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When I read @anildash's “The Majority AI View”, what struck me most wasn’t just his critique of the current state of AI, it was how clearly it exposes the same predictable pattern that Ijeoma Oluo lays out in Mediocre, and that I continue to explore through Life Beyond the Supremacy Myth.
Once again, we see the myth of white male supremacy at work. Where the loudest, most harmful voices are mistaken for the most “visionary,”
and where the violence of exploitation and exclusion is rebranded as “innovation.”
Dash points out that “the majority of people in tech are thoughtful, nuanced, and circumspect.” Yet, those very people, the ones capable of building something grounded in ethics, sustainability, and compassion, are silenced by a culture that rewards domination, not care. The fear of being labeled “anti-progress” or “not a team player” keeps far too many from naming what they already know…
this isn’t leadership, it’s authoritarianism dressed up as disruption.
Oluo’s Mediocre showed us that this isn’t new. It’s the same white male mediocrity that has defined so much of American leadership. Inflated through PR and power, protected by systems, institutions, and policies designed to uphold the myth of white supremacy. It’s the same pattern that ensures harm is always externalized while those responsible remain insulated from accountability.
What we’re witnessing in tech today isn’t the future, it’s a predictable repetition of a myth that has long outlived its usefulness.
Life Beyond the Supremacy Myth calls us to imagine and practice something different. To build from a place where value isn’t measured by extraction, where innovation doesn’t depend on exploitation, and where leadership doesn’t require harm.
Because the truth is, AI doesn’t have to be extractive. Innovation doesn’t have to be violent. Technology doesn’t have to be in service to supremacy.
But getting there will require white men, and those who’ve benefited from their mediocrity, to finally confront what it means to stop being the hero or the victim, and start being accountable participants in building a world that works for everyone.
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