Clocking in

Today the tech world has been abuzz with the story of Ahmed Mohamed who has arrested for bringing a clock to school, and still hasn't gotten it back from police.

Whether it's racism, anti-Muslim sentient, or just the drive to criminalize and punish innocent behavior in the name of safety, the general consensus, at least among non conservatives, seems to be that reaction to him by his school and the police was way way out of line.

Mark Zuckerberg and Obama, as well as a host of luminaries and companies involved science and tech have reached out to show support for the boy.  And that's good, and to be applauded.

But we in Tech are reacting to what feels like an egregious violation, and ignoring the fact that this is an issue that goes beyond one kid in Irving, Texas's experience.  We have a job beyond just being nice to one kid.

First, while the specifics of this issue will likely be called into question, we have to acknowledge that children of color face harsher discipline in general, even for the same infractions. Not just high schoolers, even preschool black children face harsher punishment.  This is in part because of increases in zero tolerance policies that have lead to even minor offenses leading to suspension, expulsion, or event arrest over minor offenses like truancy or smoking.

So first of all,  discipline is unfair.  However, second, tolerance is now a bad thing.  I'm not sure what the argument is that says kicking out a kid for misbehaving teaches them to behave better.  And doing it for minor actions seems ludicrous to me.

Many of us in tech and science grew up privileged.  One of those privileges was likely that if we did something cool at home, we felt safe showing our teachers and mentors.  If we did something problematic, our intentions, whether to cause harm or not, were considered.  Now, that privilege likely wouldn't have been afforded to people of color... but the solution is not a broken system where we take that privilege away... we need schools and communities where we extend the privilege to tinker, to make, to receive the benefit of the doubt to everyone.  Great minds that could be inventing better futures don't get the education they deserve, and everyone loses.  But even if it's just a normal kid that doesn't get their education... someone that could work a job and be a good citizen might instead end up in prison.

It's not enough to do things for Mohamed.  We need to do things to make life better, proactively, for young people who want to learn, bright or not.  We should talk to PTA meetings and neighborhood groups about the freedom to make and tinker.  We should write to our legislators and local politicians.  Not that we have to do everything, but we should try to do something.

Like I said, we have a job.  We want to disrupt things, make the world a better place, we need to think not just about server processes and operating systems, but about justice processes and school systems.