Getting Woke to the Digital Divide | Youngmoo Kim | TEDxPhiladelphia
Summary
TLDRThe script addresses the paradox of the digital divide, suggesting that while access to technology has increased, true equity in economic opportunities has not. It highlights the underrepresentation of people of color and women in tech, particularly in Silicon Valley and Philadelphia's STEM workforce. The speaker advocates for a cultural shift in the tech industry, emphasizing the importance of diversity and inclusion for innovation, and suggests that the focus should be on creating a more inclusive environment rather than just improving access.
Takeaways
- 🌐 The digital divide is not just about access to technology but also about economic opportunity and equity, which is often overlooked.
- 📉 Despite increased access to technology, representation of black and Latina/o employees in Silicon Valley companies remains very low.
- 🏙️ Philadelphia, recognized for diversity in STEM, still has a significant gap between the percentage of black STEM employees and the city's black population.
- 👩💻 The gender disparity in the tech industry is also highlighted, with only one-third of STEM employees in Philadelphia being women.
- 📚 Representation of black students in computing fields has increased slightly from 2002 to 2017, but there is still a long way to go for true equity in education.
- 🎓 The lack of black representation on the covers of Make Magazine, a flagship publication of the maker movement, underscores the absence of diversity in tech culture.
- 🎼 The speaker advocates for a cultural shift in tech, comparing the need for diversity to the evolution of the music industry, which has embraced various genres and artists.
- 🛠️ The tech industry's focus on new gadgets and apps has led to an unintended widening of the digital divide, impacting those without socio-economic privilege.
- 🎨 The speaker promotes the integration of arts and design into STEM education (STEAM) as a way to foster creativity and a more inclusive learning environment.
- 🤝 Partnerships and collaborations, such as with the Malcolm Jenkins Foundation, are essential to create programs that break down barriers and offer inclusive learning experiences.
- 🔍 The speaker encourages informed consumerism and support for organizations that promote equity and inclusion in the tech industry, as well as skepticism towards tech initiatives that may overlook these values.
Q & A
What is the digital divide according to the script?
-The digital divide is the gap between those who have easy access to computers, the internet, and emerging technologies, and those without. It's also about the greater economic opportunity made possible through technology, often falling along socio-economic lines and closely tracking with race.
Why is access to technology not enough to close the digital divide?
-Access to technology alone is not enough because the real goal is equity and equal economic opportunity. Fixating on access has led to an unintended consequence of widening the divide, as it overlooks the need for broader representation and inclusion in the tech industry.
What percentage of employees in Silicon Valley companies are black according to the study mentioned in the script?
-In the study, just 2.5 percent of employees in Silicon Valley companies are black.
How does the representation of black individuals in STEM fields in Philadelphia compare to the city's population?
-In Philadelphia, 18 percent of STEM employees are black, which is significantly lower than the city's population where 42 percent is black.
What is the percentage of women in STEM fields in Philadelphia?
-Only one-third of the STEM employees in Philadelphia are women.
What was the percentage of bachelor's degrees awarded to black people in computing fields in 2002 and 2017?
-In 2002, 3.6 percent of bachelor's degrees in computing fields were awarded to black people, which increased to 3.7 percent in 2017.
Why is the lack of representation of black individuals on the cover of Make Magazine a troubling sign according to the speaker?
-The absence of representation on Make Magazine's cover speaks volumes about the exclusionary nature of the tech and maker culture, indicating a lack of diversity and inclusivity in the field.
What is the speaker's view on the tech industry's approach to solving problems?
-The speaker believes that the tech industry tends to fixate on new devices, apps, or services as solutions, which has led to widening the digital divide and impacting people of color and those lacking socio-economic privilege.
What does the speaker suggest as an alternative to the current tech culture?
-The speaker suggests a culture transplant, replacing the exclusionary white and Asian male monoculture with one of equal representation and inclusion.
What is the significance of the music industry's evolution in the speaker's argument?
-The music industry's evolution to include a broader representation of society serves as an example of how the tech industry could embrace diversity and avoid amplifying an exclusionary monoculture.
What is the acronym S.T.E.A.M. stand for and what does it represent in the context of the script?
-S.T.E.A.M. stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. It represents an integrated approach to learning that celebrates creativity in both the arts and sciences, which the speaker believes is a more profound way to learn.
What is the 'Young Dragons' program and how does it integrate S.T.E.A.M. education?
-The 'Young Dragons' program is a six-week summer S.T.E.A.M. camp for middle school students in West Philadelphia. It breaks down the walls between disciplines and offers hands-on, relevant arts-integrated S.T.E.A.M. learning activities.
What actions does the speaker suggest for those in technology, education, and leadership roles to help change the culture of tech?
-For those in technology, the speaker suggests engaging with organizations like Code 2040 and promoting inclusive design. In education, they recommend supporting schools that integrate technology with community and social justice. For leaders, the speaker calls for making it clear that the status quo is unacceptable and advocating for a culture of equity, innovation, and inclusion.
Outlines
🌐 The Digital Divide and Socio-Economic Inequality
The first paragraph discusses the digital divide, which is the disparity in access to technology and its economic opportunities, typically along socio-economic and racial lines. Despite efforts to make technology more accessible, the speaker points out that the divide persists, evidenced by low representation of black and Latina employees in Silicon Valley and a lack of diversity in STEM fields in Philadelphia. The paragraph also highlights the underrepresentation of black individuals in computing degrees and the absence of black individuals on the covers of Make Magazine, suggesting that mere access to technology does not guarantee equity or equal opportunity.
🎼 The Cultural Shift Needed in Technology
The second paragraph emphasizes the need for a cultural shift in the tech industry to address the widening digital divide. The speaker criticizes the tech industry's focus on new gadgets and services as a solution, arguing that this approach has unintentionally exacerbated the divide. Drawing from personal experiences as an Asian-American in academia and the arts, the speaker advocates for a more inclusive culture that values representation and equity. The paragraph concludes with a call to action for the tech industry to undergo a 'culture transplant' to become more inclusive, using the evolution of the music industry as a positive example of cultural diversity and representation.
🚀 Pioneering Innovations in Music and Tech
The third paragraph draws parallels between the pioneers of music, such as jazz and hip-hop, and the need for similar pioneers in technology. The speaker challenges the tech industry's reverence for its 'classical giants' and suggests that following only their traditions could stifle innovation. The speaker discusses the importance of embracing a diverse range of contributions and the potential risks of amplifying an exclusionary monoculture. Initiatives at the excite Center in Philadelphia are highlighted as examples of using culture to better understand and integrate technology, including the Young Dragons program, which offers a summer STEAM camp integrating arts with traditional STEM disciplines.
🛠 Actions for a More Equitable Tech Culture
The final paragraph offers actionable steps for individuals to help change the culture of tech towards greater equity and inclusion. The speaker suggests engaging with organizations like Code 2040 and the Algorithmic Justice League to promote diversity within the tech industry. For consumers, the speaker recommends scrutinizing tech companies' diversity reports and supporting those making genuine progress. In education, the speaker endorses the Connected Learning Alliance and schools that integrate technology with social justice. The paragraph concludes with a call for leaders in higher education to address the 'culture crisis' and to foster a culture of innovation and inclusion, rather than relying solely on technology to solve systemic issues.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Digital Divide
💡Socio-economic Lines
💡Economic Opportunity
💡Representation
💡Maker Movement
💡Cultural Perspective
💡Equity
💡Inclusion
💡STEAM
💡Implicit Bias
💡Innovation
Highlights
The digital divide refers to the gap between those with access to technology and those without, with a focus on economic opportunity.
Efforts to close the digital divide have historically focused on access, assuming economic benefits would follow.
Despite widespread access to technology, representation of black and Latina/o employees in Silicon Valley remains low.
Philadelphia's STEM workforce is more diverse than Silicon Valley, but still underrepresents the city's black population.
Women are underrepresented in Philadelphia's STEM workforce, making up only one-third of employees.
Progress in higher education for black students in computing fields has been slow, with minimal increases in degree representation.
The maker movement, promoted for broadening tech participation, has a lack of representation, with no black individuals on Make Magazine covers.
The speaker argues that access to technology is not enough; equity and equal economic opportunity are the real goals.
The tech industry's focus on new devices and services may inadvertently widen the digital divide.
The speaker shares personal experiences of feeling out of place due to appearance, not talent, in the music and tech industries.
A cultural perspective can reveal the need for a more inclusive tech industry, moving from an exclusionary monoculture.
The music industry has evolved to include a broader representation of society, unlike the tech industry.
Pioneers in music, like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, created new genres by going against traditional music culture.
The tech industry needs its own pioneers to shake the foundations and create a more diverse and innovative field.
The EXCiTE Center in Philadelphia uses cultural touchstones in youth outreach programs to explore technology.
The Young Dragons program is a summer STEAM camp integrating arts with traditional STEM subjects.
Collaboration with organizations like the Malcolm Jenkins Foundation aims to amplify the impact of inclusive education programs.
The speaker encourages informed consumption, supporting companies with real progress in diversity and inclusion.
Maintaining skepticism towards new tech initiatives is important due to potential blind spots in equity and inclusion.
Leaders in tech and education should promote a culture of equity, innovation, and inclusion, not just focus on STEM deficits.
The future of tech can be more inclusive and innovative, but it requires collective effort to make it happen.
Transcripts
what if our efforts to close the digital
divide are actually widening it now the
digital divide is the gap between those
who have easy access to computers the
internet and emerging technologies and
those without but more importantly it's
about the greater economic opportunity
made possible through technology the
digital divide generally falls along
socio-economic lines which of course
track closely with race most efforts to
close this gap have focused on access
it's even in the term Internet access
the basic idea being that if we make
devices the internet and training less
expensive and more broadly accessible to
all then the economic benefits will
follow but here's the funny thing if you
had told me or really anyone in
technology in 1999 hey 20 years from now
77% of all Americans and 90% of adults
under 50 would own a pocket
supercomputer with always-on wireless
high-speed Internet we'd have said sign
me up for that future digital divide
closed now that we're here in 2019 how
are we doing well in a recent study of
Silicon Valley companies looking at
median representation among employees
just 2.5 percent of employees are black
and 5.6 percent or Latina X here in
Philadelphia we were recently named in
the 2017 study as the best city for
diversity in stem that science
technology engineering and math 18
percent of stem employees in Philly are
black which sounds better right until
you remember that 42 percent of our
city's population is black oh and by the
way only one-third of Philly stem
employees are women so in industry we
still have a ways to go
how about in higher education which is
our future workforce right if we look at
black students in the computing fields
starting in 2002 3.6 percent of
bachelor's degrees 1.3 percent of
master's and 1.3 percent of PhDs were
awarded to black people now in 2017
which is the most recent year for which
we have data things have gone up to 3
point 7 percent one point six percent
and PhDs have gone from 10 to 18 yes
all of the black graduates in North
America who received a PhD in computing
in 2017 could fit around a conference
room table clearly in higher ed there's
still some work to do so you might say
well you know there's this hot new trend
in education particularly in k-12 called
making making is a mash-up of shop class
in electronics and computing to create
everything from doorbells to robots it's
been heavily promoted as a way of
broadening participation in technology
well the flagship publication of this
maker movement is Make Magazine which
has been around for more than 10 years
tech and education researcher Lea
Beakley did an analysis of
representation on make magazine covers
and while most of the discussion
subsequently talked about gender she
also pointed out in 2014 that no black
person had ever been on the cover of
make magazine well I'm here to tell you
that in 2019 no black person has ever
been on the cover of make magazine
I think the absence of reputa of
representation speaks volumes and is a
very troubling sign so here we are more
than 20 years since the digital divide
first became a concern and more than 10
years into the smartphone era and while
we've achieved enormous gains
in terms of access to technology we now
know that access is not enough the
unintended consequence of fixating on
access has been that we lost sight of
the real goal equity equal Economic
Opportunity through technology
I think that's because in tech we tend
to fixate on certain things and we have
unintentionally because of the great
games in in economics through technology
we've actually widened the divide not
only adversely impacting people of color
but anyone who lacks socio-economic
privilege the problem is that in tech we
love to believe that the new new thing
will solve the problem a device an app a
service and I have to admit that for
many years I was complicit in this kind
of thinking that if we simply made the
tech good enough then we would achieve
equity but as Columbia professor and
founder of the hip-hop ed movement Chris
emdin has succinctly put it you can't
just take away your problems here's also
where I should check my privilege that I
am an academic I'm a research institute
director I'm an asian-american professor
of engineering absolutely a position of
privilege now I grew up in central
Illinois with an inescapably Korean name
and oops I don't really speak Korean I
studied music in college and graduate
school and as an Asian musician and
performer I've often found myself in a
very different situation one at an
audition or performance where I felt out
of place distinct not because of my
talent or lack thereof but distinct
because of my appearance sometimes I
wished I could fast forward a few
decades to a time where people who look
like me
could have leading roles and Broadway
musicals in Hollywood movies it's just
starting to happen now which is probably
too late from I showbiz career but I
still find it incredibly exciting so I
think this is why a cultural perspective
can be so revealing not my culture not
your culture but the shared culture of
our society the tech industry has tried
so hard to inject tech culture into the
mainstream but what it really needs is a
culture transplant replacing an
exclusionary white and Asian male
monoculture with one of equal
representation and inclusion so I think
it's helpful to look at this from a
completely different lens that of music
now I'm sure you know the classical
composers of old the Bach Mozart and
Beethoven now I'm a music major so I
love Bach Mozart and Beethoven but no
one would suggest that these white men
are the most influential musicians of
2019 no our musical culture of course
has evolved to include artists of
different genres ethnicities and
representations right different
traditions but if you look at the top
that at billboards top song from every
year since the 1940s when they first
started creating this chart you'll
notice something more and more color
figuratively and literally among the top
selling artists now this is not to say
that the music industry is equitable
it's not but only to say it now includes
a broader representation of our society
so how did we get here
there were courageous pioneers
throughout history many of them who
found alternative pathways into the
mainstream who went against
traditional music culture and the
entrenched industry I'm talking about
the early giants of jazz like Louis
Armstrong and Duke Ellington who used
bold brass instruments to create an
entirely new sound in an era without
amplification I'm talking about the
Motown sound where Motown Records
founder Berry Gordy tuned his music for
the fidelity of car radios to craft an
audio experience that was broadly
accessible and yet signature to his
label and of course the founders of hip
hop who couldn't get access to the
discotheques of the 1970s and instead
used technology tapes and records
spinning and scratching to create an
entirely new genre that is arguably the
most popular today imagine now for a
moment a world without those pioneers
what would our music sound like where
what our society be well in tech we have
our own classical Giants Bill Gates
Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg and our
society in some ways has been so blinded
by their success to an extreme view that
tech can solve any problem but if we ask
all to follow only their traditions how
will we ever see something that shakes
those foundations like jazz like Motown
or the hip hop of technology well you
might say in music things have turned
out okay right why don't we just let
this play out in tech well first of all
we have much greater knowledge than the
early days of jazz more than a hundred
years ago we can and we should be doing
this much better but second and perhaps
most importantly tech is an amplifier
tech is best at accelerating and scaling
but what if we amplify the wrong things
if we propagate an exclusionary
monoculture
we make it less likely for new and
diverse contributions to emerge and take
flight imagine a world without jazz
without Motown without hip-hop so how do
we change the culture of Tek rather than
being changed by it here are some of the
things we're doing at the excite Center
right here in Philadelphia
first we employ culture to better
understand technology our youth outreach
programs use cultural touchstones like
sneakers and music to authentically
reveal and explore the tech that lies
within embracing culturally responsive
teaching research and practice in this
way we promote the value of our shared
culture over pure technology we also
don't think in terms of stem but rather
steam that's integrating the arts and
design alongside science technology
engineering and math 50 years of math
and science emphasis has gotten us into
the situation we're in today we believe
that by integrating and celebrating the
creativity that's inherent in both the
arts and the sciences is a much more
profound way to learn we learned better
we are so proud to partner with the
Malcolm Jenkins foundation who does such
great work in education in sports
programming and social justice together
we've established the young dragons
program a six-week summer steam camp for
middle school students in the West
Philadelphia promise zone in this
program we break down the artificial
walls between disciplines and instead
offer hands-on relevant arts integrated
steam learning activities we also seek
other great partners and collaborate to
amplify their amazing
here are some of the incredible projects
and people that I have the privilege of
working with making culture is a
national study of 30 education maker
spaces revealing pervasive implicit bias
among maker the maker learning program
excuse me among Maker learning programs
black girls steaming through dance this
is an incredible program for West Philly
middle school girls that integrates
fashion and wearable tech and coding and
dance performance hip-hop makerspaces
working with others across the country
to develop welcoming and inclusive
learning spaces so those are some of the
things we're doing but what can you do
to help change the culture of tech well
if you work in technology please check
out code 2040 this is a non-profit
devoted not to coding but to achieving
equal equity and representation in the
tech industry here 2040 refers to the
year in which the u.s. is projected to
become majority people of color there
you'll find others you can work with to
change the culture of tech from within
if you're not in tech be an informed
consumer of products and services look
at tech companies annual diversity
reports and there you'll see which
companies are making real progress and
which companies not so much follow the
work of the algorithmic justice league
this is an organization devoted to
looking at exploring and examining
companies AI systems for racial and
gender bias look for companies that are
embracing the principles of inclusive
design not only for accessibility but
for broadening representation and most
importantly maintain a healthy
skepticism towards new tech driven
initiatives so often they have blind
spots when it comes to equity and
inclusion if you're in education in
addition to those I mentioned previously
follow the connected Learning Alliance
they advocate for interest-driven
learning through technologies in the
service of equity and opportunity and
similarly support some of the great
public schools here in Philadelphia
science Leadership Academy the workshop
school and others that integrate
technology but within a bedrock of
community citizenship and social justice
now if you're in higher education pardon
me but what the hell you waitin for we
should be the ones ahead of the curve
not behind it they say we have a stem
crisis in higher ed no we have a culture
crisis and we can't tech our way out of
that stop trading upon superficial stem
deficits which have more to do with a
student's zip code than their ability to
code look at the data and then do the
hard work it takes to support a culture
of equity and innovation and inclusion
and if you're a leader in a position of
leadership and a position of privilege
make it clear that the status quo is
unacceptable that if we continue to
propagate a exclusionary monoculture we
miss the far greater opportunity of a
richer more inclusive and yes more
innovative society instead we will have
a world without jazz without Motown and
without hip-hop and then we'll all lose
so perhaps this will help you think of
these three not as aspirational role
models but as equivalent to the
classical composers of old encouraging
young people to be like this
is as absurd as asking them to be like
this
instead we need them to be technologies
version of Louis Armstrong or Diana Ross
or Grandmaster Flash or Aquafina
and I am so excited to see that future
it can happen but it won't happen on its
own let's work together to make sure
that it does thank you
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