Sunday, December 7, 2014

Would You Invest in Human Insecurity

Last year Yik Yak was allowed at New Trier High School for 3 days. It was used to bully, harass, and anonymously intimidate students. The app has now been banned at high schools, but it is huge at colleges. The app is used for similar things, the only difference is the lack of a ban on the app for use by college students. Due to the popularity of the app on college campuses Sequoia, a Private Equity Firm, invested 61 million dollars in the company.

What does this investment say about human nature and evolving social climates? Not only is the app primarily used for negative messages but it is also totally anonymous. Sequoia has invested a huge amount of money in the hope that Yik Yak will grow, that there will be more insults to give, more pessimistic observations, and more intentionally provocative questions to ask--all of these messages passed through a phone: no identity, no problem.

The investment is not just accounting for the app updating and getting better, but it is also accounting for the growth of negativity and lack of confidence in our opinions as individuals. 61 million dollars was just invested in human insecurity, will Sequoia get the return they want?

Why the Indictment Process Doesn't Work

There are a lot of things to think about following the grand jury decision not to indict the officer who killed Michael Brown. People are primarily focused on racism and biases of white police officers, police brutality, abuse of power and the impact it has on certain groups.  What isn't being talked about is the inherent flaw in the structure and use of the grand jury system and how it will continue to fail our  society in these types of cases.

The grand jury system forces local prosecutors to present the facts of these cases and seek indictments against the very officers that they work side by side with to prosecute all other criminal matters.  The legal community in which criminals are prosecuted is small.  Prosecutors have relationships with many officers and if not direct relationships they likely know their partners, colleagues or managers.  This is not only a conflict of interest, but likely awkward and ineffective as well as giving an unfair legal advantage to police officers.  This will happen regardless of whether the prosecutor intends it to -- it's human nature to give an advantage to the person you know and work with.

This is another bias, seemingly parallel with the racism that causes these crimes of police violence. Both biases are unfair and dangerous to the public, racism of police leads to deaths like that of Michael Brown and Eric Garner while lack of indictment lets racist and overly brutal officers free to kill again.

When we think about racism we usually isolate the idea, but maybe we should try to think about it as one of many biases in the context of the legal system, one of many things that makes a less equal world for our citizens in the United States.