Comments | blackfolk: Diversity in Technology Industry

madeline in blackfolk

Diversity in Technology Industry

Feb 07, 2013 14:32

Learnings
Last night I went to a Black History Month Celebration/ diversity panel put on by a Blacks in Tech group at the local Googleplex where everyone-- with the exception of five people and the hosts of the event-- in a room of at least 80 people was black. A few were within a couple of generations from the African continent or the UK. Used to ( Read more... )

meetup, science, parenting, where the blackfolk at?

Comments 5

sarafinapekkala February 7 2013, 23:20:26 UTC

Yeah, that's a difficult problem. I know for me personally, it's mainly a matter of time. My church runs an after school program for kids that I'd like to help out with, but it's not like I can leave work at 3 pm to hang out and help them with their homework. I can think of one-off stuff that I could do, like judging science fairs, but the long-term stuff can be hard to do while you're in a non-teaching STEM career.

madeline February 9 2013, 21:35:12 UTC

I agree. It's an issue requiring a concerted effort by many people in our communities.

jsl32 February 8 2013, 00:47:17 UTC

one quick thought is that you don't need a degree, tutors or tech camps (wtfbbq) to get into tech. you do need to be part of the social networks in tech though. and you mostly won't gain access to them through 'tech camps'.

madeline February 9 2013, 21:29:12 UTC

To clarify, the tutors and tech camps I referred to are for meant for the kids with little to no STEM exposure. I wasn't implying that working parents needed to use them for themselves to understand STEM.

ext_1667259 February 23 2013, 19:46:07 UTC

I was one of the speakers that night @ Google, I spoke about NSBE - the largest student-run org in America w/ over 30k members. I think due to the media and how they (don't) portray Black people in a certain light, sometimes we get the idea that there aren't many Blacks in Tech. Fortunately in the Northern CA, it's hard to forget there are Blacks in Tech. There are tons of meetups, groups, orgs, and events surrounding just that.

And NSBE's mission is to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and positively impact the community. So there are some people out there fighting the good fight ;) parents should get their kids into NSBE, and fast. The younger kids and collegiate students get the most out of the org.

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