Posted on

Africa’s Age of Innovation Could Make Continent a Major Economic Power by 2063

Over the past few days, tech experts and global authorities have urged African countries to embrace innovation and technology in order to transform the entire continent into a global, economic powerhouse.

Thanks to a new wave of tech startups and government investments into these new businesses, experts believe Africa could be on the verge of an age of great innovation.

Companies like M-Pesa, the Kenya-based mobile-phone payment system, have already managed to boost economies in countries all across the continent.

According to Leadership.ng, M-Pesa has already “decreased informal savings in the country by 15 percent, increased the frequency of transfers and remittances by 35 percent, and increased usage of banking services by 58 percent beyond the levels of 2006.”

M-Pesa has since expanded beyond the boundaries of Kenya and into countries like Tanzania and South Africa.

Experts say this is just the start of what can be a magnificent burst of growth for many African countries.

The next step is for the continent to continue investing in people-driven technologies and continue discussing how to properly harness the vast knowledge and impressive skill set that many African entrepreneurs possess.

“Investment in skills, technology, knowledge and innovation will ensure democratic and responsive governance that can deliver effective public services and facilitate universal access to basic services, such as food and nutrition, water and sanitation, shelter, health and education,” said African Union Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma at the closing of the ninth annual African Economic Conference (AEC).

The conference lasted for three days and brought business leaders, academics and economists from all over the globe together in order to discuss how to launch Africa into the global power it has the potential to be.

Experts at the conference hope to focus on boosting youth employment and furthering the adaption of new technologies across the continent.

Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa, acting chief economist and vice president of African Development Bank, said now is the time for Africa’s brightest innovators to “stop being lazy” when it comes to innovation.

“We need to stop being lazy analysts and take our challenges for ourselves; stop wasting resources and implement our own ideas,” he said at the conference. “Africa must first understand where we are, what brought us here and then try to understand what to do differently to bring different results.”

Ban Ki-moon, the eighth and current secretary-general of the United Nations, couldn’t have agreed more with those sentiments.

“Technology can be used as a great power to change your life, to change our lives, particularly the life and future of Africa,” he said during his visit to the offices of the nonprofit technology company Ushahidi and its offshoot iHub in Nairobi, Kenya.

iHub/Ushahidi is considered a technology incubator and has already helped many young creators and developers implement new ideas in order to “promote great transformation for our society.”

He went on to say that Africa already has the “power of creativity” and now it’s up to those young innovators to use technology and creativity to change the world.

“When we use your creativity and ideas, I can bet you that the productivity and greater progress of the country will be at least 50 percent more than in the past,” he added.

iHub/Ushahidi has already been responsible for over 150 startups and garnered more than 14,000 members.

The experts who gathered at the AEC plan to continue fostering innovative solutions and working closely with governments and private sectors to boost Africa’s economic growth.

With a vast majority of Africa’s population still under the age of 20, these tech experts and academics believe investing in the younger generation will be critical to the continent’s 50-year plan to make Africa a global powerhouse by 2063.

 

Posted on

Lack of Investor Support for Females, Minorities Continues to Stifle Diversity in Tech Industry

Black owned start ups

A recent study revealed that female and ethnic-minority entrepreneurs have more of a struggle garnering support from investors when compared to their white, male counterparts.

The study from Pepperdine University’s Graziado School of Business and Management has exposed yet another way females and minorities are placed at a severe disadvantage in the tech industry.

“We find consistent evidence that minority (non-Caucasian), women and foreign business owners’ establishments are significantly less likely to receive PE (private equity) or VC (venture capital) financing,” the study said, according to a blog post by the Wall Street Journal.

The study analyzed fundraising data from the years 1995 to 2009 and found that female-owned business are 2.6 percent less likely to raise private equity funding than white males.

Female-owned businesses were also found to be 18.7 percent less likely to successfully raise a venture round than companies run by white males.

The numbers were even more troubling for minority-owned business.

Minority-owned businesses were 21.7 percent less likely to raise private equity funding and 22.2 percent less likely to successfully raise a venture round than their white male counterparts.

While the study focused on fundraising on all types of businesses, these statistics are particularly troublesome for minorities and females in the tech industry.

The tech industry heavily relies on private equity to launch innovative start-ups and sustain the growth of smaller companies.

With this industry already struggling with a severe lack of diversity, the inability of minorities and females to garner the same financial backing as white males means the industry’s 2 percent problem could persist.

Earlier this year, tech giants like Facebook and Google released their diversity reports, which revealed that only about 2 percent of their employees were Black.

Out of that 2 percent, very few of the employees had leadership positions with the company.

The authors of the report believe the lack of financial backing is not necessarily a result of overt racism but can still be connected to racial bias.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the venture capital industry is still dominated by white men.

A survey conducted by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Dow Jones VentureSource back in 2011 found that only 11 percent of investors were women while nearly 90 percent were men.

Researchers suggest that these white men are more comfortable investing in what is familiar to them – other businesses run by white men.

The NVCA claims it is taking steps towards changing this demographic and boosting diversity in investment firms.

Meanwhile, other leaders in the Black community are taking matters into their own hands.

Former NAACP president Ben Jealous stepped down as the head of the nation’s largest civil rights organization and is now working on the West Coast as a venture capitalist.

Back in March, Jealous explained that becoming a venture capitalist would allow him to continue making more opportunities for Blacks and Latinos.

“My life’s mission has been leveling the playing field and closing gaps in opportunity and success,” he told the Associated Press. “I’m excited about trying a different approach.”

Posted on

Report: Americans Paying More for Slower Internet Speeds; Other Countries Have It Better

Americans face over priced slow internet speeds

America is a country shrouded in technology that uses the Internet far more than many other countries around the globe. So it may be surprising to discover that Americans actually received far slower speeds through their Internet providers despite paying much more than other countries.

Imagine if you went to the store to buy groceries and your total came out to $200 only for you to find out you could have tackled that same grocery list for $100 at another store that also provided better quality products.

That’s essentially what’s happening to Americans when it comes to the Internet.

Recent reports revealed that Internet users in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, have some of the fastest connections at some of the lowest prices anywhere in the world.

In Seoul, Internet speeds of up to one gigabit per second only cost $30 a month, the New American Foundation’s Open Technology Institute report revealed Thursday.

While Internet users in Seoul are paying $30 a month for the Internet services, Americans in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York are getting speeds of half that while paying roughly $300 a month for it.

The report looked at nearly 25 U.S. cities total and compared them to other major cities like Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Each comparison still seemed to point to the same disappointing results – there is a serious gap in how much other countries are paying for their Internet and they are still receiving much faster speeds than Americans are.

The root of the problem, according to the report, could come down to the lack of competition in the U.S. combined with dirty politics.

Arguments have surfaced that without enough competition in the market there is no reason for Internet service providers (ISPs) to knock down their prices to match those of ISPs in other countries.

In other words, the only option many Americans have is to fork over more money every month for lower speeds.

There is an alternative for the select few, however.

Local broadband services are slashing their prices and providing speeds that are able to compete with major ISPs.

Chattanooga, Tennessee, built the country’s first citywide gigabit-per-second Internet network back in 2010 and offered the service for $70 a month.

Then there is Google’s up-and-coming Google Fiber service, which will also be priced at $70 a month, according to the report.

These new connections offer Americans speeds that are up to 100 times faster than what most people currently receive today, the Huffington Post reported.

This means buffering videos and waiting for images to load would be a thing of the past. It also means users would be able to share larger files in the blink of an eye.

The downside is the fact that Google’s service isn’t expected to expand to major cities anytime soon.

For now, it’s targeting several mid-size cities like San Antonio and Portland.

So what about other citywide gigabit services? That’s where dirty politics could potentially be slowing progress.

Nearly 20 states have already passed laws that ban publicly owned broadband networks, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Advocates for more city-owned Internet networks claim many of the lawmakers have already received tons of financial backing from major Internet providers who are using those financial strings to limit competition.

Posted on

Black Pinterest Employee Recalls Silicon Valley’s Apathetic Response to Ferguson

Tech industry's apathetic response to Ferguson, Missouri

Ferguson? Who is that?

As one of the few Black employees in Silicon Valley and a part of the 1 percent of African-Americans who work at Pinterest, Justin Edmund was bothered by Silicon Valley’s response to what happened in Ferguson.

Ferguson is the name of the city in Missouri where unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer after the teen allegedly had his hands up to surrender.

As far as many of the people in Silicon Valley were concerned, however, Ferguson might as well have been the name of the happy-go-lucky elderly man who walks the streets of Atlanta handing out inspirational quotes to people as they walk by.

Edmund, who is a designer responsible for the look and feel of certain features on Pinterest, asked himself why nobody in the tech industry seemed bothered about the unrest that plagued Ferguson.

Even more troubling, he wondered why most people didn’t even know about it.

When one of Edmund’s co-workers lamented that the tech world didn’t care about Ferguson, another employee responded by saying, “I don’t even know who that is.”

According to an essay published by Edmund on Medium, there was only one reason why Silicon Valley seemed completely unaware of what happened in Ferguson.

“At most major technology companies, an average 2 percent of their workforce is African Americans – we’re talking tens of people at companies employing thousands of people,” he wrote. “At my own company, it’s even worse at only 1 percent. I can count us all on one hand.”

While Pinterest does have fewer Black employees, the company is also much smaller than tech giants like Facebook and Google.

He also pointed out that Pinterest has shown interest in working on increasing diversity, and several of his colleagues have pushed for such a cause.

Even then, however, he doesn’t feel any more comfortable about being a Black man in the tech industry — nonetheless a Black man in America.

“In today’s America, I could walk to the store right now and be shot dead in my tracks because of a misunderstanding, or perhaps for no reason at all,” he continued in the essay titled Growing Up. “There are people in the world that will never see past the color of my skin. Instead, they will shoot me dead for walking home from the corner store with Skittles and Arizona iced tea.”

The quote was a clear reference to the death of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old unarmed Black teen in Florida who was fatally shot by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in 2012.

With so many racial tensions already plaguing the country as a whole, it’s even harder for Black tech employees like Edmund when they don’t see anyone who looks like them in their place of work.

“It’s hard to aspire to be something when you don’t see people in that role who look like you,” Edmund told USA Today.

It’s even harder to aspire to be those things when you don’t even have access to the type of education that would prepare you for that career.

Edmund acknowledged that he was quite privileged and didn’t face the same obstacles that other African-Americans face when it comes to entering the technology field.

“Having grown up in New York, I was fairly privileged, but there are lots and lots of people that, you know, weren’t as lucky as me that are probably extremely smart but didn’t realize that they can download a program and start making code and start building things,” he said.

Edmund also believes there needs to be more efforts to introduce younger students to computer science.

“Inspiring people when they are young and showing them like, ‘Hey, you like Vine? You like Instagram? Cool, you can actually work on those things if you start now and you work on these kinds of problems and you take this kind of path,’” Edmund said. “That kind of awareness will go a long way.”

 

Posted on

Chicago’s Ambitious Computer Science Program Could Help Close Diversity Gap in STEM Careers

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has launched an extremely ambitious computer science program and it could ultimately help increase diversity in the tech field.

It was only a few months ago that major tech companies like Facebook and Google revealed that only about 2 percent of their employees are Black.

Since those diversity reports were made public, people have been scrambling to find the solution to the lack of diversity in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers.

One solution has always stood out above the rest, however, and that’s education.

Experts believe the key to generating more diversity in STEM careers is to first make sure minorities have access to the type of education that could prepare them for such a career path.

Thanks to Emanuel, Chicago’s youth will have that type of access.

According to NationSwell.com, the Chicago mayor has teamed up with Code.org to bring computer science classes to every public school in the Windy City.

Every grade from kindergarten to high school will soon have computer science classes as a mandatory part of their curriculum.

CNN Money revealed that high school students won’t even be allowed to graduate without meeting certain computer science requirements.

“In three years’ time, you can’t graduate from high school in the city of Chicago if you didn’t take code writing and computer science,” Emanuel announced at a tech conference. “We’re making it mandatory.”

Emanuel announced the plan last December and now there is an increasingly large need for the plan to come to fruition.

Nearly 40 percent of Chicago’s public school students are Black. More than 45 percent are Hispanic.

If computer science programs are successfully integrated into the school’s curriculum, that means thousands of minority students will be given the type of skills that could eventually grow into a budding career in Silicon Valley.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the plan is to have computer science incorporated in the schools’ curriculum even at the elementary level.

“Just having kids jump into computer science at the high school level, they don’t have a good context for it,” said Cameron Wilson of Code.org to CNN Money. “Having them exposed early and building on concepts year after year is really important.”

And that’s exactly what the mayor and Code.org authorities have in mind.

Code.org has already successfully partnered with 30 school districts in order to promote computer science education, but the partnership with Chicago is the most ambitious one yet.

“This plan will also compete with countries where children take coding classes as early as first grade and create an environment where we can support the next Bill Gates and Marissa Mayer,” Emanuel added.

In addition to being a major step toward adding diversity to the tech industry, this could also help close the major deficit of workers needed in computer science careers.

It was recently revealed that by 2020, there will be 4.2 million job positions for computer science. Based on the current number of computer science students in college and employees already working in the computer science field, there won’t be enough people to fill all those positions.

Exposing students to computer science at a young age and building on those skills throughout their years in school, however, could spark an interest in the field and make the future graduating classes out of Chicago viable candidates to fill those positions.

 

Posted on

Text First, Call 911 Later: This Could Be the New Protocol for Carjacking Victims

Shut down car with text message

It’s hard to believe but new, developing technologies could have carjacking victims reaching for their phones to send a text before they even think about calling the police.

It’s all because of a Nairobi-based car security company called Sunrise Tracking.

The company has developed new technology that allows consumers to take matters into their own hands when their car is stolen.

In addition to being able to track the vehicle’s location, consumers would also be able to shut down the vehicle and prevent thieves from getting too far.

There are many services that allow the everyday person to track their car’s location, but the ability to shut down the vehicle from a simple text message is quite revolutionary.

Currently, this type of technology is reserved for police forces and often used on bait cars.

Bait cars are vehicles planted by police in order to capture would-be car thieves before they can target everyday civilians.

Sunrise Tracking founder, 23-year-old Kelvin Macharia Kuria, explained the technology to African Start-Up.

“Once a stop command has been sent to the vehicle, the hardware understands the language of that command and immediately cuts acceleration fuel function,” he said. “The vehicle immobilizes immediately until a resume command is send to mobilize back the car.”

It’s unusual to see such a young entrepreneur coming up with such innovative technologies for security, but the young entrepreneur quickly explained why this was so important to him.

“The reason I decided to venture into the business of security is simply because immediately after high school one of my relatives was carjacked,” he told African Start-Up. “And it was unfortunate we were not able to recover the vehicle.”

Later his own office was broken into and the thieves managed to escape with tons of electronics.

At that point the push for better security technologies became even more personal.

Today, Macharia Kuria has managed to obtain more than 500 clients.

While he hopes to continue to grow his clientele, he is also very well aware of the obstacles he will face trying to grow the business in Kenya.

“Being a young entrepreneur of course is a very huge challenge in terms of financials, in terms of your starting a business,” he said. “The other challenge that we are facing currently is that not many people are willing to adopt the locally made products within Kenya … Carjacking and robbery in Kenya and particularly in Nairobi is so high, but since security is so sensitive clients opt to go for big and international companies having in mind only such companies can give them better quality service hence killing the local innovation products.”

There could be yet another obstacle he will have to face as well.

While the ability to shut down a car with nothing more than a text sounds exciting and innovative, technology experts caution that it can be abused in the long run.

“In the past, hackers have exploited security weaknesses in mobile locator devices to monitor movements and patterns of a vehicle and even impersonate it,” said Chris Brauer, the director of Innovation at Goldsmiths, University of London. “In the short term, mobile security devices with mainstream appeal and price points will reduce carjacking and thefts. In the longer term, it all depends on whether the security providers can stay one step ahead of the hackers and thieves.”

 

Posted on

Marvel Finally Gives Out More Details About ‘Black Panther’ Film

The upcoming Black Panther Marvel film has been shrouded in rumor and speculation, but Marvel has finally blessed its fans with some more confirmed information about the movie.

Marvel fans got their first look at the movie by getting to see the current concept art for the film at Marvel’s press conference Tuesday during an event at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, CNET reports.

So far, it looks like Marvel won’t disappoint.

The movie art features the Black Panther looking incredibly strong, fierce and rather intimidating – just as he should be.

The artist has managed to capture the hero’s incredibly athletic and muscular build flawlessly and only time will tell if that same build is captured on screen.

In addition to releasing the movie art, Marvel finally gave insatiable fans a release date for the movie, but it’s still far too early for the countdown to begin.

Black Panther won’t be hitting theaters until November 2017.

That doesn’t mean fans won’t get to get a glimpse of the prince-turned-superhero before then.

Marvel had already previously announced that the Black Panther will have his introduction to Marvel’s big screen universe in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War.

The new Captain America film is scheduled to hit theaters in May 2016.

Chadwick Boseman will take on the role of Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War, but that doesn’t necessarily confirm his role for the actual solo film.

Producers behind the film will likely have a close eye on fans’ reactions to Boseman in the Captain America film.

It certainly will be a different role for Boseman, who has been taking on more historical roles lately.

He is best known for playing iconic baseball player Jackie Robinson in 42 and taking on the role of soul music legend James Brown in Get On Up.

Either way, Boseman doesn’t seem to be too nervous and said he’s excited about the upcoming projects.

“I’m blessed to be a part of this Marvel Universe, and to work with you both, and I look forward to making magic together,” Boseman said while he was on the stage with Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans who play Iron Man and Captain America, respectively.

Unfortunately, that’s about all the information fans were able to get out of the press conference, and there is still no confirmation about who will taking on the role of Doctor Strange.

Rumors have already attached Benedict Cumberbatch to the role, but Marvel has not responded to the rumors.

Deadline.com reports that Cumberbatch is already in negotiations with the studio, but that also has not been confirmed by Marvel.

Cumberbatch is known for his roles in Sherlock in 2010, Star Trek Into the Darkness in 2013, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in 2013, and he will be starring in the upcoming Hobbit film as well as Penguins of Madagascar.

Meanwhile, Marvel also revealed an impressive roster of films that are scheduled to be released over the next few years.

In addition to Captain America: Civil War, fans can be on the lookout for Guardians of the Galaxy 2”to hit theaters in May 2017, Thor: Rangnarok to hit theaters on July 28, 2017, Captain Marvel to debut on July 6, 2018, Inhumans to hit theaters on Nov. 2, 2018, and Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 to hit theaters on May 4, 2018.

Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on May 3, 2019.

 

Posted on

Could Amazon’s New Fire TV Stick Help It Recover From Epic Smartphone Failure?

Amazon may have made a major misstep when it comes to its flagship smartphone, but could the company’s Amazon Fire TV Stick actually go head-to-head with Google Chromecast and Roku Streaming Stick?

The major failure that followed after the launch of Amazon’s first smartphone was painful to watch for many tech lovers and fans of the company.

Sales of the device were less than impressive, and AT&T, who partnered with Amazon to push the phone, quickly lost its enthusiasm for the product.

Despite the flagship phone flop, Amazon has had some technology successes in the past (take the Kindle, for example) and the company is hoping to mimic that success with the launch of its Fire TV Stick.

The tiny stick is able to plug directly into consumers’ TV’s HDMI ports and will be able to bring a world of viewing pleasure to those who purchase it.

The Fire TV Stick will support Amazon Prime Instant video and music, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, Hulu and more, according to Mashable.

It will also be able to support the needs of the average gamer. Nothing quite as extensive and demanding as the console-level gaming that is supported by Amazon’s Fire TV box, but still pretty impressive for the little stick that can slip into one’s back pocket.

Of course, if the product is sounding pretty familiar to you – a simple stick that allows you to stream a large variety of media content on multiple supported platforms – there is an obvious reason for that.

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick isn’t necessarily innovative, as it is simply Amazon’s take on Google’s Chromecast and the Roku Streaming Stick.

Amazon’s version does, however, come with a few perks.

Amazon’s product does boast more storage than Google’s Chromecast.

Google’s product gives consumers 2 GB of storage in Google Chrome while Amazon’s Fire Stick will give consumers an impressive 8 GB of storage.

Then there is also that nifty little remote.

While this is a perk that Chromecast users don’t get, it’s not too great of an advantage and it is something that Roku has already delivered on in the past.

As for Chromecast users, they have to use an app that will allow them to use their cellphones as remote controls and, quite frankly, most consumers don’t mind that at all.

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick may also deliver slightly short on its promise of wonderful arrays of content. The content that is available is certainly impressive and there is more than enough available materials for the average TV watcher, but some of the most popular titles won’t be making their way to the device just yet.

The Fire TV Stick does not support HBO Go.

While Google’s stick also doesn’t support Amazon content, it’s  more likely that consumers will be more upset over not having HBO Go than they will over not having access to Amazon’s content.

Of all the competitors, however, it seems like Amazon’s Fire TV Stick has the upper hand when it comes to gaming, according to Time.

Time also points out that there is no way anyone can lose by purchasing any of the three sticks.

What this means is that Amazon may have a product that can indeed keep up with its pre-existing competition, but the company may have needed a little more edge to its product in order to really beat out its counterparts.

Posted on

The iPhone 6 Plus Could Be the Worst Nightmare for Nintendo 3DS, PS Vita

Apple has boasted about the new features its iPhone 6 Plus brings to the world of cellular devices, but it seems like the latest iPhone could also revolutionize the gaming world as well.

Slowly but surely, Apple was on a clear path to disrupt the gaming industry in a major way.

Apple’s iPads were the first major steps to making the devices more gamer-friendly, but even those sleek tablets can’t hold up to the promise of the iPhone 6 Plus.

While some consumers worried about the new iPhone’s larger screen size, gamers have found that the screen is perfect for on-the-go gaming.

In addition to boasting more screen real estate than previous cellular devices by Apple, the Retina display makes a spectacle out of every image that comes across the device’s screen.

According to the New York Daily News, watching The Avengers was a particularly beautiful experience with “flawless” visuals and “little details, such as the veins in the Hawkeye’s arms” being easy to spot.

Of course, the beautiful resolution and a larger screen aren’t enough to push the Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita off the market.

What does pose a larger threat, however, are the number of games that are making their way to the App Store.

Incredibly popular titles such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and certain versions of Final Fantasy are already available for iPhone users – something that Android devices don’t have the same access to.

Many of the major video game titles don’t seem to pop up on the Google Play store, which puts the latest Galaxy devices at a major disadvantage.

Even more exciting for Apple users is the fact that the iPhone 6 Plus has not even tapped into its full potential just yet.

The device will give developers the ability to push game play and graphics to the next level.

Of course, there are still some downsides to the device – none of them being incredibly major.

As a video released by TechCrunch pointed out, the placement of the speakers can be a little annoying for most gamers.

For many games, the phone will actually be held on its side by both hands, which forces the users to cover the speakers with their hands.

To make matters worse, plugging in headphones isn’t a much better solution.

TechCrunch’s Kyle Russell demonstrates in the video, the placement of the headphone jack can be inconvenient for gameplay.

Another disadvantage of the iPhone 6 Plus compared to the 3DS and Vita is the fact that it can be difficult to see the full screen once users place their hands on either side of the device.

Fortunately, this has a much simpler solution.

Developers have released wireless controllers that sync to the iPhone 6 Plus through Bluetooth.

This means that all gamers would have to do is prop up the device, connect the controller and suddenly they can take full advantage of all that gorgeous screen real estate.

It’s still too early to say that the new iPhone will become the new king of portable gaming, but it certainly boasts enough impressive features to have Nintendo and PlayStation scrambling for new ideas.

 

Posted on

Even Tech Pioneer Ken Coleman Can’t Escape Racism’s Persistent Grasp

Ken Coleman still faces racism despite impressive achievements

Technology pioneer Ken Coleman has earned an MBA, worked in the technology space since the ’70s and has held several leadership roles at Silicon Graphics.

Despite such an impressive resume, Coleman knows none of that really matters when it comes to racial profiling by police and racial bias in the industry.

There is a common misconception that if African-Americans simply “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” they can overcome racism completely.

Coleman knows that’s not true.

If anyone has worked hard and managed to reach incredible feats despite racism in America, it’s Coleman; but that hasn’t changed how others perceive him.

During an interview with USA Today, Coleman revealed that when he gets pulled over by police officers he is very well aware that to them he is just another Black man – and that puts him in a dangerous position.

“When I’m stopped, I want to say, ‘I’m not what you think, I’ve got an MBA, I live in Los Altos Hills, I own a home in Maui,’ ” Coleman said. “I want to say that because I know through experience that person might have an image of what I might be and view me as dangerous. And to not feel that way would be foolish.”

Some people may look at all the things Coleman has managed to accomplish and believe he serves as living proof that there is no real diversity issue or racial bias in the technology space.

Once again, Coleman knows that’s not the case.

While he certainly boasts an incredibly impressive resume, Coleman asked a very important question during his interview with USA Today.

“The real question is — what might I have done or been if I had been white?” he said while still holding a smile, according to USA Today.

The 69-year-old Silicon Valley veteran explained that there were many times he was passed up for opportunities that were given to his white counterparts who were less qualified for the position.

While the same white counterparts were being added to company boards, Coleman accepted numerous requests to join nonprofit boards that sought diversity.

From there, he “worked it hard to show people how [he] could be helpful as an adviser to a company.”

The unfortunate truth is that we will never know how just much more accomplished Coleman could have been had he been white in Silicon Valley.

Recent diversity reports released from major tech companies like Google, Yahoo and Apple revealed the stunning lack of diversity in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers.

Only 2 percent of many of the companies’ employees were African-American and those employees rarely held any leadership positions within the company.

“Diversity doesn’t happen naturally,” Coleman said. “Social systems, which a company is, want to reproduce themselves. If a founder went to Harvard, they’ll want to replicate that.”

The solution to the diversity issue, in Coleman’s eyes, is to look at things a little differently.

“I don’t think diversity should be a deficit model,” he explained to USA Today. “It’s an opportunity model. If I know something you don’t know about the marketplace because of my staff, I will beat you. And that’s something every company out there should be concerned about.”

Watch Coleman’s full discussion about the lack of diversity in the tech industry below: