http://hollywoodjournal.c.../20140815/

Prince, hoodies and #YesWeCode

by Van Jones

People always ask me how Prince got involved with #YesWeCode, an initiative I helped to found. #YesWeCode aims to help train 100,000 low-opportunity youth to become high-level computer programmers.

The truth is, it was Prince who sparked the idea.

It was right around the time last year when the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin verdict came out. Martin was an unarmed, black teenager whom was shot and killed in a Florida neighborhood in 2012. My immediate reaction to the verdict was “racism won.”

But Prince had an interesting perspective. He said, “When an African-American kid is wearing a hoodie, people think he’s a thug. But when a white kid is wearing a hoodie, people think he’s the next Mark Zuckerberg.”

Prince said, the question we should be asking ourselves is this: why aren’t we producing more African-Americans and Latinos who are excelling in technology and helping to run Silicon Valley? If we focused on changing that number, then we could change that stereotype — and empower a whole generation.

That was the moment that the seed was planted for #YesWeCode.

We want to flip the script and give our hoodie-wearing youth the same tools, training and technology that the kids have who are taking over Silicon Valley.

Since we officially launched in July at Essence Festival in New Orleans,#YesWeCode has been working with grassroots training programs, educators, politicians and big companies in Silicon Valley, including Facebook and Google. Our goal is to align as many players as possible, to forge a job-training pipeline that will get more high-potential young people into high-paying tech jobs or high-powered incubators/accelerators.

It’s an ambitious project. African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and women of all colors are sorely under-represented in the tech fields. But our efforts are strengthened by the endorsement and support of many VIPs, including Chris Tucker, Michael Bearden and of course, Prince.

What is exciting to see is how closely tied this work is to their own lives. A few months ago, Chris participated in a panel about diversity in technology, relating his own experiences as a black actor breaking into the mainstream as similar to those trying to break into tech.

Other celebs have encouraged us, too — including MLK’s son Dexter King. And the legendary Lauryn Hill told me that she is very inspired by the work of #YesWeCode. Not many people know this, but Hill’s father actually worked in computer technology, back in the day. So the issue has always been close to her heart.

That’s part of the magic of #YesWeCode. It’s a movement that brings together people from every background — from the hood to Hollywood.

So much is possible, if we stop wasting the genius. Youth of color transformed music and sports in the last century. In this new century, that same creative energy must be unleashed to transform the technology sector — creating new work, new wealth and new solutions for communities that desperately need all three.

Out of such an initiative, we could support hundreds or even thousands of Mark Zuckerbergs — with a whole lot of them looking like Trayvon Martin.

Awesome. Great work!

Prince is so intelligent.......love him!

Coding is a good program for youth. My nephew just completed a 3-week course in summer coding camp today, and completed an advanced course, and received a certificate for it. He loved it. Great learning experience for kids and adults.

[Edited 8/15/14 18:25pm]

Thats cool. I didn't know much about what was behind that project, but its a really good purpose.

Well done Prince.

Prince is right, which kind of surprises me for some reason. A very practical and non-mystical horse-shit approach. Of course Prince is not stupid, but based on his fantasy-based public persona, I'm always a bit surprised when I hear some reality-based stuff come out of his mouth.

These stereotypes exist for a reason, which is to say there's some truth in them, sometimes quite a bit of truth. That's why stereotypes are so difficult to overcome. Right and wrong are too simplistic. The gray areas far outstrip the black and white.

Prince's response is fantastic -

Let's change the reason that these stereotypes exist rather than pretending it's as simple as racism. Like most things, it's WAAAY more complex than that. The past is past. Though it still affects us all today, let's focus instead on solutions and heading toward the future. The past only holds us back if we fail to learn from it.

Amazing. Good stuff.

[Edited 8/17/14 9:12am]