Seen Yet Unseen

A Black Woman Crashes the Tech Fraternity

By: Bärí A. Williams

Narrated by: Bärí A. Williams

Part memoir, part searing revelation, Seen Yet Unseen takes listeners behind the scenes of some of the world’s biggest tech companies and exposes the way their exclusion of and, at times, hostility toward Black women have lasting impacts on the technology we use every day.

Over the years the products of big tech companies and Silicon Valley have become indispensable to our lives. They impact the way we socialize, make purchases, and even our medical decisions. But what happens when a major segment of the population—in this case Black women—isn’t included in these companies?

For over a decade, Bärí A. Williams has worked to carve a space for herself as a Black woman in the incredibly white male sphere of major tech companies, eventually becoming a lead counsel at Facebook and architect of their supplier diversity program. However, she also experienced the peculiar feeling familiar to Black women in the workforce: being both unseen and too seen. In raw and personal stories, Williams recounts balancing on glass cliffs while battling the burnout that so often forces Black women out of these companies, and how the industry’s lack—and loss—of Black women not only harms the businesses themselves but has troubling ramifications for their products, particularly as the promises of AI and the Metaverse loom large.

In a tone both forthright and revealing, Williams dissects how a culture that has largely excluded Black women—and people of color more generally—is at a tipping point and that only through embracing and listening to Black women can we prevent the further weaponization of these technologies against marginalized communities. From fledgling in-house diversity initiatives to gentrification and the rise of AI, Seen Yet Unseen takes the listener inside the obscured machinations of big tech companies and makes a case for why diversity is essential to the future of technology.

©2024 Bärí A. Williams (P)2024 Blackstone Publishing

Being a Black Women ain’t for the weak!

Mrs. Williams told so many truths. I had no idea how either purposely or unintentionally those in tech don’t think about how Black and brown people are affected and affected. I thought the automated paper towel dispenser and automatic flush and water dispenser had a short, I had no idea it’s because of my dark skin. We must have a seat at the table and we must be in the room. The fear of reciprocity has white men and women who have done Black women and men wrong always on guard. We aren’t inherently bad or vengeful. I found myself recalling the bias and bs working in corporate with the pompous sales colleague who was never questioned or the terrorizing manager who cried when I was the person being attacked or the VP who was angry for telling the truth. I find that certain industries are worse or equally hard to enjoy because they don’t want to really see us. They want our intelligence and rhythm, but by all means keep those blues. Being a Black women in corporate and on earth ain’t for the weak.