By Mimi Fox Melton, CEO, CODE2040

In 2024, Code2040 is committing deeply to relationship building — because relationships are at the heart of the work that we do for racial equity. We are committing to being in touch more, inviting folks in the Code2040 community into conversation with us, and creating more opportunities for us to be in joy and dreaming together. Because we want to be more connected with our amazing network of Black and Latinx technologists, we’re launching a new monthly Community Spotlight starting this month as part of a celebration of Black History. Each month, we’re dedicating time to connect with our Fellows and Alumni, listening to their stories and dreaming technological futures of more livable, more free worlds together.

Code2040 is part of a vibrant community of Black and Latinx technologists who are actively shaping the future. In the spirit of Black History Month, we extended our first invitation to participate in our Community Spotlight to our Black Alumni and Fellows, and first we are featuring, Nyaradzo Valery Mararanje, a current Fellow.

Here’s a teaser of our spotlight on Nyaradzo Valery: Nyaradzo is a vibrant, joyful Computer Science major at the University of Rochester. She loves dance, comedy, and creating community. She dreams of a world characterized by abundant happiness and mutual care, and is excited about the magic in coding and the possibilities for AI.

For the whole spotlight, check out our socials!

Our Fellows have inspired me since I started at Code2040 in 2015, and every year, I learn more from Fellows about how I want to show up in community and about what racial equity work looks like. With the year ahead of us, connecting with our Fellows and staying connected with our Alumni is crucial in building our collective capacity for creating change.

It’s an election year, and we can expect issues impacting racial equity to be front and center. We are facing a recession, and the backlash against racial justice is gaining momentum and legal traction. Already this year, over 30 pieces of legislation have been introduced across the country that would impact DEIB programs from universities and public institutions. Simultaneously, the tech industry continues to divest from racial equity. The backlash against racial equity at the collegiate level will undoubtedly negatively impact the diversity of our workforce. With the innovation economy shaping our world, we need to be supporting our Black and Latinx Computer Science majors and early career professionals more than ever.

Supporting our Black and Latinx college students and early tech career professionals is about offering them connection, celebrating the work they do, the people they are, and nurturing their creativity and imaginations. It’s listening to them tell their stories, sharing resources and networks, and showing up to be in community with them.

I approach racial equity work with a commitment to Black Liberation. I know that white supremacy and racism try to tell us that there is only scarcity and never enough; that there is not room for our joy, our love, our imaginations and creativity. What I know deeply is that our collaboration, connection, and collectivity is an antidote, a loving balm that brings us closer to the world we all deserve — one that holds us all in expansive space for rest, joy, and to truly thrive. Racial equity work is about creating space for joy, for rest, and re-imagining systems and structures so that Black and Latinx folks can thrive.

Working for racial equity is a commitment to living otherwise, and to showing up each day to build with people who are committed to creating technologies for more possibility, more livable worlds. As we work and dream toward a world of abundance, where everyone has enough, where imaginations thrive and rest is deeply valued; we also need space and time to be in connection with each other. Our Community Spotlight is one way we are creating space for our community.

Being a racial equity advocate has always been hard work. As of late, it has felt even harder. I’m Selene, Director of Programs at Code2040. For the last 4 years, I have been supporting companies to center racial equity through shifting and changing their systems while building structures that recruit and support Black and Latinx students pursuing Tech Careers. This work is important to me because I know creating structures that nourish and uplift the leadership of Black and Latinx students and early career professionals creates space to support everyone pursuing a tech career. This work is also personal, not only because I’m an Afro-Latina doing work in tech, but also because I encourage others who are trying to do this work grounded in values of relationship building, inclusion, and advocacy. I know first hand the difficulty of this journey.

After increased interest and money towards inclusion efforts in tech in 2019 and 2020, we started seeing the opposite; a decline in investment. We started hearing from people in the industry that companies were cutting their internship programs, firing and laying off their Tech Force, and reducing their budget for DEIB efforts. This further solidifies what we already know: Black and Latinx students do not have the same access to high paying tech jobs. DEIB goals are consistently attached to the bottomline. This is why there have not been significant shifts to racial inequity in tech. Racial equity work needs to center the actual wellness and humanity of people. Structural change means centering the humanity and power of Black and Brown people.

Recession and a climate of economic uncertainty spurred the current disinvestment in (paid) internships and racial equity work. However, these cuts expose the way racial equity is viewed as a business trend: something lauded when it’s expedient to do so, but rarely with real commitment to the arduous work that racial equity requires. We know real change happens through consistency and slowly. Racial equity should be understood as foundational, a cornerstone in all the work a company does, and a commitment to long-term investment in the overall health of the organization. Instead, we continue to see racial equity investments ebb and flow, invested in only during times of security or as a PR move to benefit business. This cycle of investment and disinvestment is part of how systemic racism works: it structures our workplaces, ways of relating to and seeing business, and it reproduces itself by claiming that measures to ensure racial equity are frivolous or harmful. In a country founded in racial violence, systemic racism is a normalized part of everyday life. It is reflected not only in workplaces, but also our legal system, including the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court decision to effectively eliminate affirmative action in higher education is in keeping with a broader cultural landscape that refuses to address racial inequity beyond lipservice. Affirmative action was put in place as a racial equity effort to support students of color in accessing higher education. Race conscious admissions policies attempted to address the ways structural racism maintains a system of advantage based on whiteness.

At first, watching the highest court in the US gut a racial equity measure, knowing the implications will be far-reaching and harmful for communities I advocate for, I felt a sense of hopelessness and defeat. I remember having conversations with other racial equity advocates doing this work and normalizing this decision by saying “I’m not surprised. This is just the way it is.” A close friend of mine reminded me of the quote by abolitionist organizer Mariame Kaba “Hope is a discipline,” and this work is one rooted in hope. And while I’ve held grief and sadness this year, moments like the one I had with my friend remind me that these are moments where we need to lean on each other, on the communities we have built, and on the visions of racial equity we work towards.

Because the truth is: White supremacy wants to isolate us, make us feel alone and defeated, and therefore continue the status quo. But, there’s another way. I want to encourage other racial equity advocates to do what we are doing at Code2040, to meet this moment as an opportunity to build relationships, lean into collective power, and sharpen our racial equity tools even more.

In response to the current shifts and disproportionate impacts on Black and Latinx workers, Code2040’s Programs Team has been asking questions about how we support the people doing equity and inclusion work right now. We know we need people who care deeply about change in the tech industry, so how do we support Black and Latinx students with commitments to racial equity to access tech jobs? And, even more importantly, how do we support people impacted by the current landscape to feel connected and empowered rather than alone and defeated in this moment? How do we offer connection, community care, and resourcing to build our collective capacity for change? How do we trust and leverage the power of community, regardless of what the current moment is, to ensure we are pushing forward?

I know racial equity work is a long-term commitment that will be made stronger through community building. In moments where I feel alone or like this work is just too hard, I try to remember that isolation and individualism are tenets of white supremacy. I’m reminded that this work is about community; it’s about the power we have as a collective of advocates.

Even in moments when the tech landscape is telling us there is no budget, interest, or business strategy for racial equity work, we can and we are doing the work. Racial equity work includes your rest and working in ways that are sustainable, practicing vulnerability in your relationships, building connections, and making interventions within your workplace toward alignment with a vision for racial equity. If you, like me, have been feeling like there is no space to do structural change, I invite you to recognize and lean into all the racial equity work you’re already doing. It can look like the following:

Start with the relationship to yourself:

Ensure that you rest and focus on your sustainability. Racial equity work is about creating space for us all to thrive, and that means there must be space for rest. Resting is your right. Remember, we need you long term and the only way to get there is by taking breaks and honoring your rest.

Spend some time imagining and visioning what an equitable workplace and world look like. Visioning is a practice that sustains the discipline of hope. Imagination and hope is absolutely necessary in the work towards racial equity.

Relationships with others:

Share your stories and be in camaraderie with your loved ones and/or coworkers. Change is often catalyzed through storytelling, empathy and mutual understanding.

Lean into building relationships and normalize conversations about race. Talking about race includes sharing about the different experiences we all have living in this country.

At work:

Leverage your power: assess your risk and resources to make interventions when appropriate. This can mean advocating for racial equity goals in meetings that would otherwise focus on meeting narrow metrics of recruitment and hiring. Leveraging your power can look like creating more supportive spaces for your team to name and share feedback. It means sharing power and being transparent about how power in the organization is allocated and operates. Finally, leveraging power can mean standing in your voice by discussing the struggles of the current moment with the people in your organization.

If you’re in a position of leadership, honor the knowledge that racial equity isn’t a trend. There is a world (it is here, now!) in which businesses can execute plans while also being accountable to their racial equity goals and their Black and Latinx employees.

Most importantly, Code2040 and I invite you to imagine with us what a strong community of racial advocates can do.

Let’s imagine what collective power can change. We can hold our vision of a racially equitable future as we refuse to accept the current conditions as permanent. Racial equity work is committing to nourishing our imaginations, our relationships, and building our community of racial equity advocates. We are in this long term work together. The power of racial equity work has always lived in community, and we are here for you!

Today, we have some news we would like to share with our Code2040 community, family, and friends.

Our friend and leader Karla Monterroso is starting a new journey in her career, and our board of directors has named me as CEO. Today, memories and stories from my time working side-by-side with Karla are flooding back.

Whether she was whitewater rafting, hiking mountaintops, or swimming with sharks, whenever Karla Monterroso went on a trip I’d send her off with a silly warning: ”Come back alive, Karla, because I’m not running this place without you.”

After six years of service and a year of battling COVID, our beloved Karla has decided that she won’t return to Code2040 as CEO. I’ve worked with Karla for six years, and she has become a dear friend. While it’s hard to imagine not working with her on a daily basis, I am honored and excited (and a little nervous!) to serve Code2040 as the next CEO.

When I first joined Code2040 in 2015, Erika Baker was organizing internally at Google to address pay inequity, tech companies truly didn’t believe Black and Latinx engineers existed, and phrases like “white supremacy” and “systemic racism” were not used when talking about the lack of diversity in tech. Those of us working in and around big tech knew that the tech industry had a major racism and sexism problem. I had served in a variety of roles at organizations of all different shapes and sizes, and I knew that for my next role I wanted two things: to spend my time working on Black liberation, and to choose my position based on the team with whom I would work. And then I met Karla, who I intuitively knew could help me become the leader I was meant to be. Her straightforward approach to feedback, her willingness to have hard conversations, and her coaching grounded in love were gifts that would help me grow into my most authentic self and most impactful contributor.

I was right. Under her leadership our team has never backed away from a challenge or difficult conversation. We’ve created programs to give Black and Latinx technologists a seat at the table and a voice in the room. We’ve shifted Code2040’s work from a focus on getting Black and Latinx people into tech to dismantling the systemic barriers that keep us out of tech leadership. I’m humbled and proud of the work we’ve done to prove beyond any doubt the brilliance and necessity of Black and Latinx people in the industry.

When Karla got sick in March of 2020, I assumed that she would be out for a few weeks, and it was my job to make sure nothing broke while she was out. Little did we know that COVID had other plans. Our board approached me to take on the position of Acting CEO in April, and I shared my same old words to Karla: ”You better not die, because I won’t do this without you.” Nothing could have prepared me for the year that was to come. Karla nearly died, Black and Latinx elders were getting sick and dying alone, we watched police murder George Floyd in a most heinous way. Our communities rose up and sustained massive demonstrations for months on end, and we watched white folks understand, seemingly for the first time, how deadly racism is for us. It was a year of loss, grief, and loneliness.

Despite the unique challenges we faced collectively in 2020, serving as Acting CEO over the past year has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Our work to build power sharing, candor and transparency into our team meant that we came prepared — ready and resilient — to a global catastrophe that posed unique challenges for nonprofit leaders. As we closed out 2020, we were in a strong financial position, had expanded our programmatic reach, and weathered a year none of us will ever forget. In the last 12 months, we expanded our programs from the Bay Area to 13 states and partnered with 55 companies to help identify and address systemic racism within their hiring and management practices. Our work and our perspectives have been featured in more than a dozen publications. Most importantly, we’re clear on how we will continue to scale this work, share resources, and train racial equity workplace advocates for the long haul.

Code2040 is ready for the next leg of our journey, and we appreciate all of you who have supported us along the way — our community, our partners, our board. Over nine years Code2040 has built something really special. We will continue our relentless work to elevate the voices of Black and Latinx people in tech and to identify and reduce barriers to our success and leadership. This sector is uniquely positioned to reinvigorate the American workforce at a critical juncture. Tech can be the disruptive force it purports to be, but for something that truly matters, the inequity and racism that have haunted this country. Together we can courageously look at the places we’ve been afraid to look, to be honest and fearless about seeing where systemic racism is thriving in our teams, companies, and products. This won’t be easy or quick work. After all, this country has invested in racist systems for 500 years. Changing them won’t happen overnight. But we won’t back down from this challenge. This is our time.

Happy #GivingTuesday! Right now, nonprofit organizations across the country are reaching out to their supporters to raise those vital end-of-year funds. For our part, we’re launching a five-week end-of-year campaign, How We Win or #HowWeWin2040, and we’re writing to tell you how your support for Code2040 will support our mission of dismantling the structural barriers that prevent the full participation and leadership of Black and Latinx people in the innovation economy.

After nine years of growing and learning, we are evolving our strategy to meet the challenges we continue to face in the industry. It’s no longer all about the pipeline. It’s about building our power.

We have identified four strategic paths for doing just that. One of those is growing the racial equity community in tech, ensuring we are retaining our positions, creating conditions for successful movement work, and deepening the commitments and actions we all take as part of the movement.

While we expand programs like our Fellowship and the Early Career Accelerator Program (ECAP), our advocacy in 2021 will focus on the new challenges we face in remote workplaces. The 2008 recession set many careers back for a decade. We can’t let that happen this time.

This will require serious resources in the coming years, and every dollar makes a difference. One of our donors is offering a $20,000 match through the campaign. We hope you’ll join us early to take advantage of that gift and double your impact. Don’t forget your company donation match program, too, if they have one! Join the campaign at https://bit.ly/HowWeWin2040.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook to learn more about the campaign and our evolving strategy. Thank you for everything you do in the movement for #racialequityintech.

By, Karla Monterroso, CEO, Code2040

Community. I’m sharing with you today exciting news about the future of Code2040.

As you may know, I contracted COVID-19 in March, and, like many others who have battled this disease, I am still on the rocky road to recovery. As such, I am stepping back in my capacity as CEO of Code2040 and enthusiastically passing the reins temporarily to our General Manager, and Acting CEO Mimi Fox Melton while on medical leave.

Mimi’s quick-thinking, capability, and tenacity have guided us through an unprecedented moment in American history. She has been a strong and valued colleague and friend over the past years and, in the last few months, stepped in effortlessly to ensure Code2040 innovates in a challenging environment.

Most importantly, Mimi understands that racial equity in tech is not just about access to jobs, but about access to power. As we move closer to 2040 — the beginning of the decade when the U.S. will be majority people of color — it is critical and urgent that we shift the current racial equity landscape in the tech world. Being shut out of tech means being shut out of emerging power structures that will help define the next generation, and this has dire consequences for communities of color and beyond.

With Mimi at the helm, our path forward is clear despite our uncertain times. Under her stewardship, we anticipated the needs of our new virtual office landscape and the shift of companies investing in systemic change. Teamwork allowed us to adapt quickly and shift our summer and fall programming online while still maintaining the deep engagement and care you value from us. We worked tirelessly alongside tech companies to redesign internships, develop equitable hiring and remote working practices, and create spaces where Black and Latinx tech workers are valued, included, and have equity.

We also realized the power of our new digital world. Our event in November will focus on self-healing, community empowerment, and job opportunities in a new virtual format with the Summit being moved to 2021. Lastly, our Fellows Program has also evolved from an in-person program to a virtual one, allowing us to provide more access to accelerated job training and skills-building for tech workers of the future nationwide, and growing the number of companies involved from 30 to 45 companies who are committed to seeing us thrive in the tech sector.

Please join Mimi and the Code2040 family in our fight to remove the structural barriers in place for Black and Latinx tech workers, and we will see their full participation and leadership in equitable, just workplaces. Onward together!

Warmly and in gratitude,

Karla

By Selene Chala, Company Relationships Manager

In a remote world, companies are adapting their summer internships to virtual experiences. These new experiences unlock new challenges and opportunities. In that space of both challenge and opportunity lies innovation and experimentation, a chance to try new approaches that center equity in summer programs. At Code2040, our Company Partners are onboard and asking, “How? How do we ensure that we continue our equity practices outside of the office?” How do we build an experience that allows for networking, learning, and engagement?” The great thing about being at this moment is that we’re all facing similar challenges. As programmatic changes begin to materialize, and with the goal to center racial equity and the student experience, here are a few questions managers should consider and our suggestions on how to begin to approach them.

1. What are some of the ways inequity can show up through virtual internships?

Because the overall structure of summer programs are shifting to support an online experience, there’s space for planning programs that prioritize the needs of those most impacted by virtual experiences. These communities include caregivers, people living in rural towns/cities with a lack of reliable internet infrastructure, students with housing instability, and students whose mental health has been impacted by Covid-19.

For Caregivers

For some students, living at home means supporting their family in various ways, including translating documents or being at in-person appointments for family members, helping their younger brothers and sisters with summer school, and providing childcare, to name a few. Usually, when interns relocate for their internships during the summer, their caregiving responsibilities are put on pause, done virtually, or delegated elsewhere for the duration of their internship. Since homes will also be a place of work, there will be a necessary need to balance both internship and caregiving responsibilities and, therefore, a learning curve to achieve balance as a young person.

Things to consider:

• Check-in with interns before their start date to create plans that address workplace needs and work hours flexibility needed.
• Make sure internships are project-based, and those project objectives are clear.
• Be explicit about when students are required to be responsive and what the expected response time is.

Access to Internet Inequality

As data shows, internet access is not equitable across the country. In fact, about 15% of households in the US lack access to an internet plan. For some students, not having access to your company’s wifi will create a unique set of challenges. As students figure out how to navigate these barriers, optional virtual lunches or team game nights may not be worth working through random connectivity issues. For example, if they are working elsewhere, they might prioritize their projects instead of the virtual lunch to optimize the time they’re connected to the internet.

Things to consider:

• A wifi/internet stipend they could use to strengthen their online connection at home.
• Work equipment already set up and sent to them before the internship starts.
• Not all students will self disclose having tech issues, so create space to check in about needs/ challenges with internet and technology at home and offer any support available.

Students navigating mental and physical health needs

In addition to the physical risk of being in the middle of a Covid-19 outbreak, many people are facing heightened anxiety and depression during this time of isolation. Our current reality shows that Black and Latinx people are in hospitals and passing away in disproportionate numbers because of Covid-19, which tells us there’s a need for mental and physical health resources and policies. Interns having clear onboarding to health policies and resources available to them is essential so that if taking care of someone sick, having to take care of themselves, or having to process the community impact of this pandemic becomes necessary, they can do so. The effects of Covid-19 are vast, and we have some suggestions on how to account for these needs as it relates to internship programs

Things to consider:

• Being explicit about PTO/ Sick care policies and resources available for summer interns and explicitly naming if policies cover mental health.
• Talk about implicit and explicit expectations your company has around taking time off, vacation time, and how to communicate about these.
• Making Employee Resource Groups available for interns.

2. How do we replicate learning opportunities and relationship building that happens organically in person?

Internships are opportunities for students to get exposed to company culture, teams, and work they might encounter in a company. A significant aspect of an internship is networking and building a community, yet it doesn’t come easily for everyone. People are more likely to talk to people who share the same race, as suggested in a study in 2016. This dynamic sets up Black and Latinx professionals, who only make up 9% of tech in Silicon Valley, to face a disproportionate level of risk and effort when initiating relationships with senior staff and people outside of their teams. The good thing about a virtual internship program is that there’s space to create systems that ensure relationship building and learning happens for all interns.

Things to consider:

• Creating systems that randomize meetings for people who don’t sit in the same team intentionally. By randomizing one on ones, you create conditions where the perceived risk of being rejected and bias coming from managers expecting a high level of social networking from their interns lessens. It creates more consistent and equitable access to everyone in the company. Tools like the Donut application for Slack can help with this!
• Set up one-on-ones for all new interns with people outside their teams.
• Make relationship building part of internships objectives for both interns and their managers. That way, an intern gets a sense of the company culture outside of their immediate team. As a shared objective, it builds shared responsibility in the success of meeting that objective. An example objective can be: completing five one-on-ones outside of a direct team before the summer is over. Given that interns have the least amount of hierarchical power in a company, making sure everyone else is ready to support in meeting this objective helps distribute the responsibility across the company and builds company-wide investment.

3. How do we engage Black and Latinx Technologists virtually this summer?

Building strong relationships and trust is an excellent baseline for supporting students. We also know that Black and Latinx students want to feel invested in and be seen both as individuals and as people part of Black and Latinx communities. Here are some suggestions on how to do that:

• Teach managers to be relationship-focused: Many Black and Latinx communities are relationship-oriented. Fear of Confirmation Bias makes it hard to trust that being vulnerable like when asking for help, giving and receiving feedback, and showcasing work in draft form will not negatively impact reviews and will only confirm people’s bias towards who doesn’t belong. You can begin to account for this through building relationships focused on ensuring interns feel comfortable sharing, asking for feedback, and floating unfinished work for collaboration. In virtual reality, this means setting up a specific place and time for feedback and virtual needs. It also means taking the time to check in informally outside of one on ones.
• Be explicit about your company’s communication culture: Since interns are only in their roles for a few months, being clear on communication values during onboarding takes away some of the burdens of learning nuances in a culture that is already harder because of being virtual. For example, in some cultures, feedback and engaging in conversations with superiors can be a sign of disrespect and lack of humility. Another example is that some students deal with imposter syndrome that’s exasperated in an environment where the majority of people don’t look like them.

Things to Consider when thinking of communication culture:

• Define what online communication looks like in your company and team. Extend this to cover feedback expectations, meetings, and communication channels.
• Offer different ways for interns to share ideas and explicitly state the purpose of each avenue. options can include documents where people can write ideas/feedback, one on ones, online platforms and communication tools, onboarding buddies and program mentors
• Create a safe environment for all your interns by encouraging Equity and Inclusion training for your full-time staff before interns starting. Be explicit and vocal on both company commitments (what’s already practiced) and aspirations as it relates to Racial Equity and Inclusion.
• Work on creating a space for interns to feel safe and encouraged to offer feedback on how your company is doing on these commitments and goals.

Working conditions are different this summer. We are doing everything new and adapting as we go while still being in the middle of a pandemic. So my biggest suggestion is this: Be prepared to learn with your intern. Ask for feedback about what’s working and what’s not. Ask questions and lead with curiosity when things aren’t working. Be ready to be responsive to the learnings and needs that are uncovered through the process. Give yourself and your intern grace and flexibility as you approach the summer together.

Code2040 is a nonprofit activating, connecting, and mobilizing the largest racial equity community in tech to dismantle the structural barriers that prevent the full participation and leadership of Black and Latinx technologists in the innovation economy. Through events, trainings, early-career programs, and knowledge sharing, Code2040 equips Black and Latinx technologists and their allies with the tools, connections, and care they need to advocate for and achieve racial equity in the tech industry.

Community, today we are sharing some important and heavy news.

Karla has COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. She’s doing well, resting at home, and texting us her ideas and observations and thoughts. She is so ready to jump back into our work, though the team has given her strict orders to pause and allow herself to make a full recovery

To be honest, we hesitated to share this. We weighed the outcomes of keeping it inside knowledge or communicating it to our community. So many questions went through our minds: What if funders think we’re unstable in this moment when confidence in our ability to weather the storm is everything? Should we risk losing funders in this time of uncertainty? What if folks think that we aren’t as strong without our leader?

And then we realized that fear and scarcity are not within our values. That sharing vulnerably and asking for love and support are the only ways we as individuals and institutions will survive this. And that if knowing that one of us is sick helps make this virus more real for our community, if it makes people shelter in place and keeps others from getting sick, it is worth it.

Here’s what Karla wants to share with you in this moment:

Hello community,

It’s been a really tough 13 days with this thing. I’m definitely getting better but it was a little scary for awhile. I think I’m going to be a very lucky person to have come out of this thing without having to be hospitalized. When Mimi asked me if I wanted to say something to all of you, the number one thought I had was, please take this seriously. This virus is a beast. You want none of this.

There have been so many reports about how younger folks are not as susceptible to coronavirus. This has proven to be inaccurate. Yes, the Covid-19 fatality rate for older people is higher, but that does not mean people under 40 are immune. Your lives are precious and important and I encourage you to treat this pandemic with the knowledge that every moment you spend social distancing and sheltering in place is an investment in yourself and your community.

The world changed in the last month and we will be required to change with it. This will mean a number of different things. I am so deeply proud of the Code2040 team. They are working so hard to be responsive to the moment and think about where our perspective and abilities can be valuable while simultaneously planning for that drastically different world. I’m still likely another week or two away from being able to be “back,” so please be in community with them when and how you can.

I really think the question we all need to be asking ourselves right now is, “Where am I uniquely suited or called to do something in this moment?” And that is not just about our movement — it’s about our multiple communities, our families, and our internal lives. We’ll be doing our best to support our community in identifying how you may be able to grab a paddle to support forward movement in the next few months. We’ll all be needed as the fall out from this moment crystallizes. For now, I encourage giving yourself the time and space to ask those questions and to move when you are moved.

I want to take a second to specifically address the Asian Pacific Islander community in our volunteer network. I know the last few weeks have been really tough for you. You’ve been in my heart even as I’ve been laid up in bed. You should never be subject to the ridiculous language and abuse that is coming straight from the White House and into our communities right now. This community stands in solidarity with you. You are a part of us. You are important to us. It will always be unacceptable for anyone here to treat you any differently than that.

I’ll tell you what multiple people have told me over the last few weeks. Your job is to get and keep yourself healthy right now. Sending you all my belief in the next steps.

In solidarity,
Karla

If you want to send Karla some love, please click here to sign a virtual card that we’ll send to her on Monday April 6th.

Next Steps for the Team

Our board has asked Mimi Fox Melton, VP of Programs, to serve as Acting CEO while Karla recovers, and our entire team is working overtime to redesign our summer programming and events, reach out to our funders to confirm our focus and their support, and to make sure we staying physically and mentally healthy so we are able to serve you for years to come.

As we navigate a new remote world, there are still ways for us to stay connected virtually. Join us tomorrow, March 31 at 9am PST, for our first 15-minute Mindful Meditation Break. We’ll host these every Tuesday for six weeks as part of our Mindfulness Health and Wellness Series led by Alia Peera. Karla will be joining us from home. We’ll post the link on Twitter 30 minutes before the session.

For now, consider reading this article on young folks with coronavirus and please talk to your friends and family. Tell them someone you know is sick.

Thank you for all the ways that you support the Code2040 family. And thanks for supporting Karla during this time.

There’s no soft way of putting it. We are in a crisis that is bigger and scarier than anything we’ve ever faced before. Our country’s leadership has failed. We’re facing health and financial challenges that are only now beginning to become clear. Nevertheless, we are not powerless. I’m reminded of something one of my mentors says, “When something scary is looming, face it, acknowledge it, plan for it.” So in that spirit, what are we facing?

• This virus and the disease it causes is here, in every state, in every community. We have no idea how long it will last. Someone you know may already be infected.
• Young people are NOT immune from it, and it can kill us. It can also harm our health for life.
• We can feel healthy and still be carrying it. And we can feel healthy and pass it on to others in our lives.
• We’ve known that the most vulnerable among us have always been on the brink. Though this virus doesn’t discriminate, the financial and health implications of being sick, unemployed, and/or uninsured do discriminate.
• The world as we know it is changed forever. Some of those changes are out of our control, yet there are some we can influence.

Code2040 is fighting for racial equity, in tech and in our society as a whole. Racial equity means that race doesn’t statistically determine how well we fare (source: Center for Assessment and Policy Development). In a world where our people are more likely to die early, be targeted by law enforcement and imprisoned, and receive poor medical treatment, a world with racial equity means life or death. Racial equity means that those of us without fame would also have access to coronavirus tests. It means our siblings without housing wouldn’t die without care because they have no option to isolate inside. It means our trans family don’t go without necessary medical care because they’ve been laid off from their jobs. It means as we prepare to fight this disease, we don’t forget about those imprisoned at the border or by racist legislative systems. In this moment, racial equity means survival of our people.

It’s time for us to lead

The Code2040 team is hard at work, adapting and responding to our new reality. In the meantime, here are some things we all can do right now.

ACTION ITEMS:

• We can stay the hell at home so that we stay healthy and honor the health of others.
• We can share and re-share information and resources to make sure they reach the most at-risk and unplugged communities.
• We can stand with API (Asian-Pacific Islanders) communities who have had our back as we have faced police violence, xenophobia, and attempts to divide us as people of color. Let us confront racism and stop the spread of misinformation against our API comrades whenever we see it.
• We can reach out to each other with love, group texts, remote streaming parties, handmade cards and art projects. Let us pull each other closer.

What We’re Working On

Code2040 is here for you. Now is the time for our community to rally together to support one another. Now is the time to take even better care of yourself. And we’ve got your back!

We are experiencing a collective realization that our systems are broken and that they only work to benefit a select few. As we take care of ourselves, our families, and our collective health, we must also remember the important work of transforming our systems, imagining other ways of being, and serving the communities who will be exponentially impacted during this time. We are keeping these factors at the forefront as we plan our work for the future.

Community Yoga and Meditation

The good news is, though we are social distancing, we are facing this together. Over the last week, our focus at Code2040 has shifted to how we stay connected and engaged through uncertainty, change, and distance. We’re starting with virtual yoga and meditation!

Join us this Thursday, March 26, from 3–4 PT/6–7 EST for our first of 6 weekly yoga sessions led by Alia Peera. And next week, we’re kicking off Tuesday meditation sessions to help reduce anxiety and share healing space virtually. These live-streamed sessions will be free and open to the community!

Code2040 Summer Programs

While we still don’t know how our programs and events will be impacted by social distancing and mandatory quarantines, we are working hard to plan a summer filled with community and engagement. Stay tuned for updates!

Resourcing the Community

Here is a list of Covid-19 Community Resources for everyone affected by the virus. This is a living document that we will be updating the list as new resources and information become available.

Much love from the Code2040 team.
Be safe. Be well.

In solidarity,
Mimi Fox Melton
VP of Programs

We are four women of color running nonprofits focused on changing the future of tech. This holiday season, we want to thank our communities of donors, both large and small, who help bridge the gap for our work.

Our organizations run lean, with less money and fewer people than we’d like, and we squeeze the most of every minute of the day. Your donations help us meet our goals. The fact that you contribute without a long process or 50-page applications, without strenuous reporting requirements, without intrusive interviews, and without demanding that we change course is more meaningful than you know.

As women of color running non-profits, we are often asked to adapt our paths to appeal to the preferences of our funders. A recent op-ed, “Philanthropists Bench Women of Color, the MVPs of Social Change,” by Vanessa Daniel struck a chord in all of us. “I see up close that the people who are overrepresented in success at social change — women of color who lead grass-roots nonprofits — are wildly underrepresented in funding. Only 0.6 percent of foundation giving was targeted to women of color in 2016,” she wrote.

This observation rang true to so many of us.

We feel it and live it daily in our work. We go through more hoops with strong outcomes for a fraction of a penny of every dollar available. For all our efforts, we get only 60 basis points.

At this point in time, we must all recognize an uncomfortable truth: Our success relies on upending the status quo. The success of tech capitalists, their foundations, and big foundations in general relies on maintaining it.

Yet we still remain true to our values. Sometimes that means turning down donors. Sometimes that means donors turning us down when we won’t change our course or go against our values. For all of us it means doing good alongside the community.

We joined together with the common goal of changing the demographics of tech from students age 7 to 17 (Black Girls CODE) to college and career professionals (Code2040) to entrepreneurs (Black & Brown Founders) to startup CEOs and venture capitalists (Project Include).

The four of us are banding together for a second year to lift each other up and call out the work each other is doing to make tech more equitable, more diverse, more inclusive, more accessible.

Thank you for trusting us to do so; we work hard to make it happen.

Please support us or another woman of color led nonprofit pushing for transformational change. If you cannot donate, please help by sharing this message.

Signed,

Aniyia, Ellen, Karla and Kimberly

To donate:

Black & Brown Founders We demystify the world of startups and help Black and Latinx entrepreneurs launch tech businesses. We do this through virtual bootcamps, events, and online content. Make a recurring contribution or a one-time contribution. Learn more.

Black Girls CODE We empower girls of color ages 7 to 17 to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology. Make a contribution. Learn more.

Code2040 We activate, connect and motivate the largest racial equity community in tech to eliminating the barriers to entry, retention, and leadership for Black and Latinx college and career professionals. Make a contribution. Learn more.

Project Include We work to give everyone a fair chance to succeed in tech, using data and advocacy to accelerate diversity and inclusion in startups. Make a contribution. Learn more.

Over the course of my career, I’ve seen how Presidential focus and support of certain issues radically transforms not just how we approach those issues, but even how we understand and define them. With Race to the Top and ACA, for example, both transformed how talked about education and health, ushered in new organizations and innovations, new expectations for government, and different demands for what it means to do well.

I’ve also seen what happens when said support is pulled away.

Specifically, now in watching how the Obama administration’s focus on the intersection of a diversifying workforce and a rapidly increasingly tech sector — which brought us CTOs who would engage with companies, create events, share resources, and dedicate budgets to inclusion work — has all but disappeared. Now, in the shadow of a tech community afraid of being accused of liberal bias, what was once a bipartisan issue has become a “lefty progressive” issue by virtue of its focus on Black and Latinx people.

This is why Senator Elizabeth Warren’s new proposals for diversifying the recipients of start-up capital made me ecstatic. Up until now we have seen candidates propose solutions for STEM training, but none that have addressed the structural barriers to entry and leadership in the tech sector. As we at Code2040 have said to as many people as will listen, we are in the middle of the Digital Revolution. The rules of the economy have not shifted in this way since the Industrial Revolution, and the absence of a diverse set of architects for the new economy has already had punishing consequences for our democracy, economy, and communities.

The importance of diversifying the innovation economy cannot be overstated.

2040 is the beginning of the decade when Black and Latinx people will become the majority. As our demographics shift, our economy will suffer terrible consequences if Black and Latinx people are not building, creating, and leading the industry. We have to stop pretending that lack of a trained workforce is the only barrier to people entering it. Our companies have not been built for the management and success of diverse workplaces. Every best practice we see now is based on information for a workplace that is quickly ceasing to exist.

To get to true representation and inclusion we need accountability and transparency. As we move further into the 2020 election, we can use this time to put forth ideas for candidates. I’m going to focus on the EEO-1 because this legislative responsibility really falls between the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Labor. I see the most potential for workforce change here and these departments already serve multiple functions that if tweaked could have exponential impacts on an issue we desperately need to solve.

It cannot be overstated how these two departments will be in charge of preparing the country for the shift between an economy moving from industrial to digital production — all the while experiencing a demographic shift.

Here are three actions we suggest.

Overturn the federal statute prohibiting EEO-1 survey data from being available to the public

Silicon Valley finally acknowledged it had a diversity problem in 2014, when Google released their company data. Until then, advocates of this work were in the position of proving Silicon Valley’s diversity issues.

While Google sharing its numbers was a huge moment in the sector, we still rely on companies choosing which data to share (if they share at all) and when. Very few are willing to open their companies to scrutiny until their PR shops are robust enough to handle the blow back. However by requiring this information to be public, this creates an expectation and accountability. It would allow for diversity to be a regular topic of conversation with companies. Further, the data, by company for all companies, would provide folks on the ground with a clearer picture of what sector and subsectors are having the most problems. It also gives every day employees data they can use in change management conversations with senior leaders.

Expand the EEO-1 survey to include the top of funnel applicant rates and retention/attrition rates of full-time employees

The Kapor Center’s Tech Leavers study tells us that company attrition is costing tech $16B in employee replacement costs a year. This is not a healthy workforce.

By releasing attrition/retention rates and having the ability to segment the data by race and gender, we will understand the working conditions of Black and Latinx employees across the country in a much deeper way. If attrition rates are significantly higher in underrepresented communities it gives the EEOC and employees grounds for accountability. It will encourage companies to focus on more than the pipeline as the end-all-be-all of inclusion work. Anyone who has been working in the guts of this work for the last decade can tell you that the $1.2B tech has spent on this work has been a sieve through which robustly talented people have disappeared. We cannot leave this much talent on the table as the economy shifts in the way it is currently shifting.

Require that companies over 100 people exceeding 20% of its full-time staff in contractor services need to report EEO-1 type data on it’s independent contractors

Black and Latinx workforces make up 3%-5% of Silicon Valley’s workforce but 25% of its white collar subcontractors and 58% of blue collar subcontracted workers. You often hear stories of talent that is sitting in what is essentially full-time work but getting paid on a different scale without access to benefits, career mobility, or equity. There needs to be a forcing function that prevents employers from putting Black and Latinx employees on a “try-out” that disenfranchises their economic prospects. We enshrine the racial wage and wealth gaps in these choices and companies are allowed to make their fortunes, yet again, on underpaid Black and Latinx people.

There is more, there is always more, but we wanted to get us started on thinking broadly to ensure we make the changes at the pace our economy dictates. We want to see candidates address the structural barriers to entry and leadership.

The next version of the Department of Labor and EEOC will be overseeing one of the most monumental labor shifts in American history and it’s time our Presidential candidates have to start addressing that. How else will America be competitive in a global economy? It is time you shake the table. We have already delayed too long.

What policies would you recommend candidates create that address the size and scope of the problem?