adding on as things change.
Donate/Boost/Sign:
- Minneapolis Freedom Bail Fund & Louisville Community Bail Fund
- Reclaim the Block
- Black Visions Collective
- The Official GoFundMe of George Floyd’s Family
- Official Petition for Breonna Taylor
- Justice for Regis Official Fund
- Tony McDade’s Memorial Fund
- Black Lives Matter Network
Mental Health Resources:
- Ethel’s Club - Black-owned and operated social club offering access to Black therapists and a multitude of creative events for People of Color.
- Crisis Text Line - A different approach to crisis intervention, Crisis Text Line offers you help when you text 741-741. You’ll be able to chat with someone who is willing to listen and provide you with additional resources.
- Shine Text. – Black-owned! Sign up to receive cheerful texts and tips every day.
- Therapy For Black Girls - A Black-owned a directory to help you find Black therapists in your area.
Tips for Organizing/Protesting:
- Knowing your rights - ACLU
- How To Prepare for a Protest. (Remember to wear a mask in or to protect yourself!)
- A Twitter thread of suggested readings
Fun Online Communities and Things to Do:
Some of our favorite online communities.
Nerd Culture: @blacknerdproblems, @superheroesincolor
Poetry and Literary Spaces: Cave Canem Literary Balms program for Black poets, Nuyorician Online Open Mic Events, Well-Read Black Girl
Podcasts: Therapy For Black Girls, Strong Black Legends by Netflix’s Strong Black Lead, The Read with Crissle and Kid Fury.
Hobbies: #BlackBirdersWeek by BlackAFinSTEM (5/31 - 6/8), Wellness Week by Black Girl Gamers.
Join us for the 5/31 Emergency #Blackout/#BlackoutDay here on Tumblr and Twitter.
Thank you to @theblackoutofficial for providing resources on knowing your rights, how to protect yourself, where to donate, and how to find mental health resources if you need them right now.
Tumblr has always been a fierce believer in free speech and the power it gives to the people who wield it. Throughout history, free speech has been the most important tool used to fight for racial and social justice. The protests being held in honor of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery are no different. They are important. They should not be ignored or derided. The disproportionate violence Black people face from those who have power in our country is not acceptable. It’s on all of us, regardless of race, to stand up for what is right, to demand justice, and to demand change.
Say their names.
Black lives matter.
“But [Tumblr’s] value, of course, is more than just what it isn’t, and what it points away from. Despite all the drama and discourse lurking in its corners, it’s easy to make your own Tumblr life as simple and as happy as you want it to be. There are no algorithmic threats lurking around every corner, no onslaught of promoted posts from politicians or influencers. More than anything else, Tumblr in 2020 is a self-sustaining ecosystem. It’s a semi-sealed and increasingly fertile terrarium, a nigh-impossible perpetual-motion machine of a platform going productively psychotic in its isolation.”
— @areyougonnabe, “The Ever-Mutating Life of Tumblr Dot Com”
This article actually really explains why I’m still here after 10 years.
“a nigh-impossible perpetual-motion machine going productively psychotic in its isolation” is my new tindr profile
Updates to how we enforce our Community Guidelines on hate speech
Tumblr wouldn’t feel like much if it were not for the passionate community filling up our dashboards. You are the reason people turn to Tumblr for a laugh or for a little human connection. You are why Tumblr feels like a home for so many. You care about this place, and you let us know when something doesn’t feel right. Many of you have called on us to further reevaluate how we deal with hate speech, particularly hate speech from Nazis or other white supremacist groups. Today we’re letting you know that we heard you, and we are taking further action.
We’ve listened to your feedback and have reassessed how we can more effectively remove hateful content from Tumblr. In our own research, and from your helpful reports, we found that much of the existing hate speech stemmed from blogs that have actually already been terminated. While their original posts were deleted upon blog termination, the content of those posts still lived on in reblogs. Those reblogs rarely contained the kind of counter-speech that serves to keep hateful rhetoric in check, so we’re changing how we deal with them.
We identified nearly a thousand blogs that were previously suspended for blatantly violating our policies against hate speech. Most of them were Nazi-related blogs. Earlier this week, we began the process of removing all reblogs stemming from the original posts on those previously suspended blogs—that’s approximately 4.47M reblogs being removed from Tumblr.
Moving forward, we will evaluate all blogs suspended for hate speech, and consider mass reblog deletion when appropriate.
Consulting outside experts
We wouldn’t make a change like this without considering the impact to your freedom of expression. We do not want to silence those who are providing educational and necessary counter-arguments to hate speech. We reviewed our approach with a variety of outside groups and experts to make sure we have aligned with their recommended best practices.
There’s no silver bullet solution, AI, or algorithm that can perfectly target hate speech. That’s why we have a dedicated Trust & Safety team, and why we have an easy way for you to report any hate speech you do see.
If you see something on Tumblr that violates our Community Guidelines, please report it to our Trust & Safety team for review.
Lastly…
We are, and will always remain, steadfast believers in free speech. Tumblr is a place where you can be yourself and express your opinions. Hate speech is not conducive to that. When hate speech goes unchecked, it eventually silences the voices that add kindness and value to our society. That’s not the kind of Tumblr any of us want.
Thank you for speaking up. Please continue to help us make Tumblr the place you want it to be.
<3