The face of technology and entrepreneurship is changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s getting younger, more casual, more accessible. It\u2019s getting increasingly more familiar, with a more colloquial vernacular; and it\u2019s also getting darker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was evidenced by the opening VIP panel of the inaugural Blacks in Technology Conference, more aptly titled BITCON. The conference was held in various locations throughout the Twin Cities, with the VIP opening panel inside the offices of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx at the Mayo Clinic Building in downtown Minneapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the more than one-hour session one thing was made abundantly clear; the game may be the same \u2026 maybe \u2026 but the rules have definitely changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe (Black people) are absolutely changing the culture in technology,\u201d said Chris Lafayette, a mixed reality architect and co-founder of The Armada. \u201cWhen you think about it, Blacks have been driving culture for decades. And yes, technology has a diversity problem and the issue is many don\u2019t see the problem. But remember, Starbucks didn\u2019t think it had a diversity problem until it had to pay $12 million for a cup of coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reference to Starbucks relates to a well-publicized incident where two Black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks for asking to use the bathroom while waiting on a business associate. Lafayette said though change is occurring in a variety of tech industries the push for greater access continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want our children to marvel at a Marvel movie, \u2018Black Panther,\u2019 and marvel at the technology that made the film but think they cannot do it because they don\u2019t see people who look like them in the industry,\u201d said Lafayette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saron Yitbarek, CEO and founder of Code Newbie, said BITCON is about not just cracking through, but kicking in the door to careers in technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m tired of just talking about diversity and inclusion,\u201d said Yitbarek. \u201cThis conference is focused on being able to help people progress in their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yitbarek said in opening doors do so by whatever means necessary and that does not mean being quiet on a job in hopes of advancement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToo many people believe in meritocracy,\u201d said Yitbarek. \u201cThey believe if you do good work and keep their heads down they\u2019ll advance. It doesn\u2019t work like that. If you want to be seen, you have to be loud. And it doesn\u2019t matter how you get in the door. Use whatever tool you have in your toolbox. Any card I have that\u2019s historically kept me behind I use to my advantage. You bet I\u2019m going to use it. And once you get in the door you can have a seat at the table. You can flip the table over. You can redesign the whole system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But besides getting jobs in tech, Lafayette said he\u2019s more interested in creating jobs in technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m no longer satisfied when people who look like me get a job at Google and Apple,\u201d said Lafayette. \u201cI\u2019ll be satisfied when people who look like me create a Google or Apple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BITCON brought Black tech professionals from around the nation to the Twin Cities for a four-day conference Oct. 10 \u2013 Oct. 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The face of technology and entrepreneurship is changing. It\u2019s getting younger, more casual, more accessible. It\u2019s getting increasingly more familiar, with a more colloquial vernacular; and it\u2019s also getting darker. This was evidenced by the opening VIP panel of the inaugural Blacks in Technology Conference, more aptly titled BITCON. The conference was held in various […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2459,2460,2458],"class_list":["post-3616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-bitcoin","tag-blacks-in-technology-conference","tag-silicon-valley","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3617,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3616\/revisions\/3617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}