Last Thursday, Google announced the opening of a new Howard University campus at Google’s corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California. Howard is a private historically black university located in Washington, DC whose alumni include Stokely Carmichael, Thurgood Marshall, and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Dubbed “Howard West”, the campus represents Google’s continued efforts to attract and retain black… Continue reading Do you belong?
Category: Diversity
Near and Present Diversity: The Paradox of Progress
On the topic of “diversity and inclusion” in tech, many companies are understandably intimidated by the challenges presented and would prefer to hire a few “underrepresented minorities” (see? we’re diverse!), and put the topic behind them. Not so fast my dear Diversity Councils. In speeding past the uncomfortable conversations, we in fact do our colleagues… Continue reading Near and Present Diversity: The Paradox of Progress
Follow Your Passions: Career Lessons with Adam Saint-Prix
This article is sponsored by Atlassian as a part of our Companies That Care initiative. For the past five years, Adam Saint-Prix has enjoyed a fulfilling career in Silicon Valley. You might expect him to have studied at Stanford before taking the role of his choice, but you’d be sorely mistaken. The real story is… Continue reading Follow Your Passions: Career Lessons with Adam Saint-Prix
A Conversation with Todd Corley
I used to work for Abercrombie & Fitch back when conditions were far from ideal. I was hired right out of college in early 2002 at an all-comers job fair where my “collegiate” and “quality” (i.e., white and ripped) looks drew instant attention from a recruiter. I was thrown into a busy store with zero… Continue reading A Conversation with Todd Corley
Why It’s Not Okay to Call a Human Illegal and How Yoga Helped Me Speak Up
“We came to this country to unite, you need to show them we are here to work hard. That’s it. You show them by example not by arguing or crying.” Those were my fathers words when I was crying after somebody made a racist comment about Mexicans being lazy. I took my father’s advice to… Continue reading Why It’s Not Okay to Call a Human Illegal and How Yoga Helped Me Speak Up
Driving Uptown Innovation: A Conversation With John Henry
John Henry is the Executive Director of cofound/harlem, “a non-profit, social-impact accelerator building 100 companies in Harlem in 5 years to increase economic opportunity for Harlem residents.” John also runs the popular Uptown Tech Meetup group, which hosts regular events, workshops, and intimate sessions with industry leaders. Before Cofound, John was an award-winning jazz musician… Continue reading Driving Uptown Innovation: A Conversation With John Henry
Do Companies Care?
When Abernathy launched in January, I had a clear idea of who I wanted to reach and the kind of change I wanted to make in their lives. My thesis was that black men must take control of our own narratives, and that an online platform was a great way to quickly facilitate this. What… Continue reading Do Companies Care?
Debugging Diversity
The technology industry continues to struggle with its diversity problem. However, having delivered enterprise software for well over a decade, I think the root cause of—and the solution to—this problem is easy to understand. Anyone who has been tasked with debugging software can understand the solutions and begin immediately implementing them. I was reminded of this… Continue reading Debugging Diversity