Why Black People Should Consider The IT/Tech Industry

You might be wondering why should Black-Americans should considered Information Technology field as their career instead of sports. I will tell you why we all know that Black-Americans dominted in the sports arena like the NFL,NBA.MLB. NCAA, and etc, but they are only a handful of Black-Americans in the tech field. Is it because blacks are inferior to their non-black counterparts or it is because of racism in Silicon Valley? Here is my answer the racism part it is true, but blacks can overcome this bias by forming their own tech-start ups, networking with the black people who are already major players in the tech industry and by forming business connections with the financial backers or investors who will support black tech-start ups and transforming them into major black companies who can compete and establishing a presence in the tech industry i.e. Silicon Valley.


Now according to the article Black Enterprise they was interviewing Eric A Hardy a Black CEO of the company called W3R Consulting and this is one of the largest black-owned tech companies in the US. He says that,"There’s still not enough emphasis placed on these early development STEM programs. My kids are 10 years old and they’re in several  development programs and I know several families that want to continue to provide that infrastructure and base so their kids can go on to do something technology related. But by percentage, there are still so few families that put emphasis on that. I think that’s part of the problem. I think the public school system is also part of the problem." I agree with the problem of the public education system's problem they mis-educated our young brothas and sistas in training them into being an wage-earner or being in sports not an owner of a future company or having a career in Scientific Technology Mathematics and Engineering or (STEM). The trends are showing them the STEM jobs are the future according to CNN Money and they say that,"STEM jobs are growing at 1.7 times the rate of non-STEM jobs, and the U.S. is simply not producing enough candidates to fill them. Only 16% of high school seniors are interested in pursuing STEM careers, according to the Department of Education.
The Obama administration is investing millions of dollars to produce an additional one million STEM undergrads by 2022. But that would barely fill the projected shortage in STEM jobs" 

Now all my black and brown college brothas and sistas if you want a career in IT field it is best to form your own contacts right now and talk to the local professors at your college they can recommend you for an internship for the IT field. That way you can get access to the major and influential players in the tech industry and forming life-long business relationships in the field because you never know when your going to need them in your career. Also in the inner-city high schools and middle schools get with positive black mentors in the tech field to help interest the youth and show them wonders about a career in the IT field or STEM will produce huge dividends in the long term unlike the sports and entertainment route. Now look I am a avid sports fan and support young black athletes, but we  got to have a perspective in the black community that sports and entertainment jobs are a few and far between in life. There is an old saying that," Many are called, but a few are chosen," If you are an college athlete use your NCAA scholarship to get an STEM degree i.e your computer science and scientific tech degrees. In case you do not make it into the NFL or NBA or if you get an career ending injury on the field at least you got an STEM degree to be use for real world applications and bringing something to the table to your future employers or forming a black tech-start up sometime in your career. Okay my next blog will called,"My Long Road to my Tech Management degree @ SPC." I will caution you the next blog will be long and be story everyone.


Here are the 2 news articles I have use see links below:

http://www.blackenterprise.com/technology/stem-education-black-community-technology/

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/25/smallbusiness/stem-facts/