Some responses to an earlier blog I wrote a few days ago about the new interest of Civil Rights organizations in Silicon Valley suggested that I had expressed my doubt or cynicism whether providing employment opportunities for African-American engineers, computer programmers, etc. would make any qualitative difference in the current economic life of African-American communities across our nations. I stand by my earlier blog statement. However, what I failed to do was provide some alternative proposal or proposals that could have a more meaningful effect upon creating employment opportunities for a limited number of technology qualified African-Americans. Accordingly, today I outlined some possible options that…
Some responses to an earlier blog I wrote a few days ago about the new interest of Civil Rights organizations in Silicon Valley suggested that I had expressed my doubt or cynicism whether providing employment opportunities for African-American engineers, computer programmers, etc. would make any qualitative difference in the current economic life of African-American communities across our nations.
I stand by my earlier blog statement. However, what I failed to do was provide some alternative proposal or proposals that could have a more meaningful effect upon creating employment opportunities for a limited number of technology qualified African-Americans.
Accordingly, today I outlined some possible options that might have a more enduring, immediate and long term positive impact on increasing employment and economic opportunities for African-Americans in Silicon Valley.
In the 1960s, there was an initiative that served as a useful template for leveraging the power of Silicon Valley companies to expand meaningful education and employment opportunities for African-Americans. This initiative was called “The Urban Coalition”.
It consisted of a group of corporate business leaders who came together to tackle the problems of race and poverty that underlay the nationwide riots of 1968. It was an ambitious effort, bringing together leaders of labor, business and government to collaborate in the fight against inequality and racism.
Despite their work, the violence in the streets and the flight from the cities continued. Fueling the fire were the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and New York Senator Robert Kennedy.
Today, the focus, which I suggest, is more narrow and targeted. We propose that Silicon Valley Tech companies create a 2015, 21st Century Technology Empowerment Coalition (SVTEC) to radically change the talent and educational input to the so-called “pipeline” from which potentially qualified African-American candidates could be available for hiring.
For example, companies like Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Intel, Cisco Systems, Oracle, E-Bay, Synnex, Applied Materials, Face Book, Yahoo, Adobe Systems, Symantec, Net App, Intuit, Twitter, Agilent Technologies, Juniper Networks, SAP, etc should come together and to form SVTEC (Silicon Valley Technology Empowerment Coalition).
Each company could contribute $2.5 million, creating an initial aggregate capital base of $50 million. SVTEC should then seek to partner with carefully selected K-12 public schools serving African-American communities in Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Ohio, Ferguson, Mo., Birmingham, Ala., Jackson, Miss., Nashville, Tenn., Miami. Fla., Baltimore, Md., Detroit, Mich., Philadelphia, Pa., Oakland and East Palo Alto, Calif. etc.
The purpose of the proposed joint ventures with K-12 schools should be to participate and provide technology education and leadership at the beginning of the pipeline, not at the end. Executives of some of the companies listed as potential partners in my proposed SVTEC should take a look at CODE 20140, which currently exists and is functioning successfully.
Their charter statement says, “CODE2040 is a nonprofit organization that creates programs that increase the representation of blacks and Latino/as in the innovation economy. We believe the tech sector, communities of color, and the country as a whole will be stronger if talent from all backgrounds is included in the creation of the companies, programs, and products of tomorrow.”
Amen!
I repeat what I wrote in my earlier blog on this subject:
From my earlier years of work in the civil rights movement and in business, one of the most strategic mistakes I observed, that was most repeated, is not knowing what is most appropriate to ask for from major business and financial institutions. The magnitude of the “ask” should be commensurate with the magnitude of problems seeking to be addressed, consistent with the known capital, business and technology resources of the companies who support we seek”.
Ask for “chump change” and you will get chump change, backed by major financial pubic relations resources to show to “the communities” that they are responding to their economic, educational and employment needs.
Silicon Valley companies forming my suggested Technology Empowerment Coalition are urgently needed TODAY.
Again, I ask: not now, when?
If not us: who?
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