The Clubhouse App: Access & Accountability
By: Tee, Weoc - Writer, Editor Of Color
Tags: Diversity, Online, Clubhouse, Tech, Social Media

The Clubhouse App: Brings Unprecedented Access, Inclusivity and Accountability To The Tech World, Creatives and Everyday People

Photo by Daniel Korpai on Unsplash

*Originally published in Technology Hits

I was invited to join Clubhouse a week ago and I like it. Since then, I’ve visited several Clubhouse rooms, but I’ve only participated in conversations about entrepreneurship and writing. The Writing Community discussion hosted and moderated by Shaka Senghor and Julie Wenah was amazing and helped me understand the positive impact and need for a voice-based platform and discussions like this.

I’m not tech savvy nor big on social media. However, if I — a Gen X, WOC and educator turned writer and entrepreneur with a start-up consultancy can join discussions and walk away feeling heard, engaged and empowered — that speaks volumes about both the app and the moderators.

I will admit, at first I didn’t get it. I didn’t believe the hype. It sounded like the tech version of the old school party lines from the 80’s. However, Clubhouse is so much more and it’s needed during the pandemic. Being an entrepreneur is already a daunting and sometimes lonely venture, but social distancing adds a new level of isolation and challenges. Working from home and limited access to everything from government to banking services are a huge challenge; not to mention, how the current political climate deepens the digital divide, disparities and gaps in wealth, health and education. We need to connect and communicate to share information, ideas, resources and strategies to support, motivate, and inspire others and ourselves — more than ever.

Unprecedented Access

The Clubhouse community offers real access and authentic, real-time conversations between creatives, thought leaders, political and industry leaders, and celebrities and everyday people with similar interests from around the world.

The conversations can help you build connections and cultivate a wide array of personal and professional relationships with like minded people. You could find synergy that could lead to collaborations, mentorships, partnerships with people you would have never met through in-person and virtual networking or current social media platforms.

I can tweet about or mention anyone on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. I can even visit their live sessions, but the only place I could possibly listen to and possibly have a conversation with people like Oprah, Ava Duvernay, tech company CEO’s and venture capitalists is Clubhouse.

Inclusivity and Accountability

I love that anyone can start discussion. However, there is a higher level of accountability in Clubhouse’s invitation-only format. You need to choose wisely because your guest could impact your membership.

You might question how I make the argument that this is an example of inclusion. Well, unfortunately social justice and workplace diversity, equity and inclusion research has found a direct correlation between the lack of diversity in personal networks and the lack of diversity in professional networks and companies. It’s simple — you refer, hire and partner with who you know and who you’re comfortable with…

The Washington Post reported that three quarters of white people surveyed don’t have any non-white friends. Therefore, if Black or brown people had to wait for an invite from their white colleagues or business associates — they’d probably never get one. Yet, oddly enough they would probably get an invite from a Black or brown associate.

Clubhouse evens the playing field because Black and brown people have the power to invite people in their own network — which based on a cursory review of invites is actually diverse. I know this because Clubhouse lists who invited you to the platform.

Although it was only a small sample of members — the researcher and the nosey church lady in me couldn’t help but notice that the 3 white members, in two different chats with 100 plus people were invited by a Black person or person of color (POC). Yet, I didn’t find one Black or POC who was invited by a white person. This sadly aligns with the DEI data.