TECHNOLOGY
Women of Color
Bringing Diversity to Technology At a coffee shop in New Jersey, a coincidental meeting brings together two emerging leaders and thinkers, both pushing for more inclusion in technological global arena. Kaia Niambi Shivers, an adjunct professor in Media Studies at Rutgers University, and Lindsey C. Holmes, a social-media marketer and tech-entrepreneur, just so happened to attend a poetry event in downtown Newark. During the show, they found out they had similar interests when Shivers Photo credit: Kween Moore. overheard Holmes mention her marketing agency. Excited to see another woman of color involved in digital media, Shivers exchanged information with Holmes in hopes that they could collaborate. In 2001, while Holmes attended the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), she noticed a severe lack of diversity in industry analysts, exhibitors, press outlets, and especially tech executives. Not only is CES the largest and most important tech trade show in the US, but it features the latest and upcoming consumer electronics from around the world that will shape the future of the globe. Though the trade show draws a crowd well over 150,000 Holmes recalls, “I could count the black and brown people on my fingers.” Later on, Holmes asked a top level tech executive how could CES, and ultimately, the tech industry, include
Holmes was astonished and offended. “As a social media marketing professional, I know that we are spending a lot of money on consumer electronics” continued the industry veteran. Yet he neglected the fact that, nonwhite populations and those in developing countries are the biggest consumers. The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that China and India alone would spend over US $1 trillion in consumer electronic gadgets in 2012; and the Nielson Report listed African-Americans as having US $1 trillion in buying power in 2011 and US $1.1 trillion by 2015. With ten years of experience in new media technology and being noted as one of the pioneers who pushed social media to the forefront, Holmes believes that all demographics of consumer spending should be respected.
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Kaia Niambi Shivers “I wanted CES and the tech world to recognize the buying power of minorities, and the leadership and innovation that we bring to the industry as a whole.” Nevertheless, Holmes points out that though “countless studies delineat[e] minorities as the largest consumers of tech”, the industry still results in “so few minority tech CEOs.” Drowning in frustrations, Holmes reached out to Shivers, whose PhD research explores the consumption of African videos in the New York Metropolitan area. She asked her sister -friend in a matter of fact manner, “Why wait for them? Do it yourself.” Holmes and Shivers thought that there partnership was perfect.