Anderson@Large

Breaking Down the Barriers in Tech Sector

I would like to share my post published on Startup America Partnership’s blog.

During the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee convened a panel discussion on diversity in the technology sector, “African Americans: Joining the Leading Edge of the High Tech Boom.”

This first-ever CBC convening of tech entrepreneurs and thought leaders was designed to identify strategies to open up “a whole new area of job growth and wealth creation for our communities.” Jackson Lee said:

The whole industry has moved and the question is: Where are we? We have no time to wait.

Where are we? African Americans make up 1.5 percent of the Silicon Valley workforce. Black founders represent one percent of VC-backed startups.

[…]

Rep. Jared Polis, a co-founder of TechStars, sees opportunities in disruptive services and products. The value proposition is the new efficiency the idea introduces in the economy. But keep in mind investors fund the team not an idea. “They’re funding the team rather than a great idea because an idea can change depending on the market reaction.”

To be successful, you must know the language and culture of the industry. Polis said:

It’s a different language that these people speak. It’s the language of capital and entrepreneurship. You need to study the language so that you speak the language of venture capitalists.

That doesn’t mean you have to go to business school. In fact, most founders don’t. You must know the basic principles of finance, including your ABCs – Series A, Series B and Series C funding rounds.

You also must learn the culture. So mind your Ps and Qs and dress for success.

While networks matter, Polis observed:

It’s not an old boys’ network. It’s a young boys’ network. When you have a young boys’ network, it’s easier to break into…You still have to build the networks.

Read more: To Break Barriers, Know Your ABCs and Ps and Qs

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

President Obama’s fiery comments before the Congressional Black Caucus continue to reverberate.

White House spokesman Kevin Lewis told The Huffington Post’s Black Voices Obama was not calling out his critics; rather, his speech was a call to arms:

I think at the end of the day, the president is familiar with criticism. It is nothing new to him. And I think the president’s remarks are being mischaracterized. I think what the president was saying was that he’s fighting for a lot of the folks that were in that room and fighting for the American people and calling on not only the CBC but lawmakers and folks who are in the room and across the country to join him.

Still, PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley is up in arms.

Smiley asked Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee whether Obama would ever say to Hispanics, Wall Street bankers fraudsters, Jews, gays and lesbians, “Stop grumbling, stop complaining, stop crying”:

How does he get away with saying this to black folk when he would never form his lips to ever say that to any other constituency?

Jackson Lee responded:

I think familiarity is the answer to your question. The president came and put on the armor of a brother and sister.

I make no excuse for some of those comments when you look back and wonder whether they were said in love. Whether they were said to your brother who’s sitting next to you who’s been having a hard time and you’re trying to pump up your brother or your sister. And you’re saying, “Come on now. You can do better than this. We’re not complaining.”

The congresswoman made it clear she intends to speak out on behalf of brothers and sisters who are facing hard times:

I will continue to articulate complaint, pain and despair.

Waters to Obama: You Talking to Me?

There has been a mixed reaction to President Obama’s speech before the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s awards dinner.

Rep. Maxine Waters gave her take during an appearance on CBS’ “Early Show.”

Waters said she “wasn’t sure who the president was talking to.” Waters found Obama’s rap “a bit curious”:

I found that language a bit curious because the president spoke to the Hispanic Caucus and certainly they are pushing him on immigration. And despite the fact that he’s appointed Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, he has an office for excellence in Hispanic education right in the White House, they’re still pushing him. And he certainly didn’t tell them to stop complaining.

And he never would say that to the gay and lesbian community who really pushed him on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Or even in a speech to AIPAC, he would never say to the Jewish community “stop complaining” about Israel.

Oh no she didn’t!

Obama to African Americans: Stop Cryin’ the Blues

President Obama spoke before the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner on Saturday.

In his remarks, Obama acknowledged the disparate impact of the recession on African Americans:

Times have been hard. It’s been three years since we faced down a crisis that began on Wall Street and then spread to Main Street, and hammered working families, and hammered an already hard-hit black community. The unemployment rate for black folks went up to nearly 17 percent -- the highest it’s been in almost three decades; 40 percent, almost, of African American children living in poverty; fewer than half convinced that they can achieve Dr. King’s dream.

He also acknowledged the growing chorus of criticism:

I know at times that gets folks discouraged. I know. I listen to some of y’all.

But Obama has had enough of the bad mouthing:

Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complainin’, stop grumblin’, stop cryin’. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy Jr. wrote:

Funny, isn’t it, how Obama always gets the nerve to say shut up when he’s addressing a friendly audience?

The black unemployment rate stands at 16.7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 11.5 percent when Obama took office. By some accounts, black people have lost more wealth since the recession began than at any time since slavery. And Obama gets to lecture us?

Hey, “don’t be cryin’ the blues… Don’t nobody bring [Obama] no bad news.”

Solyndra in the Hot Seat

This morning, executives from the bankrupt Solyndra will be hauled before the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations to tell what they did with taxpayers’ $535 million.

While Chief Executive Officer Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer Bill Stover are expected to take the Fifth Amendment, some former Solyndra employees are talking.

The Washington Post reports:

Former employees of Solyndra, the shuttered solar company that exhausted half a billion dollars of taxpayer money, said they saw questionable spending by management almost as soon as a federal agency approved a $535 million government-backed loan for the start-up.

[…]

As the $344 million factory went up just down the road from the company’s leased plant in Fremont, Calif., workers watched as pallets of unsold solar panels stacked up in storage. Many wondered: Was the factory needed?

“After we got the loan guarantee, they were just spending money left and right,” said former Solyndra engineer Lindsey Eastburn. “Because we were doing well, nobody cared. Because of that infusion of money, it made people sloppy.”

The issue of crony capitalism was raised by Robert Johnson during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s town hall on jobs and economic opportunity.

Johnson asked how a risky start-up like Solyndra received $535 million when black-led start-ups can’t get access to capital. He observed:

Somebody said there’s a compelling interest in seeing green. But nobody said there’s a compelling interest in seeing black wealth.

It is said there are no coincidences in politics. I hope congressional investigators find out who in the Obama administration thought the Solyndra fraudsters had a compelling claim to taxpayers’ money.

The hearing is open to the public. Opening statements, witness testimonies, and a live webcast will be available here.

National Town Hall: Economic Opportunity and Jobs

Civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr. once said, “The hardest work in the world is being out of work.”

That is the sad reality for 25 million Americans, including nearly three million African Americans.

At today’s town hall, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation will focus on the jobless crisis in the African American community and strategies for job creation that will help those who have been hardest hit by the recession.

CBCF Chairman Rep. Donald Payne said in a statement:

We are facing an unprecedented crisis in our community, with the possibility of generations of African-Americans permanently detached from economic opportunity. The CBCF understands the importance of bringing our brightest minds to the table to find solutions that will provide jobs and bring financial security to families.

Those bright minds include:

• Dr. Julianne Malveaux, president, Bennett College for Women
• Marc Morial, president and CEO, National Urban League
• William Lucy, president, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists

The National Town Hall is free and open to the public. It will take place from 9:00 am to 11:30 am in Ballroom A in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

If like me, you can’t make it to DC, no problem. You can join the discussion via a live webcast. I wil tweet the event (hashtag #41stALC).

CBC Week 2011

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference 2011 starts today. This year marks its 41st anniversary.

For me, it will always be “CBC Week.”

The Congressional Black Caucus kicks things off with the “Jobs for the People” Commission, led by CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver. Given the depression-level unemployment rate in the African American community, the discussion will focus on strategies to create jobs, jobs, jobs.

The event is free and open to the public. To join the conversation on Twitter, use the hashtag #41stALC.