From entertainment to sports, and commerce in general, tech tools and software are a driving force behind a lot of our activity. While there are many people who are resistant to the rise of social media, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, not all of the effects of their growth are negative.
As a matter of fact, technology and the development thereof have the potential to create waves of change in communities that are traditionally impoverished, underserved and under-supported. For Latinx and Black people in the U.S. tech has the potential to be both the way to close and widen the wealth gap, depending on how it’s used.
According to research, black millennials are the leaders of the digital vanguard. With a 16.9 billion dollar buying power, the younger generations of black people are driving culture through technology. As the highest consumers of technology and social media, younger generations of Black people are pushing culture forward in ways that haven’t been done before. Essentially, black millennials have become the tastemakers in industries that are now all vying for their dollars. It seems like a great thing, right? The problem, however, is that on the backs of young people of color, technology platforms have grown to be multi-million and billion-dollar empires, without those people having any ownership in it. The same or similar numbers can be found in Latinx communities.
Technology companies have been plagued with criticism for their lack of diversity. There are far fewer people of color working in technology than there are consuming it. Heads of companies, founders, and human resources departments have been scrambling to introduce diversity initiatives in response to the mounting pressure to include people from different backgrounds and experiences, but even those aren’t enough to help close the widening gap in wealth that’s been created by one major key: access.
Learning how to code has become a new type of social currency. As more and more service related jobs are being shifted to being occupied by machinery, people will have to shift their focus to honing the skill in order to remain afloat. It seems simple enough, however, the access to training seems far away. The Flatiron School and Opportunity HUB are working to change that.
On September 14th, the two organizations hosted the Houston stop of the Tech To Wealth tour at the downtown WeWork office. The event offered attendees the opportunity to network with other like-minded professionals, and hear from an esteemed panel, comprised of people who are making waves in the industry including Opportunity HUB Founder Rodney Sampson and Jay-Z’s renowned audio engineer Young Guru.
“The things that we’re trying to teach are the things that are going to get us beyond being just factory workers, because at the end of the day, in a couple of years that’s what you’re going to be,” warned Guru. “Basic coding is just the survival level. You come in, fix whatever program people are talking about and then you’re gone. That’s basic. You’ll be a factory worker. So if you don’t even have that skill, imagine how much of an underclass we will be if we don’t get these skills.”
Traditionally, kids in underserved communities around the city are introduced to non-technical roles in industries from business to music. This is something that Guru hopes to shift with his work.
“For me, I’m probably a little bit more disruptive coming into this space, compared to the normal person, because I’m not coming in asking for anything. My whole purpose is to figure the space out. Being successful with music is basically just an appetizer for what I do as an engineer,” he said. “My goal is to get kids involved behind the scenes in the music business and say ‘okay, if you want to be a rapper, singer or whatever, it’s only going to last a certain amount of years, but the job that I do lasts forever.’ I can always record people, I can always DJ a party, I can always do something with the technical world. That allows me to continue to go after the artist goes out.”
With the knowledge base that he shares, and in collaboration with OHUB there will be scholarships made available to people of color who are interested in learning. Opportunities like this are hard to come by, but hopefully, with more and more people joining the ranks, there will be even more to come soon.
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