Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the internet giant, has announced plans to dedicate $2.35 million in grants to community organizations combatting racial injustice in the U.S., according to USA Today.
The announcement came Tuesday during a screening of 3 ½ Minutes, 10 Bullets at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre, the report says. The film examines the shooting death of Jordan Davis, 17, who was unarmed when he was shot and killed in 2012 by a White man, Michael Dunn, outside of a gas station in Jacksonville, Fla. for playing music too loud in a vehicle.
The grant program is part of a “larger giving effort over the course of the next year.” Via USA Today:
The technology giant’s philanthropic arm chose organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area taking on systemic racism in America’s criminal justice, prison and educational systems, says Justin Steele, who leads Google.org’s Bay Area giving efforts.
Steele says the grants are just the first for Google.org as it seeks to address the Bay Area’s growing economic gap that has only widened during the technology boom.
“We hope to build on this work and contribute to this movement for racial justice,” Steele said in an interview.
Google.org’s decision comes after the Mountain View, California tech giant announced plans this spring to recruit more women and people of color into one of the best paid growth industries in the nation.
Under the ambitious $150 million recruitment plan, half of the money is for outside organizations and communities to train and hire people of color, while the other half will be used on internal diversity efforts.
The changes did not come without pressure. For over a year, civil rights leaders called on Google and other tech companies to diversify their ranks at a time of high unemployment in communities of color.
article by Lynette Holloway via newsone.com
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
“Under the ambitious $150 million recruitment plan, half of the money is for outside organizations and communities to train and hire people of color, while the other half will be used on internal diversity efforts.”
About cotdang TIME. And it shouldn’t have taken decades of that “pressure”. Yes I said decades. The article states a year, but in truth we’ve been calling for this type of action since jump.
Reblogged this on Praying for the millennials.
I see this as very encouraging. To think that there isn’t still racial tension in America would be naive. Me and my husband are building bridges. We met each other in high school, a magnet school, developed to help in the desegregation of America in Tulsa, OK. Tulsa was the site of one of the worst race riots in US History — The Tulsa Race Riots of 1921. It is fairly poignant for me to think about now. It is time that people are judged by the quality of their spirit and actions and not on the color of their skin. Lenny Singleton saved my life. You see I was headed down a path towards death and paralysis from the neck down and because I reunited with Lenny when I did I was spared this fate. Lenny created a miracle in my life. I searched for Lenny for over 28 years before I finally found him in Nottoway Correctional Facility in 2012. I was devastated by what happened to him after high school. Lenny had won a full athletic scholarship and graduated a year ahead of me. Everyone loved Lenny so to find him finally incarcerated was devastating. Lenny committed 8 “grab and dash” robberies in a 7 day period while high on alcohol and crack cocaine. For 6 of these robberies he received 2 Life Sentences plus 100 years with no chance of parole — basically, a death sentence. When I heard this, I thought, “Oh my God, how many people did Lenny kill to get this kind of time?” But Lenny did not kill anyone. He didn’t have a gun. In fact, not one person was even physically injured. He stole a total of less than $550 and these were his first felonies. He wasn’t a habitual criminal or part of a gang. He earned a college degree and served in our Navy before he allowed his addiction to crack to destroy his life. I was horrified to learn what had happened to my friend. The judge, without any explanation to Lenny or the court, gave him more time than repeat violent offenders, child molesters, rapists, kidnappers and murderers. I began writing everyone I could think of — am still writing everyone I can think of. We also began writing each other and as I caught Lenny up over the last 28 years I realized what bad shape I was in — at least 80 lbs. overweight and terribly unhappy. I began walking and making better food choice and with Lenny’s constant encouragement, I lost 60 lbs. in about 4 months, so much weight that I was able to feel the lump in my left armpit. This was eventually diagnosed as Stage IV Triple Negative Breast Cancer with the discovery of a tumor on my spine threatening to paralyze me from the neck down — another death sentence. But today, with Lenny’s help, my body is currently “resolved” of cancer and I am walking. Now, I am trying to create a miracle for Lenny. To that end we have written and published a book together, “Love Conquers All.” And along the way, we fell in love. I married Lenny while incarcerated for life because I believe in his reformed nature 110%. During the entire 20 years of incarceration so far, he has not received a single infraction for anything with no motivation like early release to be the best person he can be. America needs to wake up — to keep Lenny incarcerated for the rest of his life will cost taxpayers well over a million dollars — for stealing less than $550 in crimes where no one was even physically injured — this makes absolutely no sense. And there are cases all over this country of sentencing disparity — men and women of color that have been unjustly incarcerated given more time than a white person committing the same crime. This has got to stop. Lenny and I are a bridge and our book is a testament to what can happen when we come together for a better tomorrow. To learn more about Lenny and sign his petition, please visit our website at http://www.justice4lenny.org.