Comment by BlackGirlsCODE | Hacker News Reader

Comment by BlackGirlsCODE | Hacker News Reader

This conversation thread is always an interesting one that surfaces from time to time, disappears, then resurfaces again. For me I think the issue is really one of access and exposure. Black women have been at the helm of technology companies as either CTO's, CEO's, C-suite executives, etc for several decades (see notables such as Shellye Archambeau, Ursula Burns, etc). Yet we still rank VERY low in terms of the number of black female founded startup companies which receive venture capital (less than 1%), thus the media coverage for black female founders is likewise sparse. This is probably why we appear nearly invisible in the articles you may come across but it does not mean there are not many new enterprising young women led startup in the space. It just means our voices are not often heard. I personally believe as more women of color enter the technology space and build businesses which will scale at the level of tech behemoths such as FB, Twitter, etc we will change this dynamic. There are many promising and talented young women currently in the space moving in that direction and certainly many even younger codenistas from programs such as Black Girls CODE that I certainly feel change the future. Then hopefully this discussion will finally go away. For good... ;-) ~Kimberly- BlackGirlsCODE

"There are many promising and talented young women currently in the space moving in that direction and certainly many even younger codenistas from programs such as Black Girls CODE that I certainly feel change the future. Then hopefully this discussion will finally go away. For good... ;-) ~Kimberly- BlackGirlsCODE" -- Kimberly, I love that and speaking for my organization, I actually have a saying for that; My org exists so it doesn't have to exist. My ultimate goal is to make what I do so much the norm that I won't have a need to be around. Maybe that's 5 years, maybe 10, maybe 20 years. As long as the problem exists my org will be here to combat it.

Greg Greenlee Founder of Blacks In Technology (http://www.blacksintechnology.net) Founder of BIT Tech Digest (http://www.bitdigest.net)

Sorry failed to mention you Kimberly. I was just talking about this with BFC (Black Female Coders). It's a thing of visibility and perception. Something that needs to be overcome. That's why I try and become an outlet for all Blacks In Technology through my podcasts, and by spotlighting the skill set of black techs/engineers/founders through the BIT Tech Digest (http://www.bitdigest.net), and the Blacks In Technology website (http://www.blacksintechnology.net) and hopefully an upcoming conference. I feel we need to try and control as much of our "brand" as possible and not let others do that for us. Programs like BGC is making tremendous progress in tackling this very thing.

Greg Greenlee Founder of Blacks In Technology Founder of BIT Tech Digest All around techie!!!

Here here. It's not that we don't exist: we do and we always have. It's that the problem is two-fold: 1) we don't get the access and resources needed at a young age to encourage us to pursue STEM fields and succeed/achieve in that realm and 2) for those of us who choose to pursue that route anyway, we don't get the exposure later on once we have achieved. The positive is that I see change happening, even if it's not as quickly as I would like, but it's still an issue that will need to be continually acknowledged and addressed by all until it is (ideally) not an issue anymore.

--http://blackfemalecoders.tumblr.com/

So how to fix the exposure problems. Are media outlets like Inc, Forbes, Techcrunch making a good enough effort to cover stories like this?

I think it's going to be more organic. This is the age of the internet. The internet is media therefore we have the best outlet possible to get the word out ourselves. We can do this by supporting each others causes. People have already laid the ground work, so support them. As numbers increase the visibility increases and all these other outlets will follow not because they want to it'll be because they have to. Think about the Negro Leagues. It's a perfect example of something that grew organically and made such an impact that it couldn't be ignored. Now there is no Negro League, just Major League baseball.

Greg Greenlee Founder of Blacks In Technology (http://www.blacksintechnology.net) Founder of BIT Tech Digest (http://www.bitdigest.net)

I think one of the main reasons media outlets such as the ones you mentioned don't cover these stories is because they just aren't aware of all of the work that is going on in the community to resolve this. It's just not on their radar. I think, in part, it is our responsibility as founders and community advocates to continue doing what we're doing and putting our work out there, but it also just as much (if not even more) the responsibility of these larger media sources to make addressing this a priority.

The hardest part, in my opinion, is getting people to understand that this conversation is not limited to one subset of the community. It involves everyone in some way.

As a HBCU comp sci alum, one important message that should be shouted - entrepreneurship is a career option for hackers. Especially hackers with unique insight into diverse communities.

What I remember of undergrad is that companies were desperate to hire smart CS types. These jobs were, more often than not, represented as the pinnacle for students. With good options to join top-tier IT and other firms, most "success" stories were about doing just that. Not so much about starting companies by wielding your code chops.

Love y'alls program.

Three questions: 1) Do the gender messages of women pioneers like Sheryl & Marissa resonate with black entrepreneurs or does the message feel "hollow"?

2) Are there any mainstream outlets that you think do a fairly good job of covering success (or struggles) of BFFs?

3) Who is your dream mentor?

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