Black Geeks
By Jessica Scott
When you hear the word geek, you probably get a mental image in your
mind. I know I do. I think of a pale, scrawny, pimply faced kid, probably
with glasses, sitting in front of computer tooling away. Perhaps it
is just because I am white, but this seems to be the image of "geek"
that we see in the media as well. The fact is, you don't often think
of geeks as minorities. The people at blackgeeks.com hope to change
that.
Black geeks describes itself as a "virtual community" for
African Americans who are working in the computer industry. Their
belief is that the reason you don't think of black people of geeks
is the simple truth that there simply are less of them. This is primarily
a socio-economic issue. Unfortunately, African Americans in our country
don't have the access to technology as whites do. The people at Black
Geeks hope to change that by bringing the technology to the inner
cities, and interest young African Americans in IT careers.
The website itself documents some of the events the group has held
to do bring technology to inner city youths, and some news on future
events. Other than that, however, there is not much to the website
itself.
From what I could gather on the site, the group still hasn't done
a whole lot, most likely for lack of resources. It is a noble idea,
in my opinion, but I think Black Geeks would benefit from more funding,
and a more useful website. I think the site would be more useful if
it included resources for young people who are interested in getting
started with computer technology, but need a good starting place.
All in all, I think it is a good idea, but the execution needs some
work.