Without my recently departed friend Om Malik, WordPress arguably wouldn’t still exist. Automattic, the company I helped start to support WordPress, wouldn’t exist. Stimpunks probably wouldn’t exist. I sold part of Automattic to fund Stimpunks. We certainly wouldn’t have been able to pay staff all these years without Om. My high-support needs family would be in dire straits if Om hadn’t given high support to our work with WordPress and Automattic.

I’m pouring one out for Om on this July 4th. He spoke out against the colonialist history of this country and the colonialism taking over big tech.

Anil Dash knew Om better than I. Anil wrote this beautiful piece that I cosign with my whole heart.

When the wealthiest and most powerful men in tech explicitly tried to return to the colonialism that had cost the lives of millions of our family members just one generation ago, Om was the one who made the wickedness of their plan plain to the world. His words, genuinely, had a central role in changing the global plans of the biggest company in tech trying to control communications in the biggest democracy in the world. In countries like Myanmar, where activists and journalists were not so successful, those same platforms played a central role in enabling genocide in the months that followed.

Lots of people say, after they lose a friend, “he changed the world”. We all feel that way when we grieve the loss of someone who did great work. But I’m not making an assertion based on my gut sense. Look at the legacy of the breadth of talent and impact of all of those who have already testified that Om made their work possible. Look at the legacy that’s already before us.

Let’s try to be worthy of it. We need more people, those with access to power and something to lose, who will choose to use their voice and to act with courage. Be like Om.

Anil Dash | Post | LinkedIn

Om Malik, may his memory be a revolution. May his memory guide us on this day of remembering.

Remember the brutal history of this nation, remember beyond the white supremacist mythology and the poorly held ideals. Memory is the practice.

Lineage. Forgetting is a tool of white supremacy. Memory is the work.

Om knew that. He taught us that.

I’m proud to claim Om as ancestor.