The only Black person in Netflix’s The Social Dilemma, was interviewed for over 4 hours, but in the documentary for 7 seconds. It felt egregious to me. Not just because of the optics that others have been discussing, but because Rashida Richardson is an effing genius and trailblazer who needs to be heard.
When the film producers from The Social Dilemma reached out to Rashida, a civil rights lawyer who focuses on technology, she was initially hesitant to participate. Her take was, “I’m not like these other people that you are interviewing. They helped to develop the systems that we now see as a problem and now they conveniently realize there is a problem after they have profited from it”. But the film producers still wanted (7 seconds of) her after she divulged her concerns.
So, I recently went over to her Brooklyn Brownstone, which her grandparents purchased in the 1940s, to discuss really interesting shit that was left out of the documentary. Of course, Rashida made me a delicious meal, because she is a phenomenal cook, and we talked and laughed for a few hours. Full disclosure: We met during law school and since that time we have become friends, dance partners, foodie buddies and more.
So sit back and get ready for us to discuss why tech is the next big civil rights issue of our time, why Rashida doesn’t use social media, how the NYPD and FBI are preventing Brooklyn rappers from coming back to the level of Biggie and Bad Boy, having dinner at Angela Davis’s home and the real talk she gives to young Black women who reach out to her for career advice.
