Thursday, March 28, 2024

Atlanta Has Become a Mecca for Tech-Savvy African Americans

*The expansive workspaces on 101 Marietta Street’s 30th floor look like all the other tech offices that are dominated by millennials. All the rooms have trendy wooden accents, visitors sign-in on tablets, and cozy couches host team meetings. While all of this sounds normal, what’s surprising is the majority of people who fill these offices.

African Americans make up for about half of these millennials at this WeWork location, and that’s not all. The ATL seems to be becoming the epicenter of Black Tech-Savvy workers and entrepreneurs.

The City is Giving Birth to Pioneers

Mark Muro, who is a senior fellow at Brookings, said that Atlanta is exploding with Black database administrators, information security analysts, computer programmers, and even math statisticians and scientists.

Most of the people Muro was talking about were probably learning side skills on-the-job or in the tech incubators they worked in order to reach today’s levels. All of these young minds can now be seen becoming pioneers of the next indispensable app or must-have technologies.

Silicon Valley wasn’t welcoming diversity in a meaningful way, and according to statistics, only 6% of employees were Black. Well, apparently, the left-out young minds didn’t want a seat at the table in Silicon Valley, and they are all relocating to Atlanta.

…And World’s Greatest Leaders

Tristan Walker is an example of a Black tech founder who kickstarted a company in Atlanta. His company was called Walker and Company, which later on formed strategic partnerships with large media entities and brands. In 2018, his company merged with Procter & Gamble, and in 2019, he was also named one of Fortune Magazine’s ‘World’s Greatest Leaders.’

The list, however, doesn’t end here. Walker was joined in Atlanta by Russell Stokes – the CEO of General Electric, Ryan Glover – who sold his Black focused digital network BounceTV in 2017, and Jewel Burks Solomon – the cofounder of the tech start-up Partpic, which was bought by Amazon in 2016. Now let that sink in for a moment. Atlanta already had a huge pop culture appeal, but now there’s a tidal wave of investment on Black talent all throughout Atlanta. So much so that it is emerging as the most pleasing socio-economic infrastructure for the Black community as yet.

Black culture created the trends that generated billions of dollars. Now it seems as if they will control the technology AND the trends they generate.

 

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