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After Revealing Its Own Diversity Issues, Tech Giant Google Gives $775,000 to a Diversity-Boosting Nonprofit

Google diversity

After years of contributing to the diversity problem in tech, Google is stepping up and donating $775,000 to Code2040, a nonprofit that aims to boost diversity in the tech space.

It wasn’t long ago that Google was in the hot seat after the tech giant’s diversity report revealed a stunning lack of diversity among its employees. Reports indicated that only about 1 percent of Google’s employees were Black.

Well now Google is hoping to help foster diversity with a hefty donation that will allow Code2040 to launch a Technical Applicant Prep (TAP) program.

The program will give Black and Latino students access to the type of resources and tools they need to perfect their craft in the tech sphere. This is a major move for Code2040 because the lack of resources is one of the major factors keeping people of color out of the tech space, in addition to racially biased hiring processes and subconscious prejudices in the industry.

Code2040 has always operated on a platform that supports the idea that people of color can thrive in the tech space if they are given the resources and opportunity to do so.

In addition to allowing Code2040 to launch its TAP program, Google’s donation could have an even greater impact on the nonprofit.

Google is one of the most popular and most successful tech giants there is and its hefty donation is a major seal of approval of the Code2040 mission, which could easily help the nonprofit garner the attention of other major players in the tech field.

People are also hoping that it will encourage other major tech companies to make diversity a priority.

To be clear, Google certainly isn’t the first major tech company to dedicate a large amount of money to helping the diversity mission.

Intel recently announced a plan to spend $300 million to improve workplace diversity and invest in other diversity-boosting initiatives, programs and nonprofits over the course of several years.

Apple was also a major giant behind the Hour of Code, which provided free coding classes to young people all across the globe. Apple has also recently surfaced as a leader in hiring more Blacks and Latinos than the other major competing tech giants.

While Google, Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo all had workforces that weren’t even 10 percent Black and Hispanic, Apple boosted its number of Black and Latino workers to 18 percent.

That percentage is still low and not representative of the actual number of Blacks and Latinos in the tech space, but it is certainly a vast improvement for the company and a much better score than the numbers presented by its competitors.

For now, Blerds are hopeful that Google’s donation is also a sign that the company will be opening its own doors to more Black and Latino employees.

As for Code2040, the nonprofit will also be launching a residency program for tech entrepreneur hopefuls.

The “entrepreneur-in-residence” program will kick off in three pilot cities—Austin, Texas; Durham, North Carolina, and Chicago.

While these residents will receive roughly $40,000 in seed money from the nonprofit, Code2040 will not take any equity from the businesses.

 

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8 Apps You’ll Need to Make the Most Out of Your Super Bowl Experience

Super Bowl apps

Fancred

Fancred just might be the most important app for some fans. Before, during and after the game, social media will be jam-packed with trash talking, cheering, embarrassing GIFs and hilarious memes — we all know how quickly Black Twitter works with these things. If you’re on the losing end of the game, you might not appreciate all the jokes until you have some time to give yourself a pep talk. Fancred will allow you to log online and chat it up with other fans who were rooting for your team while avoiding all the people who have come away feeling victorious. Fancred will also pull in photos, news stories and other digital content about your team and keep you safely tucked away from anymore bad news.

NFL Apps

Super Bowl XLIX Digital Game Program

This is the perfect app for diehard football fans and football newcomers alike. It essentially helps boost the Super Bowl Sunday experience by giving users access to the official game program, recaps of the current season, exclusive video clips and more. So for the avid watcher, it’s a nice trip down memory lane to remember all the moments that led up to the Patriots vs. Seahawks showdown. For those who didn’t really keep up with the season, it’s a great way to get some quickie football knowledge before and during the game.

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Atlanta Continues Mission to Become Startup Hub With New Incubator for Women Entrepreneurs in the Historic Flatiron Building

A new business incubator for female entrepreneurs will be housed in Atlanta’s historic Flatiron building, with hopes of giving a serious boost to economic growth within the city.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed plans to announce more details about the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative at an upcoming press conference.

Nearly every corner in downtown Atlanta reveals a new construction site. While the city’s face-lift is a nightmare when it comes to traffic, the potential of the major transformation gives new promise to emerging entrepreneurs in the city.

The Flatiron building is nestled near Georgia State University buildings, local dining hot spots and other popular office buildings in the city.

With a popular coffee shop at its base and access to local universities that are giving birth to entrepreneurial hopefuls, it’s a prime location for such an initiative hoping to cater to budding entrepreneurs.

Atlanta officials made it clear that they are hoping to stimulate the growth of small businesses and startups in the community and give the entire downtown area a major overhaul.

The 118-year-old Flatiron building is already expected to receive a major renovation, and it’s likely that moving the WEI into the building will help move that process along.

According to Reed, the initiative is a great way to give women-owned businesses the same jolt that tech startups have received recently.

“This is a space I thought needed some energy … women entrepreneurs are still having challenges with venture capital and seed investment,” Reed said, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Reed also pointed out that women entrepreneurs need access to safer office spaces.

With the building being in the center of a highly populated area full of students, campus patrols and nearby businesses, the Flatiron building would certainly be a safe office location.

A group of 15 women entrepreneurs will be selected to have their companies housed in the building free of charge.

That means they will receive free access to top-notch resources that could truly take their startups to the next level.

The center’s director, Theia Washington Smith, explained the initiative is the “direct result of a partnership between the city of Atlanta and Invest Atlanta” although some budget and operational expenses are “continuing to be developed.”

While WEI is one of the first incubators to be housed in the building, the entire space is expected to become an entrepreneurial hub soon.

Arun Nijhawan, managing principal for Lucror Resources, bought the Flatiron last year and planned to transform the building into a “collaborative place for Atlanta’s makers, thinkers and doers.”

 

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The Importance of Representing Black History Icons in Comic Books

Some of them couldn’t fly. They didn’t wear colorful costumes, and they didn’t have superpowers. But they were superheroes all the same. Others were as real as Spider-Man. Throughout the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, comic books appeared featuring real or fictional African-Americans.

The real-life Black heroes were brilliant scientists or former enslaved people who risked their lives for the freedom of their people. Fictional Black heroes defeated villains ordinary humans could not.

In 1947, the first issue of Negro Heroes featured George Washington Carver, Matthew Henson, Harriet Tubman and Joe Louis. The second issue featured Booker T. Washington, Sadie Alexander, Jackie Robinson and many other real-life Black heroes.

Nonfiction African-American comic books continued into 1969 when the Gilberton Co. produced Negro Americans. Like Negro Heroes, the Negro Americans comic book covered the lives of African-American great achievers. Many illustrations in the nonfiction comic books appear to have been taken from photographs, and the plain yellow, brown or blue colors give the stories a real and not fantasy look.

In the 1940s, All-Negro Comics stood out as being owned, produced and written by Blacks. Unlike Negro Heroes and Negro Americans, however, All-Negro Comics featured fictional African-Americans. Ace Harlem is one character in All-Negro Comics. Although Harlem is a tall, Hollywood-handsome Black detective, the bad guys might be called stereotypes. Other characters in All-Negro Comics were created for laughs but may also have displayed an image many Blacks did not care to see.

Probably the best character to come out of All-Negro Comics is college-educated Lion Man, who is an agent for the United Nations. Lion Man’s mission takes him to Africa where he meets his sidekick — an orphan named Bubba. Today, you’ll find a character named Lion Man appearing in various comic books including Batman. This is likely because Lion Man carries the title of Public Domain Superhero. One of the most interesting versions of Lion Man is the comic book tutorial by Eric Neal that teaches life lessons to children.

The life story of Orrin Cromwell Evans, creator of All–Negro Comics, involves Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh, racism and Evans’ determination. Tom Christopher states that Evans “went out of his way to meet Morrie Turner, the first syndicated black cartoonist. He was always impressed with the way a well-executed cartoon could simplify and clarify complex issues.”

Nonfiction comic books related the lives of outstanding African-Americans in an easy to understand format. The fictional African-Americans in comic books produced Black heroes with a positive image. Whether fiction or nonfiction, the African-American characters in early comic books sent the message to readers that he or she could also achieve through determination.

Source: Demetrius Sherman at Black Girl Nerds

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These Smart Home Products Are Not Only Mind-Blowing but You’ll Actually Want Them in Your Own Home

It seems like 2015 is looking a lot like the year of the smart home, and CES is ground zero. But building a good smart home ecosystem needs to be about solving genuine human problems and not just filling a house with toys. Bloomberg’s Stephen Pulvirent rounds up the best smart home products at CES that you actually should buy.

Source: Bloomberg Business

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Youth for Technology’s New Program Uses 3-D Printing to Get Girls in Africa Interested in STEM

Young African women in STEM

Youth for Technology is taking a different approach to get girls in Africa interested in STEM subjects. While many programs and initiatives focus on coding or Web design, the 3D Africa program is making the most of 3-D printing technology to show the young girls just how fun STEM can be.

There has been an ongoing mission to get more Black girls interested in STEM careers, and that mission is especially dire in Africa.

African leaders and entrepreneurs believe investing in such technologies like 3-D printing could boost the continent’s economy.

Njideka Harry, the president and CEO of Youth for Technology, told TechCruch that 3-D printing “potentially could mitigate the unemployment situation in Africa by bridging the gap between education and employment.”

Harry said that 3-D printing alone is expected to generate roughly $550 billion a year worldwide by 2025.

That type of economic impact could cause major change across the continent but only if the next generation of innovators takes advantage of such opportunities.

Youth for Technology is vowing to make sure young African women are ready to compete in STEM careers and thrive in the 3-D printing industry.

It has already received a grant from Women Enhancing Technology (WeTech) to help fund the 3-D printing program and also launched an Indiegogo campaign to get more financial backing.

The program’s organizers believe 3-D printing is a great approach to getting girls interested in tech because the items they create will always serve was a reminder of the endless possibilities of science, technology, engineering and math.

The girls also will have to use all those skills in order to create their desired items with the printer.

Harry hopes it will encourage the young women to blaze their own trails in an industry that is currently dominated by men.

“There are cultural biases that hold that science is the domain of males and that it is not important for girls’ future lives and that girls are not as capable as boys when it comes to science learning,” Harry said.

Harry is hoping to boost young women’s confidence and inspire them to take more STEM subjects while they are still in school.

3D Africa will launch first in Nigeria, and Harry hopes to expand the program to other African countries after the first year.

 

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How Larry Wilmore’s Program Is Diversifying Nightly Talk Shows

Comedy Central has had its turn at bat trying to add a little color to late night. The short-lived Chappelle’s Show will live on forever in our hearts despite its host, shrewd comedian Dave Chappelle, getting out early while the getting was good (if you ask him, at least). David Alan Grier’s news satire, Chocolate News, made its best effort but wasn’t quite smart enough for an audience still in withdrawal from the Chappelle magic. The network’s most successful attempt at late night was Mind of Mencia and that show had more hate-watchers than a Dallas Cowboys home game (and about the same effectiveness). They just couldn’t seem to find the right formula.

Who would have thought that all you needed in the end was Stephen Colbert’s old time slot, a Daily Show alumnus and a fairly gimmickless format? Add all these together and you get The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (originally meant to be titled The Minority Report). At first glance, the comedian’s new late-night follow-up to The Daily Show does a lot to mirror its big brother, hosted by Jon Stewart. You get a sharp, savvy monologue that’s half “A” block news rundown, half standup routine, and highly effective at both.

The real treat here is a raw fearlessness not seen on Comedy Central since Saint Chappelle himself. Not the “Senior Black Correspondent” Daily Show fans have grown to love nor a black version of Colbert’s hyper conservative caricature (modeled after Bill O’Reilly), Wilmore is unburdened by any mandate to play a character. When he expresses his disenchantment with Al Sharpton (“You don’t have to respond to every black emergency! You’re not Black Batman!), it’s not a well-landed Stewart gag that he’ll waste tweets clarifying later. When he stops to place extra exclamation points on his attitude toward Bill Cosby’s Dead Sea Scrolls’ worth … because “laundry lists” are too short … of rape allegations (“That motherf***er did it!”), that’s him talking.

The courageousness goes even further as The Nightly Show follows Wilmore’s well-crafted monologue with a panel discussion. Unless you count those “after-party” shows that talk about the popular show everyone just watched like Talking Dead, panels are rarely done with late-night comedians (with the exception of Bill Maher) because it means they control less variables for a funny show. And make no mistake, the panelists are not mere ringers. From cerebral hip-hop artist Talib Kweli and comedian John Leguizamo to news personality Soledad O’Brien and columnist Jamilah Lemieux, these are opinionated people of mention that give as good as they get.

Read more from Oz Longworth at Black Nerd Problems

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For The Dark-Skinned Girls Who Were Never Casted For The Role Of X-Men’s Storm

The Nerd community is a really tough bastard to please. The Black Nerd community, maybe even more so. Still, because we rarely get what we want, throwing us a really big bone is often a good way to buy yourself some goodwill and keep our adamantium claws firmly in our hands a bit longer. Storm is probably the biggest get out of jail free card that may never get played. This week, Bryan Singer announced that they had found their next Cyclops, Jean Grey and Storm for the X-Men: Apocalypse film.

Now, you’ll probably notice…they are young. Like, could be Famke Janssen’s kids young. But that was to be expected, considering that the Apocalypse Film was essentially going to be set in the “First Class” timeline with no wonky time travel going on this time (new powered up Kitty Pryde not included). So, we weren’t going to get the old Scott, Jean and Ororo in their Hollywood Geriatric state and that’s fine cuz bruh, that’s actually a good thing. So, we can talk Sansa Stark playing Jean Grey (I’m going to need more convincing) or Tye “You might remember me from Mud, actually naw, you probably don’t” Sheridan playing Cyclops, but come on, fam. You’re on Black Nerd Problems right now…you know we’re gonna talk about Ororo Da Literal Gawd.

I do not come to bury Alexandra Shipp. I don’t know Alexandra Shipp. I like her politics though. I like that she likes President Obama as more of my Black friends complain about him (*cough*Omar Holmon*cough*).

I like that she is willing to take on big iconic roles that resonate specifically with the Black community. But I also know that the Aaliyah biopic was a derailed train into a forest fire. And when movies are that bad, but the lead actress or actor is amazing, that becomes the narrative. Like, Chadwick Boseman in Get On Up. Or most small films that Tom Hardy stars in. Or Viola Davis starring in this planet Earth. None such came out of that Lifetime Feature except it might take a Lifetime to erase that from Aaliyah’s legacy. None of this is really about Alexandra Shipp though. Which really sucks for her. But it isn’t.

What this is about is the way that Hollywood continues to pretend that no impact or history lies in the darkness of someone’s skin. Well, when I say Hollywood, in this case I mean Bryan Singer. And when I say “someone’s skin,” I really mean Black Women. “What’s the real issue, it’s not like they cast a white woman as Storm, does it really need to be this complicated?” Yeah, it kind of does. Even as a fictional character, Storm is a feminist symbol for Black Women the way that most assume Wonder Woman has been for women all these years. Storm has always been powerful, goddess-like and African. And no, not Charlize Theron, South African. Her dark complexion has always been part of her appearance and it’s not by accident. The same way it isn’t an accident that Storm has become a beacon and symbol for women with darker skin for decades now. The unwillingness to recognize that is just another thunderbolt in the side of a demographic of women who frankly, are plenty used to it by now. Still not understanding the public contempt for this casting choice? Ok…

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(Actress Alexandra Shipp)

Read More from William Evans at Black Nerd Problems