Anazsa Blanding
12/4/18
ENG111
Coding and Blacks
Before my senior year of high school, I had no clue what I wanted to pursue as a career later on in life. Then, the summer before my senior year I was granted the opportunity to attend the Blacks at Microsoft mentorship and this opened my eyes to new possibilities for myself. I found something to be passionate about and found out I genuinely enjoyed computer programming. My mentor was Michael Dunner who is currently a Senior Technical Account Manager at Microsoft. In the field of computer science there is a small percentage of blacks present especially black women. During my first at semester Morgan State University, I became close with my TA in my computer science class a sophomore named Deandra Harvin. She informed me of her experiences of not only gaining paid internships at big tech companies but receiving one from Google as well. Deandra stayed in Silicon Valley, California at Google Headquarters and also taught me a lot becoming another mentor for myself. I spoke with Michael over video call in the library around 11am. The library wasn’t too busy so there weren’t many distractions and I wanted to make sure there was good lighting as well. I spoke with Deandra after my Wednesday computer science class which was around 2:30 pm also in the library. While speaking to both of them, I focused on how do blacks as a whole impact, black women as well, the field of computer science, such as bringing new ideas and does their diversity influence the field. While at my Blacks at Microsoft ( BAM ) mentorship, I would always hear how small the number of blacks are and this made me inquire why? If we were to increase our numbers what exactly are we bringing to the table and what change would there be beside just color of skin.
I spoke to Michael Dunner first on November 30th at 11am in the Earl S. Richardson Library. He greeted me with a familiar large smile and was happy to hear of me attending Morgan State University. After my mentorship we stayed in contact and he knew I was still pursuing computer science and attending hackathons myself. My first question for Mike was ,”Had you ever felt strange being black and in tech?” ”That there were these different races such as Asian and white but not a lot of blacks.” He took a couple of moments to think about my question and then said, “In the beginning, yes. I knew I did not resemble my colleagues, but, I had to remember that my ability and my hard work got me to where I am today and where I was in the past. “ When interviewing Deandra I also asked her the same question and she told me a slightly different answer. She told me,” It took me a while to get comfortable. I found a small group of other black interns and it was cool after that. “ So, Mike was older than Deandra getting put in the same situation and he decided to just believe in himself and not think about the color of his skin. However, Deandra was only a freshman and being young and coming out your comfort zone I could understand why she went the safer route of finding people like her in order to get used to her environment. The next question asked was,” Do you feel that being a black in computer science, you’ve brought a difference to your surroundings and not just the color of your skin?” Mike told me,” I do. I feel like my experience as a black person brought a good experience when it came to addressing problems or changing the environment. I feel that when you’re that one black person and you walk into this room filled with all other races besides your own you turn into this representation. That your background, language, and life can sculpt your new ideas that you would bring into the room that someone else won’t think of. Mike said when he first started out he had created an algorithm for a search engine and being a black minority led to him bringing in ideas such as what the algorithm should and should not set a part that could be looked at as bias. Deandra said something slightly the same but she also stated of her being a black woman she can speak on something the next man or woman wouldn’t speak on. She stated,” I have natural hair. If I wanted to bring about a program or algorithm that would help with this no one else would think of an idea like that. That gave me an idea that black women can incorporate their lives or situations in the field that would set them apart from what would be looked at as the,” status quo.” My interviewees gave me the answers I needed and gave me a broader idea on the impact of what blacks bring to computers science.
I had heard about the movie,” Hidden Figures,” which told of three African American women at NASA that helped launched the astronaut John Glenn into space. The movie was based on the nonfiction novel written by Margot Lee Shetter. The three women’s names were Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. The book consisted of 23 chapters which admittedly I did not finish. However, in chapter 19, through the point of view of Mary Jackson, she states,” Being part of a Black First was a powerful symbol, she knew just as well as anyone, and she embraced her son’s achievement with delight. But she also knew that the best thing about breaking a barrier was that it would never have to be broken again.” She thought this after witnessing her son be the first colored boy in winning a soap box derby. I related her statement with computer science today. Although the book took place in the 1930s through 1960s. There are still barriers needing to be broken. Also in the book, computing had been looked at as woman’s work but overtime and after the launch of John Glenn more men became involved in the field. However, in 2015, a study was taken that only 4.8 blacks had an occupation in science and engineering and 6.4 held the highest degrees in this field. Compare that to Asians who hold 20.6 percent of occupations and 15.1 percent have the highest degree. Whites lead both having 66.6 percent of occupations and 67.6 hold the highest degree in the fields. “In 1993, 84% of workers in S&E occupations reported their race as white. By 2015, this proportion had declined to 67%. Most of the decline in the proportion of whites during this period was offset by an increase in the proportion of Asians and, to a lesser degree, by increases in the proportion of other groups, particularly Hispanics,” stated an article on nsf.gov. Blacks, however, don’t have any inclination in that statement. Numbers go up sparsely, although, not enough to show a real change. “ A 2016 report from Google found that black and Hispanic students were 1.5 and 1.7 times more likely to have an interest in learning CS. And while the nation has, overall, increased the number of CS course offerings in K-12 education, black and Hispanic students are less likely to have access to those resources.” Hispanics and blacks are at a disadvantage when it comes to tech due to access to resources so how come blacks aren’t in the same line of improvement. I believe people that can’t relate to certain circumstances think that it’s just so easy to get out of this confined box. If you’ve never had been exposed to certain opportunities or new experiences for yourself, you will never know how far you can truly go and I believe that plays a part in why blacks can’t reach these numbers in different fields.
To conclude, speaking to my interviewees and going through my sources showed me that there is always room from improvement. All the way from the 1930s blacks are making impacts in the fields of science but it just doesn’t stop at impacts. There also should be an increase in these numbers not just to bring new ideas to the table but to also focus on equality. The different viewpoints of my interviewees intrigued me as well. Deandra had mentioned that she had been scared to ask questions because of her being the only black woman in a room full of Asians or whites. She did not want to seem inferior but overtime got more confident when it would come to speaking up in these situations. Being a black woman in tech even at an HBCU the number of black women I see are low. I believe that opportunities should be increased in order for more to succeed in the field. I was truly curious as to what ideas and reasons blacks should be involved in computer science and had my questions answered. New ideas and settings are valuable. Representation is truly inspiration