Excellent, insightful feedback! And, oh yeah, I especially love it cuz it kinda parallels what I've been pondering/planning in my own mind above-and-beyond anything that was mentioned in the article.
You see, I really wanted to limit the piece to being my perception of a problem. And as you know, it's a big problem and the article was already long. So I didn't want to jump into, "And here's my 42-point plan on how to address this problem."
But I have been thinking about how to do something tangible, rather than just complaining. My thoughts are very much inline with what you've mentioned.
Specifically, I'd like to start a mentoring / coding class that will try to introduce black youth to the idea that coding is "a thing", it's absolutely within their reach (if they're so inclined), and they can even do a lot to teach themselves into the career field, if they're dedicated enough.
Obviously, I wouldn't say, "This is a class for BLACK kids." (All kindsa problems that could stem from that.) But you don't even have to be that explicit. You can offer the classes at certain schools or in certain parts of town. And that would pretty much guarantee that you'd be reaching your target audience.
I also feel strongly about the idea of having real, tangible, in-person classes. As a self-taught coder, it's very tempting for me to say, "Well... all the resources are right there on the web. So there's nothing for me to do. If black folk wanna learn to code, they just go out, on their own, and do it!"
But I don't think the racial divide here has soooo much to do with tangible resources. Nowadays, there are many (relatively) poor kids who have access to a computer and the internet. But I strongly believe that the overwhelming "whiteness" of dev shops is fostered by the fact that many inner-city kids just don't think of coding as an option. They don't even consider it as a potential career field.
I think that someone (or some group) needs to be more proactive about reaching out to all races and income groups and making sure they realize that there's this highly-lucrative field that's waiting for them if they desire. The field has low barriers to entry. They can literally learn at home. But I think that too many people in bad situations don't even realize that these opportunities exist.
Adam, if it's good with you can you copy your reply to comments of my post and we can continue on there? With so many comments here it's way down the page and deserves a fresh start. dev.to/dkebler/doing-something-abo...
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Excellent, insightful feedback! And, oh yeah, I especially love it cuz it kinda parallels what I've been pondering/planning in my own mind above-and-beyond anything that was mentioned in the article.
You see, I really wanted to limit the piece to being my perception of a problem. And as you know, it's a big problem and the article was already long. So I didn't want to jump into, "And here's my 42-point plan on how to address this problem."
But I have been thinking about how to do something tangible, rather than just complaining. My thoughts are very much inline with what you've mentioned.
Specifically, I'd like to start a mentoring / coding class that will try to introduce black youth to the idea that coding is "a thing", it's absolutely within their reach (if they're so inclined), and they can even do a lot to teach themselves into the career field, if they're dedicated enough.
Obviously, I wouldn't say, "This is a class for BLACK kids." (All kindsa problems that could stem from that.) But you don't even have to be that explicit. You can offer the classes at certain schools or in certain parts of town. And that would pretty much guarantee that you'd be reaching your target audience.
I also feel strongly about the idea of having real, tangible, in-person classes. As a self-taught coder, it's very tempting for me to say, "Well... all the resources are right there on the web. So there's nothing for me to do. If black folk wanna learn to code, they just go out, on their own, and do it!"
But I don't think the racial divide here has soooo much to do with tangible resources. Nowadays, there are many (relatively) poor kids who have access to a computer and the internet. But I strongly believe that the overwhelming "whiteness" of dev shops is fostered by the fact that many inner-city kids just don't think of coding as an option. They don't even consider it as a potential career field.
I think that someone (or some group) needs to be more proactive about reaching out to all races and income groups and making sure they realize that there's this highly-lucrative field that's waiting for them if they desire. The field has low barriers to entry. They can literally learn at home. But I think that too many people in bad situations don't even realize that these opportunities exist.
Adam, if it's good with you can you copy your reply to comments of my post and we can continue on there? With so many comments here it's way down the page and deserves a fresh start. dev.to/dkebler/doing-something-abo...