Sarah Jeong

Sarah Jeong is an American writer, editor and lawyer who focuses on civil rights, technology, and online harassment. She is most known for her work at VICE Media and for her New York Times op-ed piece, "Why I Speak up for the Dazed and Outnumbered", which is an opinion piece discussing the systemic challenges faced by Asian American women. Jeong has written two books, The Internet of Garbage and The Matchmaker Who Flirts With Death.

Jeong graduated from Harvard College in 2010 with a degree in History & Literature and Harvard Law School in 2014. After graduation she worked at the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, a think tank based at Harvard that has developed cutting-edge solutions to fight corruption and to increase government transparency. During her time there she worked on projects related to election integrity and voting.

In 2016, Jeong became a Senior Editor at VICE Media, where she wrote about technology, science, and women’s rights for the company’s news and opinion sections. She also helped launch Impact and Long Reads, VICE's editorial initiatives featuring in-depth coverage and analysis of news stories and critical issues.

Jeong has made headlines as a critical and smart commentator about the ways in which social media can be more harm than good. In her book, The Internet of Garbage, Jeong discusses the “digital inequity” that exists in online space, focused on the divide between those who control online information, known as the “privileged majority,” and those who do not, known as the “underprivileged minority”. The book examines the ways in which technology platforms and policies can be used to perpetuate racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination, to exploit the privacy of people, and to deny people access to technology.

Her second book, The Matchmaker Who Flirts With Death, is a work of fiction exploring the cost of a love triangle between three characters, two of them Asian-American women. Jeong uses her personal experiences as an Asian-American woman to explore topics such as race and identity, academic pressure, and mental health.

In recent months, Jeong has been harshly criticized for a series of tweets she posted in 2013 and 2014 concerning white people. After publication of these tweets, Jeong faced widespread criticism and accusations of racism, which she addressed in her New York Times op-ed piece. In the essay, Jeong argues that the criticism of her tweets represents a double standard based on one’s identity; white people who made similar comments were not facing the same level of condemnation.

Sarah Jeong has won multiple awards for her contributions to public discourse, including the John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting award and the John Jay Award for Criminal Justice Reporting. She is a current board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a leading organization devoted to protecting civil liberties in the digital world.

Jeong’s work is a valuable source of insight into the complexities of the intersection between race and technology. With her incisive writing, she interrogates and exposes conflicting forces, offering a thoughtful and comprehensive analysis of the implications of the technologies we use. As a young writer, editor and lawyer, she is contributing to the important dialogue surrounding social media and internet culture in the 21st century.