Like many industries, the tech sector still has some way to go in addressing diversity and bias issues and although there has been some progress with big companies like Google creating initatives specifically for minority communities – the work shouldn’t and doesn’t stop there. After diverse intake in companies – what roles are they being given, the salary disparity once in the role, the treatment among colleagues and the handling of racism allegations. We’ve heard countless of stories of Black employees and their allies being sidelined for speaking out against
Rapper IDK and Credit Karma are teaming up to encourage financial management, literacy, and the importance of credit. There will be an opportunity for business owners and those seeking to clear debt to secure a $10,000 prize to pay off the outstanding debt by competing in a contest. Participants who tap in will need to share their stories on how they collected debt and what steps they are implementing to eliminate their debt. This needs to be done for the chance to be one of five people to win $10,000 to be used
A 17-year-old student at Iowa City West High School has invented color-changing sutures to detect infection and is now set on getting it patented. Working with an eye on equity in global health, Daisy Taylor hopes that the color-changing sutures will someday help patients detect surgical site infections as early as possible so that they can seek medical care when it has the most impact. Daisy began working on the project back in October 2019, after her chemistry teacher shared information about state-wide science fairs including the Science Talent Search
Thirteen Lune, a direct-to-consumer beauty platform that was launched last year in LA with $1 million in seed funding from Diddy and Gwyneth Paltrow, has just announced $3 million in additional seed funding. The round was led by Fearless Fund with participation by Capstar Ventures, Fab Ventures, Swiftarc Beauty, and Gaingels. This round brings funding raised to date to $4.5 million. The Fearless Fund is a venture firm that was founded by women of color and is making its mark by focusing exclusively on backing women of color. Thirteen Lune
Software developer Charlene Hunter is on a mission to close the diversity gap in the tech industry and is set on helping other Black women get their foot in the door. East Londoner Charlene founded Coding Black Females back in 2017 after feeling fed up with being the only Black woman in her role at her company. Her non-profit network is a community that uplifts Black female developers and helps them find opportunities. Coding Black Females, which Charlene runs alongside co-CTOs Tanya Powell and Efua Akumanyi and their team, has become a
The Black-owned Nourish + Bloom Market is about to disrupt traditional grocery stores as it becomes the first minority-owned autonomous grocery store in the US. It’s set to open on December 17th in Fayetteville, Georgia, featuring “frictionless shopping.” This means that customers will be able to walk in, grab what they need, and leave without waiting in line or stopping to scan and pay, especially helpful in this “new normal” post-pandemic world. They will simply have to scan a QR Code from Nourish + Bloom’s app that connects to their digital wallet
Viral tweets of missing Black children, police brutality and misconduct have continued to dominate this year, with some posts leading to re-opened police investigations and discoveries. But it’s widely known that there is a huge disparity when it comes to media coverage on issues impacting minorities. This problem has been raised countless times and it’s one that James Samuel, founder of Anjel, knows far too well. In an interview over a Zoom call, the father of two boys told POCIT that he’d struggled to get attention from mainstream reporters and
Google is taking applications for its seventh ‘Google for Startups’ accelerator program. Applications for the three-month virtual accelerator program are now open to technology startups located in Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The accelerator program launched in 2017 is designed to help Startups scale their solutions across the continent. Successful applicants from Seeds to Series A will gain access to free support alongside Google’s networks, advanced technology, experts, and mentors through virtual boot camps every
Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder Opal Tometi has urged the tech sector to take robust action against perpetuating racism in systems such as facial recognition. “A lot of the algorithms, a lot of the data is racist,” U.S. activist Tometi, who co-founded BLM in 2013, told Reuters on the sidelines of Lisbon’s Web Summit. “We need tech to truly understand every way it (racism) shows up in the technologies they are developing,” she said. Her comments come just a day after Facebook announced it was shutting down its facial recognition
The technology industry’s academic and professional spaces have a long reputation of exclusivity and discrimination that has led to an industry that is predominantly all white and male – but some people are working hard to change this picture. POCIT sat down with Rose Robinson, Executive Director of Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in IT (CMD-IT), for an in-depth conversation on the barriers facing people of color with disabilities in tech. Robinson has more than 25 years under her belt. Her role at CMD-IT means she can use
