It’s February and we’re here to celebrate the undeniable creative synergy between black people and computers.
🖤🎉🎉💻👸🏿🖤🤴🏿💻🎉🎉🖤
From the earliest days of Dorothy Vaughan at NASA on IBM machines using FORTRAN to program the mathematic equations that would send man to the moon.
To Afrika Bambaata mastering the now iconic Roland TR-808 to coax out the rhythms that would define the Afrofuturist sound and become the foundations of modern hip-hop.
This was a great article-took me down a rabbit hole of different engineers, creators, entrepreneurs of the past and how times have changed, but also not changed(?). Many of our stories are unique, but also have strong ties to what you brought up. Anyways, nothing heavy to contribute, just curating thoughts.
I know you mentioned Soulja Boy Consoles mostly as a joke, but I’d urge you to be cautious if you are actually trying to spend money with him. His company is essentially white labeling, and is not worth your money. If you did want to buy black-owned tech there’s Raycon (for consumer goods). Another good list of black tech companies is here. Juice County Pro. I think you might like bailbloc, a cryptocurrency for helping black americans post bail.
Keep your self hatred off this blessed site!! Soulja Boy is a business tycoon and pop culture icon. He must be respected as such.
Do you know have many technology, fashion, etc. companies that essentially repurpose the same products for a crazy dividend off of just hype and name brand? How come when a Black artist decides to leverage his cultural capital we should all boycott? Nobody talking bout them broke ass Louis Vuitton airbuds you can cop for $20 on Canal street.
I think the consoles were and enlightened move and I plan to support just as soon as the website is repaired and the Nintendo lawsuits get cleared up!!
Adding to here just to give a shotout to Marian Croak cuz… i mean damn. Ran across her information at a conference for black software engineers
Marian Rogers Croak is a Vice President of Engineering at Google. She has previously served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development at AT&T Labs. She is credited as a developer of Voice over IP creating most of methods and features that both improved its reliability and ushered in its nearly universal adoption…
She joined AT&T at Bell Labs in 1982.[4] She advocated for switching from wired phone technology to internet protocol.[2][5][6] She holds over two hundred patents, including over one hundred in relation to Voice over IP.[7]