Verse

Inspiration

The black lives matter movement has sparked a nationwide conversation about institutionalized racism and its place in our society today. This has motivated thousands of people to find ways to learn about the situation and think about ways that they too, can give back. Because of social media, now more than ever has there been a push for individuals to grapple with their privilege and understand the existence and catastrophic impact of systemic racism. However, many times, this spark to make a difference tends to be short-lived. Black lives matter is NOT a trend.

Social media has given corporations a platform to make statements in support of movements such as black lives matter. While this is a great place to start, as many people have pointed out, these statements are not necessarily reflective of what a company actively does to combat racism. Performative activism, defined as “activism done to increase one’s social capital rather than one’s devotion to a cause”, is rampant within social media, and can be toxic, especially when no real action comes out of it. Many people are left feeling frustrated with what seems to be a lot of talk, and not a lot of walk.

What it does

Verse aims to build a sustainable solution towards productive activism that holds companies and individuals accountable for building a real change in their communities. We believe that through listening to individuals from other communities, an individual can be a better ally to making spaces more inclusive. Focusing on 3 main pillars, learn, serve, and engage, verse aims to defeat performative activism through substantive ways such that individuals do not fall into a savior complex, but rather try to walk in another community’s shoes.

In the learn page, individuals can come across a number of scholarly resources related to specific communities in order to understand the nuances amongst communities and challenges faced within them. In the serve page, individuals can find different ways to serve different communities whether its through volunteering, donating, or supporting local businesses. In order to prevent individuals from developing a toxic savior complex mentality, individuals must read a number of articles, gaining points from reading articles, in order to unlock service opportunities. This way, individuals truly understand the needs of a community without blindly going in to serve. In the engage page, individuals are able to interact directly with other people from their community by sharing their own personal experiences.

How we built it

Using wordpress to build the platform as a proof of concept, we hope to show that it is possible to hold ourselves and each other accountable so that our words are followed by real and impactful action.

What's next for Verse

In addition to partnering with corporations and having this platform be used as a part of a diversity and inclusion training module, we envision that this product can be used in universities as a tool for incoming students, and can be transitioned into a mobile app for easy access of information.

With verse, we hope that we can transition to a world where individuals are compelled to not only "talk the talk", but also, “walk the walk”.