Jesse Jackson exhorts Oakland teens to pursue tech jobs [View all]
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has shifted his civil rights sights to Silicon Valley in recent months, where the high-tech workforce doesn’t look like the Rainbow Coalition he once envisioned for society. Or anything like Oakland.
It does not, he said Wednesday to an auditorium full of teenagers at Oakland Technical High School, look enough like the students assembled to hear the civil rights icon speak on diversity in the tech workforce.
“Somehow, someway, (Silicon Valley) has passed over you,” he said. “They’re going to India and China.” And that needs to stop, he told the students. “Somehow, we must choose the future over funerals,” he said. “Life over death.”
Jackson’s visit followed an announcement earlier this month that Intel will provide $5 million combined to Oakland Tech and McClymonds High School over the next five years to boost computer and engineering programs, especially for disadvantaged students — who are underrepresented in the tech industry.
Read more: http://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/Jesse-Jackson-exhorts-Oakland-teens-to-pursue-6290599.php?t=f223477d0300af33be
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