Black Girls Code Turned Down $125,000 From Uber, Sees The Move As PR Stunt

[King of Creampies]

Black Girls Code Turned Down $125,000 From Uber, Sees The Move As PR Stunt
Founder Kimberly Bryant believes the move is a tone-deaf response to Uber's diversity issues.

• culture shift in the company to welcome women and minorities into the fold.
  As part of the company's attempt to change public perception, Uber has made high-profile hires including former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and donated to organizations like Girls Who Code.
  
  And Black Girls Code was on that list of organizations that would help rebuild Uber's reputation. On Thursday, Aug. 24, Uber offered $125,000 to founder Kimberly Bryant's company aimed at teaching and inspiring black girls to get into the tech industry. She turned down the large sum because she didn't think the move was genuine.
  
  “My decision is layered,” Bryant told TechCrunch. “I’ve been quite open for some time about the fact that we as an org use Uber as a tool. We’re also headquartered in the city [Oakland] where they have planned to move. So I’ve been open to the notion that they can transform themselves. Yet their past history and ‘political’ nature of maneuvering is and was troubling.”
  
  Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler, who brought the sexual harassment allegations to light, believed that the move was just a public relations stunt.
  
  Bryant also agreed that the donation “seems a bit tone-deaf to really addressing real change in how they are moving towards both inclusion and equity. It appears to be more PR driven than actually focused on real change. So we turned it down.”
  
  More stories tagged with: Uber

 

[Blessings]

Update 8/28: Black Girls Code ended up raising over $145,000 from a bunch of people in the tech community over the weekend via PayPal.

 

[Nobu]

.

 

[K.Dot]

Lord have mercy, let me find a sister that codes, Atlanta can't come soon enough

 

[Shorty K]

As someone who works in tech, I really don't understand Black Girls Code. I'm not going to say they aren't doing great things, but there is barely any black men in tech. African-Americans as a whole are literally only 1% at Google. It just seems so pointless to subdivide when blacks are so dramatically underrepresented.

Unless of course they also train black boys, in which case ignore my comment.

I swear we live in a homosexual society with all this gender separatism. Makes no sense. Just like turning down a 6 figure bag for your organization.

 

[ORDER_66]

 

[Double Burger With Cheese]

Ironical. I just listened to a podcast this morning about how a lot of these funds have devalued Uber due to a few reasons, one of them being the negative PR they've been getting lately. This link is for the overcast app. If you don't have that, then the podcast is Wall Street Journal Your Money Matters. These podcast are usually less than 10 minutes and I highly recommend it if your into investing or just knowing what's going on in the economy/business

WSJ Your Money Matters: Mutual Funds Mark Down Investments in Uber Mutual Funds Mark Down Investments in Uber — WSJ Your Money Matters — Overcast

 

[BlackPrint]

Nothing wrong with having a group specifically for Black women I that field,. most of these groups do infact cater to males anyway.

Turning down 125k (with no obligation) is dumb, though... You can just as easily take that money and still say they're racist shytbags.

 

[im_sleep]

As someone who works in tech, I really don't understand Black Girls Code. I'm not going to say they aren't doing great things, but there is barely any black men in tech. African-Americans as a whole are literally only 1% at Google. It just seems so pointless to subdivide when blacks as a whole are so dramatically underrepresented. We need a strong community of black male and female professionals.

Unless of course they also train black boys, in which case ignore my comment.

I haven't been on the website in a few months but I know they were working on getting a Black Boys Code rolling last time I checked.

 

[Double Burger With Cheese]

I swear we live in a homosexual society with all this gender separatism. Makes no sense. Just like turning down a 6 figure bag for your organization.

All money ain't good money. And I respect people who stand for something and value other things over money. Wether I agree or not is usually irrelevant.

 

[ORDER_66]

All money ain't good money. And I respect people who stand for something and value other things over money. Wether I agree or not is usually irrelevant.

that's what I figured was the real reason she turned the money down...

 

[Nobu]

.

 

[Poitier]

This is the bedwench Uber brought in to fix their image issues. She did the same thing at Apple. I can't stand Black folks who use their skin to try to fool our people. Good on Black Girls Code.

 

[Shorty K]

All money ain't good money. And I respect people who stand for something and value other things over money. Wether I agree or not is usually irrelevant.

There's standing for something.

And there's not taking 100k NSA because your feelings were hurt.

 

[Apollo Creed]

Org is just a symbolic thing. Black women are going to college in mass numbers to major in nonsense and its their own choice.