s1e4: Technology in Movements with Tawana Petty
“It’s not our fault but it is our fight.”
-Monica Lewis Patrick
In this episode of Radicals for Good, we discuss utilizing technology in movement spaces and what digital justice could look like in Detroit with Tawana Petty, a mother, digital justice organizer, poet, and author.
Tawana Petty, also known by her poetry stage name Honeycomb, is a mother, social justice organizer, poet, author, facilitator and keynote lecturer. Her work focuses on racial justice, equity, privacy, and consent. She is the founding Executive Director of Petty Propolis, Inc. [https://pettypropolis.org], an artist incubator, which leverages poetry, policy literacy and advocacy, anti-racism facilitation, political education and community-centered initiatives in pursuit of data and digital justice and racial and environmental justice. In 2024, Petty was named on Business Insider’s AI Power List for Policy and Ethics [https://www.businessinsider.com/tawana-petty-algorithmic-justice-league-ai-power-list-2024].
Sources:
https://geezmagazine.org/magazine/article/waawiyatanong-land-acknowledgement [https://geezmagazine.org/magazine/article/waawiyatanong-land-acknowledgement]
https://unsplash.com/photos/text-zO7VVw7Hxik
https://www.bridgedetroit.com/detroiters-get-oversight-of-surveillance-technology-but-is-it-enough/ [https://www.bridgedetroit.com/detroiters-get-oversight-of-surveillance-technology-but-is-it-enough/]
https://www.bridgedetroit.com/michigan-central-is-collecting-a-lot-of-data-can-we-trust-it/ [https://www.bridgedetroit.com/michigan-central-is-collecting-a-lot-of-data-can-we-trust-it/]
https://open.substack.com/pub/tawanapetty/p/defending-detroit?r=7g7rur&utm_medium=ios [https://open.substack.com/pub/tawanapetty/p/defending-detroit?r=7g7rur&utm_medium=ios]
https://tawanapetty.org/selected-media/f/defending-black-lives-means-banning-facial-recognition [https://tawanapetty.org/selected-media/f/defending-black-lives-means-banning-facial-recognition]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/11/tsa-airport-security-facial-recognition/ [https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/11/tsa-airport-security-facial-recognition/]
https://stoplapdspying.org/ [https://stoplapdspying.org/]
https://voicesfromthegrassroots.org/lewis-patrick-monica/ [https://voicesfromthegrassroots.org/lewis-patrick-monica/]
https://www.detroitk12.org/about-dpscd/initiatives/one-to-one-student-technology-iniiative [https://www.detroitk12.org/about-dpscd/initiatives/one-to-one-student-technology-iniiative]
https://www.wxyz.com/news/coronavirus/detroit-police-to-enforce-ticket-people-not-following-stay-at-home-order [https://www.wxyz.com/news/coronavirus/detroit-police-to-enforce-ticket-people-not-following-stay-at-home-order]
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/detroitcitymichigan/PST045224 [https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/detroitcitymichigan/PST045224]
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/14dd97b35cbb4a4298786c75855f8080 [https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/14dd97b35cbb4a4298786c75855f8080]
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2024/08/28/detroit-police-department-celebrates-1k-project-green-light-partners/ [https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2024/08/28/detroit-police-department-celebrates-1k-project-green-light-partners/]
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/09/detroit-bridges-internet-access-digital-divide/ [https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/09/detroit-bridges-internet-access-digital-divide/]
https://connectyourcommunity.org/cleveland-and-detroit-lead-worst-connected-large-cities-of-2023/ [https://connectyourcommunity.org/cleveland-and-detroit-lead-worst-connected-large-cities-of-2023/]
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2025/10/07/grim-reality-more-than-half-of-detroit-children-are-now-living-in-poverty-census-bureau-data-shows/ [https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2025/10/07/grim-reality-more-than-half-of-detroit-children-are-now-living-in-poverty-census-bureau-data-shows/]
https://poverty.umich.edu/projects/detroit-partnership-on-economic-mobility/ [https://poverty.umich.edu/projects/detroit-partnership-on-economic-mobility/]
https://www.epa.gov/mo/town-flood-and-superfund-looking-back-times-beach-disaster-nearly-40-years-later [https://www.epa.gov/mo/town-flood-and-superfund-looking-back-times-beach-disaster-nearly-40-years-later]
AI and Assembly: Coming Together and Apart in a Datafied World by Toussaint Nothias and Lucy Bernholz
Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence by Mizue Aizeki, Matt Mahmoudi, and Colin Schupfer
Get full access to Radicals for Good at radicalspod.substack.com/subscribe [https://radicalspod.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]