This is such an amazing opportunity, hope you all are able to make it out for your chance at a scholarship! Are you a person of color looking to get into the tech field? Flatiron School, Young Guru, and Jamilah Lamieux have launched a tech initiative to get 10,000 people of color coding over the next 12 months!
Young Guru is best known as Jay-Z’s legendary audio engineer; he graduated from Howard University and has worked with some of the worlds greatest artists. Young Guru will share is vision for the future of tech, its influence on culture, and how anyone (including you) can make it in this field.
There are some major influencers associated with Young Guru/FlatIron initiative: Daniel Waithe – Director of Quality Assurance for MailChimp, Chrissa McFarlane – Founder/CEO of Patientory, Rodney Sampson – CEO of Opportunity Hub, and Jamilah Lamieux – VP of news and men’s programming for Interactive One, part of Radio One, Inc, will all participate in this push to get more people of color coding.
The initiative is kicking off in Atlanta today, with a high energy celebration which will include, mingling, hors d’oeuvres, drinks, discussion, testimonials, and a Q&A. There will also be an after party with Young Guru bringing the latest beats. Come out today and get started on an exciting career in the tech field!
The numbers are in and they’re not looking good for people of color who are trying to get in the door of major tech companies. Bloomberg recently reported that among the 8 large tech firms, black employees working in technical roles have risen less than 1 percent since 2014. Here are some other troubling details regarding people of color in tech:
At Facebook, the number of black employees in its U.S. workforce is 3%; up from 2% in 2014. However, black workers in actual tech roles at Facebook is stagnant at 1%. At Google, only 2% of their U.S. workforce is black, and that figure has been the same for the past 3 years. When you take the 8 largest tech firms in the U.S., blacks make up 7 percent of the total high-tech workforce, and only 3 percent of the workforce in Silicone Valley. Here are the Top 6 Disturbing trends regarding blacks in tech in the U.S:
1. Little has changed since the last tech reports in 2014
Only 1-2 percent of workers at the largest tech firms in America are black.
2. Being a minority at a major tech firm can feel isolating
‘Hiring minorities is hard, and Facebook is doing the best it can. We’re on the journey, in the struggle; We know the data on how being a minority affects your ability or willingness to show up. It can be isolating. What I have learned is there’s no one silver bullet. All I know how to do is have this comprehensive suite to meet people where they are.” – Maxine Williams, Facebook’s Global Head of Diversity
3. Once Blacks get into the door of major tech firms, often things don’t get any easier
An anonymous Facebook employee stated things felt “very lonely” at his office. This employee also stated that Maxine William’s “comprehensive suite” resources hasn’t helped find him any mentors that could help hime grow within the company. He belongs to a black resource group, but is still feeling uncomfortable fitting in.
4. Tech workers are not motivated by making their companies more diverse
An Atlassian survey calls this “diversity fatigue” and tech workers don’t believe that they need to make their environments more diverse. Of the 1500 respondents in the Atlassian survery, many workers responded its the governments job to increase diversity, not their company’s job.
5. Culture within Tech companies isn’t changing at a rapid pace
“Culture doesn’t change rapidly, you can improve the metric, but I think you would still have a broader cultural issue in the company that wouldn’t be solved.” – anonymous Facebook employee.
6. Maxine Waters has threatened the Tech industry with regulation if they’re not willing to launch initiatives to better diversification
“I’m not about diplomacy,’’ said Waters, threatening regulation. “I’m not urging, I’m not encouraging. I’m about to hit some people across the head with a hammer. I know how to do this and I know how to do it well.’’ – Maxine Waters, Bloomberg.com
A few years ago after attending a conference for Black and Latino startups for women, we met a young lady who was the creator of Women in Linux. At this conference she explained that parents should stop telling their kids to “put the video games down”, instead she advised that many parents should encourage their children to get involved in playing certain video games. She told us that teenagers all over the country were winning hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes in competitions throughout the country, and that black children were missing out in a hugely popular and viable sector of the tech industry – gaming.
Now, even institutions are understanding the influence the gaming industry will have on the future of tech and computer science. Ashland University in Ohio is now offering scholarships to students who are top players in a game called ‘Fortnite’.
Ashland has their own Esports team, and their head coach announced in a press release, “Fortnite appeals to both the core and casual gaming audience. We’re excited to provide this platform for gamers who want to showcase their skills in a more competitive space. Fortnite facilitates an environment that allows players to get creative, innovative and show off the mastery of their skills.”
For most players, ‘Fortnite’ is more than just a video game. Its a highly competitive team sport. The setting for the game is Earth, after a storm wiped out 98% of the world’s population. The team now has to deal with zombies, and they set out on missions to rebuild, collect resources, and protect the survivors of this Apocalypse. Players are able to earn rewards through these missions with micro-transactions (in-game currency).
In 2017, ‘Fortnite’ had sold over 500,000 digital preorder copies, surpassed over 1 million players, and was nominated for “Best Co-op Game” in at the Game of the Year Awards. Last year, rapper Drake started joining the live streamers and playing along with them.
Lately, we have been seeing an influx of robots and virtual reality figures filling up our timelines on social media. These engineered creations are all the craze, whether they’re being built in order to replace all of our jobs in ten years, for sexual purposes, or just to make our lives easier – humans seem to have a fascination with the virtual world. Now, the fashion world is going crazy over the newest high fashion supermodel; she’s black, she’s beautiful, and she’s the world’s first 3D Digital Supermodel. Some people are loving her, but some black women aren’t really feeling her.
Her name is Shudu and she already has over 90 thousand Instagram followers. No lie, at first glance I thought she was an actual person. The artist/photographer, Cameron James Wilson, did an amazing job creating this piece of art; and each digital image he creates of her takes approximately three days; and weeks of planning. But, here are a few reasons why some people believe we don’t need a virtual black model.
Shudu has already been in a Fenty Beauty Campaign.
That’s right, the digital image is now taking work from real women. Well actually, the money would be going into the hands of her creator. With the launch of this 3D model, will actual models have to start worrying about 3D graphics taking their jobs?
Cameron James Wilson is a white man that created this black virtual woman
Shudu Gram Instagram
Wilson, a photographer and an artist is a white man. No one can deny his talent and skill, however, people are tripping that a white man will be making revenue from the features and looks of black women. The thought of this work going to a 3D drawing and her owner, instead of a real person has many upset. Seems like a slap-in-the-face that an industry that already lacks in providing jobs to women of color, especially darker skinned women, will now accept a 3D image of a woman, but a white man will be paid for the imagery. Is this digital slavery?
Shudu’s look is inspired by actress Lupita Nyongo and super-model Alek Wek, along with a South African Barbie doll.
Don’t you hate when someone says their work was “inspired by”….just say you stole their look and now you’re making money off of it!
Shudu also has a male counterpart, Nfon.
Shudu Gram Instagram
Nfon is fine yall – i know, i know he’s a 3D image, but i’m just saying. While some are worried that these digital images will begin to take jobs from actual models – others see it as an opportunity to open some doors. Fashion designers will see the true beauty in these images and hire more black models – but, only time will tell.
Cameron Wilson is a photographer. Why not just hire dark-skinned female models and assist them in elevating their careers?
Shudu Gram Instagram
That’s the question many are asking, especially in an industry where women who look like Shudu are more disenfranchised than other models. High-fashion modeling is a mostly white industry. Many are wondering why Wilson just doesn’t hire actual black models.
However, some are saying Wilson is not just a photographer, he is an artist; no one has the right to tell him how to creatively express himself.
Over the past few years, Jay Z has been vocal about sounding the alarm regarding many social issues throughout our communities; he has especially been passionate about mass incarceration and the number of black men behind bars. From his production of the tragic documentary on Kalief Browder, to his Op-Ed piece for the NY Times, “Why The War On Drugs Was An Epic Fail“, where Jay Z shares with us the history of the drug war and asks many important questions on the reasons why this “war” was an epic fail; Jay has managed being a mogul and an activist for good, while still giving the culture great music.
“Why are white men poised to get rich doing the same thing African-Americans have been going to prison for?”-Jay Z: The War on Drugs Is An Epic Fail
Jay and Bey have taken an open stance on mass incarceration and you can frequently catch them both yelling things like “Free Meek” in songs like Khalid’s latest collaboration, “Top Off”.
Once again, Jay is putting his money where is mouth is. Jay’s label, Roc Nation has invested in technology that has been built to fight the mass incarceration problem. On March 19, Roc Nation announced its plans to back an upcoming app called Promise. The Promise App can be used with any smart-phone device and will be used with both government agencies and inmates. The promise program and app is designed to assist inmates who cannot afford to defend themselves on court.
“We are increasingly alarmed by the injustice in our criminal justice system. Money, time and lives are wasted with the current policies. It’s time for an innovative and progressive technology that offers sustainable solutions to tough problems. Promise’s team is building an app that can help provide ‘liberty and justice for all’ to millions.”– Jay Z
The decarceration app does not have an official release date, but the creators of the app, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins and Diana Frappier, will premier the app today (March 20) at Y Combinator Demo Day. You can learn more about Promise at their website.
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