Sort of, but generally speaking, in the work world, men are rewarded for having families and women's careers are penalized on multiple levels.
Dad's are paid more, more sympathetic and even cheered on when they leave early for the talent show. Women on the other hand are considered less committed, less capable and less flexible.
It is a real thing. On the other side, I am a black female who grew up in middle class suburbia and has a typical Bay Area accent. This affords me a level of privilege because I can easily "class pass" as someone more affluent - even though it is generally assumed black people are lower class. This means I have the "right" mannerisms and speaking patterns for corporate jobs and other things and it is easier for me to be perceived as a good culture fit because I have the right class markers.
It also meant, particularly earlier in my career before social media, I would get some interviews and then the interviewer was shocked I was black when I showed up.
I think we really underestimate the entrepreneurship required to be an indie rapper and break-through. Marc Benioff freely admits he stole marketing ideas from MC Hammer and his street teams when launching Salesforce.
E-40 is a marketing super genius. He's been rapping and producing since 1990. And has had so many brand extensions since the mid-90s from energy drinks to wine to tequila.
It's entirely possible she didn't think that way. But prior to and after that experience I did have people (outside of an interview context) that explicitly told me I should not have my level of confidence due to their perceived racial expectations. So I could be overly sensitive to the whole thing.
I had an interview experience not too long after I finished college. I don't remember the specifics, but it was for an entry level administrative assistant role. I had plenty of experience in retail, customer service, event planning and working at the front desk of my college - so totally relevant stuff.
The interviewer asked me why I was so confident. And why I had the nerve to want to dig into the terms of the job (salary, growth opportunities and the like - I was a late stage candidate).
Full disclosure - I can't think of a time where I have been perceived as arrogant at all. I am generally well-liked and personable.
The interviewer seemed to have some sort of implicit bias - I think she really didn't think that black people should be confident in a professional environment. I can't imagine that she would have taken similar offense to a white guy asking those sorts of questions.
No shocker that this couldn't be monetized. It is really hard to make money in the film business - even doing full length movies. Distribution is hard. And short films aren't super popular with audiences.
I haven't been to Baltimore, but this book, Ghettoside, tells a story about how the police in Watts and South Central LA, with their hands tied, tried to balance policing, justice and community engagement. So much similarity to what is happening in B'more. Good read. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11434259/Ghettosid...
I still have a reaction to the Proclaimers 500 Miles, because my boss at my bookstore job played that virtually every shift. Or Garth Brooks. I go to the bathroom or excuse myself from the room when either comes on.
Had a very similar experience at a previous company as well. At the end of the renewal meeting, we left with no indication our issues would get solved and a quote for a 4X price increase. We churned.
No one is saying Bill Gates didn't earn his success. But we can't deny that having access to certain levels of privlege makes success much more probably than for those without those advantages.
With Bill Gates' upbringing, it is quite unlikely he would have struggled with housing insecurity.
Their facts are based the experiences of trying to place their program graduates and the experiences of those people. Code2040 had a very extensive program pairing young people with tech worker mentors, getting them the right education and helping to place them in tech jobs. And after doing that for 10 years they found without companies that were very very committed to retention, even with all of that preparation, it still didn't work. Hence the pivot by that organization.
They started trying to solve the "pipeline problem" and it turned out that wasn't really the problem.
You realize the "diversity" problem is also impacted by the funding problems. It is really hard for people of color and women to get funding - from any source. Banks, VCs, Angel investors and so on. Combine that with the wealth gap and it makes it a lot harder to get started.
I think even more helpful would be framing how this actually translates into the real world - what does this sort of thing enable in the real world.
I loved the show Numbers because it was a show about how math helped detectives solve crimes. Way more interesting than just doing algebra about speeding trains.
I think sometimes there is an idea that everyone has the same problem and your problem is universal.
For example I heard about a hackathon for black and latino kids. And the ideas that came out of it were really different. One app was a social networking platform for private school kids to connect with other black private school kids to talk about their experiences and vent. Another idea was a payment app to send money to Mexico without having to go to Western Union or whatever.
There is a startup in Oakland that has an app to help people who are caught up in the criminal justice system to keep track of court appearances and hearings and stuff so they don't need to go to jail for bogus stuff like missing a court appearance.
Technology has the opportunity to enable and transform - if we make sure everyone has access.
Maybe have a little empathy here. In a low-income school, kids are walking in the door with way more problems than your upper middle class school where most kids have their basic needs met.
Also, it is time to retire this stereotype that every non-white kid who is academically inclined is being bullied for acting white at school all the time. I get the most grief from white kids about "acting white" growing up. From fellow black kids it was pretty rare - 1-2 times. Mostly other kids were more inclined to help uplift me.