How the fifth industrial revolution will end racial inequity if we let it.

In America, the history of the Black experience, and racism, is uniquely rooted in the DNA of this country.

There is an often perpetuated false narrative that Black people lag in technology due to things like the so-called digital divide, but the fact is Black Americans not only make use of new technologies — we make them must-haves.

Social media would not exist if it wasn’t for the originator of social media, Black Planet. There would be no concept of a “social media influencer” if it wasn’t for Soulja Boy and his ingenuity in leveraging Youtube’s algorithm, making his music viral.

Smartphones would not be a mainstay if it wasn’t for the early adoption of the technology — -not by Wall Street professionals, but by Black households who leveraged the technology as a cheaper alternative to gain access to the internet without paying for a desktop computer.

Despite the significant societal barriers that Black Americans have historically faced, what becomes trendy and ‘hot’ in the Black community often becomes highly sought after in the US and globally. Yet, when it comes to technology development and the design of these tools, Black people, and our needs are often not even taken into consideration.

Recap…these are the industrial revolutions we have already had:

• 1.0 was around the 1780s, when steam power was really cranking and making machinery move. And during this time, Black people were seen as nothing more than property.
• 2.0 was around the 1870s, when mass manufacturing and division of labor were applied. And during this time Black people were discriminated against and weren’t allowed to work in many factories.
• 3.0 started around the late 1960s and was the time of computing. Despite the many contributions Black people made in computing from microprocessing to semiconductors, and getting people to the moon — discrimination still slowed advancements in the industry.
• 4.0 was around the year 2000, when sensors started getting smaller and more connected. It was dubbed the internet of things. Well, life for Black people is better, but all the discrimination of the previous 300 years of revolutions has us playing catch up.

Summing it up, while a lot has changed and certain overt social norms related to race relations of the past have been laid to rest, we still live in a time where the echoes of that racist past can still be heard.

Don’t believe me? Take a digital stroll across Musk’s Twitter.

Will the ghost of our nation’s racist and oppressive past finally rest, and allow us to move forward? Part of me is hopeful, but at times my optimism wanes due to the tech industry's continued development of inequitable solutions that perpetuate this haunting past.

In the face of our failure when it comes to race relations in America, Industrial Revolution 5.0 (“Industry 5.0”) offers us the opportunity to build a more equitable future.

Industry 5.0 will be powered by purpose, not profit. This future revolution does not have to fail Black people the way its predecessors have. In order to foster an equitable future, we must look at the past and take intentional action not to repeat it.

Web 3.0 is the Gateway to Change

Web 3.0, which is best defined as the third generation of the evolution of the internet, is deeply rooted in a permissionless environment, serving as the gateway to Industry 5.0.

While Industry 5.0 is set in the not-so-distant future and believed to be the ultimate connection between humans and machines, we are now experiencing the beginning of this tether through the evolution of the metaverse, the blockchain, generative artificial intelligence, and an ever-growing angst with centralized institutions. However, we’re also staring into a situation that may lead to disaster if we simply rehash laws and regulations that spun out of Revolutions 1.0 thru 4.0.

How does this relate to racial inequality?

In the United States, its laws and regulations have a peculiar history (and present) with Black citizens. After race-based slavery was finally outlawed, a new generation of political elites allowed a new race-based system of coerced labor to become law and remain in place for a century. The legacy of prejudice that was produced and reinforced by slavery and Jim Crow continues to shape American political institutions and thinking in profound ways.

When Black people moved north in the 20th century over the course of two world wars and the Great Depression, they found more personal freedom — but they also found ongoing discrimination and unequal access to economic opportunities.

Much of this unequal access was, and is, a direct result of financial regulators and the regulations they impose throughout the systems relied upon in U.S. institutions. Lately, there has been much uncertainty around Cryptocurrency as a result of fraud, most recently the failure of FTX exchange, many in the space have been advocating for rules and regulations that model that of the Traditional finance world. 

Crypto space would benefit from stronger regulations; however, I know, based on history, these regulations rarely, if ever, benefit people from my community.

Over the past several years, there has been a resounding call for more diversity in boardrooms while decisions are being made. Yet despite the direct consequences, financial regulation holds for African Americans, and a widespread awareness of the dearth of Black people crafting policy, the degree to which Blacks are missing from policy leadership remains entirely undocumented. According to a 2020 report by the Brookings Institution,

The absence of African American financial regulators poses enormous challenges from the standpoint of participatory democracy and economic inclusion.

These same financial regulators are involved in critical legislation like Fair Housing Act, Community Reinvestment Act, and Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Yet we sit here asking Sway, how do we close the wealth gap?

Web 3.0 is still in a nascent stage and the laws have yet to catch up. In order for us to avoid the remix version of racism in legislation and oversight in the space, we must be early adopters of not only future-focused business models but lead the change for economic inclusion by establishing new laws and oversight that mitigate racism. This would require establishing new norms contributed to by a fully diverse governing body.

This opportunity to start anew is the underlining beauty of Web 3.0; allowing us to shift from a “this is a way we have always done it” outlook to a more equitable future.

Still, we must go beyond policy

Many of the tech decisions made today have a significant impact on society and often lead to specific policies that govern tech design and use. But oftentimes, even the most well-meaning policies come too late. Technology is always rapidly evolving, and efforts to craft policies often fail to recognize and keep pace with this rapid advancement.

Unfortunately, many of our established policies solely focus on the profit of the few versus the elevation of the many. Industry 5.0 will not lead to racial equity unless we take a hard stance on putting the needs of people before profit.

Responsible Innovation is Imperative

Building technology through the framework of Responsible Innovation forces developers and designers to take into consideration the ethical, inclusive, and sustainable implications of their product. This form of governance in the development process, starting at the onset, helps mitigate risk and harm that is often associated with inequitable design.

It may cost more in the short term to build inclusive data sets, but in the long term that data set will better train AI in its analysis of data. In healthcare, for instance, that more inclusive data may better inform a cardiologist of the early signs of heart failure for a Black patient. More inclusive data may mitigate the prevalent bias in judicial systems that rely on facial recognition or sentencing recommendations AI tools.

Consider Generative AI and the use of generative text. This tool could be powerful for developing text copy that is more inclusive in communicating job listings or applied to create content that understands cultural nuances in language, such as the adoption of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) that doesn’t come across as offensive or conversational AI that better understands and reflect speech dialect, inflections, and tone.

Gen Z and Alpha Have the Answers

Gen Zers are more racially and ethnically diverse than previous generations, with nearly half representing communities of color. They value inclusion more than their older counterparts. They along, with the Generation Alpha (Alpha being children born in 2010 and on) are born into a hyper-connected world. Today’s young people are also acutely aware of the nation’s steep racial divides.

My seven-year-old son can now see the differences in upkeep in our city of Kansas City, as we travel east (predominately Black) to the west (predominately white), the disparities become evident, even through the eyes of a child.

Moving into Industry 5.0, we have an opportunity to create more inclusive content and immersive experiences that better reflect our global society.

These younger generations' outlook on race, gender, and climate, and the expectation that businesses and brands embody a moral consciousness will shape how we move forward as a society. Brands, businesses, and industries (including tech) that do not reflect their values will die.

Thomas Jefferson (paraphrasing Aristotle) once said, “There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.” While Jefferson was likely urging that Africans should not be treated like Europeans — the sentiment of the paraphrasing has gravity in how we must move forward with race relations.

If we are to not repeat the failure of our past and move forward into an equitable future, we must acknowledge the inequalities and inequities that exist in technology development.

Recognizing the inequities is the start, now we must build solutions that are truly for the betterment and inclusion of all.