Ed Dwight, the first Black astronaut candidate President John F. Kennedy selected in 1961, is finally set to journey to space at age 90. Meet Ed Dwight Born in 1933 in Kansas City, Kansas, Dwight’s early career began with his service as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force. His selection for the elite Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS) in 1961 allowed him to break racial barriers in space exploration. Despite completing the program, Dwight was not selected for NASA’s Astronaut Corps. However, this did not deter him as he transitioned
Black Girls Code has partnered with RiseUp with ServiceNow to launch a three-year initiative redefining career paths within New York City’s workforce. The collaboration was highlighted in a panel discussion featuring Cristina Jones, CEO of Black Girls Code, and Selina Suarez, Global Head of NextGen at ServiceNow. RiseUp with ServiceNow represents a global talent movement to train one million individuals on the ServiceNow Platform. The primary focus is to uncover untapped talent in NYC, paving the way for professional and career development opportunities. Building the next generation of tech leaders Black Girls Code is partnering with ServiceNow to help
Wray & Nephew, the renowned Jamaican rum brand, has partnered with Foundervine to launch the third iteration of their ‘Wray Forward’ program. Research by Wray & Nephew found that 68% of Black entrepreneurs in the UK experience a lack of business tools and resources. Additionally, 76% think that having early access to the right tools could have accelerated their success. A fifth of Black entrepreneuers also needed help with fundraising. These findings underlined the need for support in the Black entrepreneurial community. The ‘Wray Forward’ Initiative The ‘Wray Forward’ initiative connects Black entrepreneurs
The type of advice AI chatbots give people varies based on whether they have Black-sounding names, researchers at Stanford Law School have found. The researchers discovered that chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google AI’s PaLM-2 showed biases based on race and gender when giving advice in a range of scenarios. Chatbots: Biased Advisors? The study “What’s in a Name?” revealed that AI chatbots give less favorable advice to people with names that are typically associated with Black people or women compared to their counterparts. This bias spans across various scenarios such as job
Serena Williams, a legendary tennis champion, is making her mark in the tech investment world with her venture capital fund, Serena Ventures. Serena Ventures Following her retirement in September 2022, Williams has focused on the investment sector. With over 14 years of investment experience, she established Serena Ventures in 2014, a venture capital fund to empower women and underrepresented founders. This strategic move was born from Williams’ observation of the glaring lack of venture capital flowing toward specific demographics. As highlighted on its website, her venture proudly supports a diverse array of
Meta’s AI-powered image generator has recently been scrutinized for its difficulty in generating images of interracial couples and friends. Meta’s AI Fails To Generate Interracial Couples The AI tool, introduced in December, revealed its shortcomings when CNN tested its ability to create pictures of people from different racial backgrounds. The requests for images of interracial relationships consistently resulted in the AI producing images of same-race couples or friends, contradicting the diversity seen in real-world relationships. For instance, a request for a Black woman with a white husband yielded images of Black couples. This pattern was broken
Suzanna Valdez Wolfe has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), the nation’s largest organization dedicated to Hispanic people in STEM. Meet Suzanna Valdez Wolfe With a career spanning over three decades, Suzanna Valdez Wolfe brings to SHPE a track record in leadership, strategic planning, and coalition building. Before joining SHPE, Valdez Wolfe was a founding member of Partners For NonProfits and the first-ever Chief Impact Officer at Taproot Foundation. Her career also includes a notable tenure at the Adrienne Arsht Center of the Performing Arts, where she contributed to
US Adds New Hispanic, Middle Eastern And North African Racial Categories For First Time In 25+ Years
The United States has updated its system for collecting information on people’s racial backgrounds. Changes include the introducing a category for Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) people and changing how Hispanic individuals are classified. This historic update, the first in over 25 years, aims to more accurately and nuancedly capture the nation’s evolving demographics. New Hispanic and MENA categories For the first time, individuals of MENA descent, about 1.5% of the U.S. population, will be able to identify themselves as part of a distinct category. Hispanic Americans, who make
Recent findings from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis have highlighted a wealth gap in the tech industry, particularly impacting never-married Black and Hispanic women. The research focused on the 23% of adults who have never been married, stripping away any outside sources of wealth that could come from being divorced or widowed. Never-Married Black And Hispanic Women Are Worse Off In that group, alarmingly, never-married Black women have just 8 cents for every dollar that white men have, amounting to a median wealth of only $3,300 as of 2022. Never-married
Nourish + Bloom, the first Black-owned autonomous grocery store in the US, is reshaping how communities access fresh food after Shark Tank investors declined them. Founded by Jilea and Jamie Hemmings in 2022, Nourish + Bloom aims to reduce the nation’s food deserts, making eating healthy and convenient. Nourish + Bloom Nourish + Bloom is reportedly the first 100% AI-powered supermarket to be open for business 24/7. The store currently offers a range of essentials, from produce to toiletries, and a deli for prepared foods. However, unlike traditional stores, Nourish + Bloom operates
