 Hello everyone. It's so good to be here. It's so good to be here and to spend some time with you today at the Sunset of the Open Source Summit. I certainly hope that everyone has enjoyed their involvement so far and that you've been able to find yourself and getting much more useful information than what you started off with when it comes to this event in particular. I'd like to take the Open Source Summit. It's just the Linux Foundation for having me here. It's certainly an honor and a privilege. Today we're going to be focusing on our workshop and we're going to take a little bit of a journey together and we're going to be focusing on driving innovation through allyship. Now I know a lot of you have heard that word before and probably some of you are versed in it and studied it, but we're going to take a journey today and we have some minutes to do so and so the first I want us to do is to look at the state of driving innovation. So let's go over to our next slide physician. So driving innovation through allyship. The first thing I want to say and communicate is expressed to you is that this is a guilt-free environment today. We're not out to guilt anyone. We do want you to feel comfortable, but we do want vulnerability. We do want open minds to what's going to be expressed and shared and I think as a consequence of you being here I believe that you're ready to presume that type of disposition. So driving innovation through allyship is taking allyship and making it become actionable so that it's no longer something that we just talk about but it's something that we exercise in our daily lives free from specific tailored detailed programs. Now when we talk about the subject of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and many of your companies that you work at have these departments, but we know when the time is not to no longer talk about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging is when we find ourselves exercising that daily. So the first thing I want to do before we go and begin our trail of journey together which I'm so happy to do with all of you here is want to go on and let's talk about what's an ally. So before we move forward for those of you that have a sense of what you believe is an ally or that knows what an ally is I want you to put that into Q&A. I want you to send that but I want you to take a minute just a moment to think about do I know what an ally is and if I don't why not more importantly why should I and how can I know more. But for those of you that do, let's take a moment and put that into Q&A and so while you're thinking about that and while you're doing that, the format is that I'm going to share some things with you all and we're going to go down this trail of a journey together and then we're going to have a bit of Q&A towards the end and I'm so happy that the Linux Foundation has taken on these type of narratives and incorporated it into this type of open source environment and we'll touch on that in a little bit as we move forward. But it's important I think for those that have had the benefit of listening to other speakers that have presented on the subject of equality I think you've benefited thus far. So moving on and moving forward it gets to the question of why are we here. Now some of you may say okay why am I here well I came here today to learn about how I should or I saw that this was something that I think could be beneficial to share with others at the office if you will the virtual office. I want to become an ally because I've been hearing more and more about this in the news the media segmentations and I feel like I want to be a contributor or I just want to know more about what it is to be an ally but I want us to take that question further right I want us to go deeper with that why are we here now we lid on all those reasons of why many of us may be in attendance but let's look at a much more broader 30,000-foot view why are we here well there's a lot of things that are happening and technology in particular which we're talking about through innovation there's a lot of things that are happening in technology and happening across the country that we're seeing there's a lot of impassioned hearts a lot of impassioned minds there's movements such as Black Lives Matter there's organizations where people are looking at what's happening that's two pandemics not just COVID-19 that we find ourselves in but also at the same time an anti-racist pandemic there's voices for cries of equality that are happening not just in the streets and in protests but in job and work environments as well and so there's been an amplified discussion narrative and a dialogue that's happening right now right now in this country it affects our workplaces it affects our everyday living it's even found its way in our conferences so as we ask ourselves why are we here not just why we're here at this particular moment in this particular session today but why are we here why are we yet still having these type of conversations because evidently we haven't had enough action but for now and for this moment why are we here it's because we want to do one thing in particular today we want to learn how to become better allies and in particular how do we make differences through technologies for black communities so hello everyone my name is Christopher Lafayette I'm an international national speaker on emerging technologies I also speak on diversity equity inclusion and belonging we've had the pleasure of speaking about this here in Silicon Valley where I'm at and around the country and also around the world on a number of subjects and I firmly believe that when we talk about ecosystems that when I look at technology I look at culture I don't look at those two differently but to look at culture as technology and to look at ecosystems not necessarily as a bunch of hardware and software open source environmental systems and not necessarily a raspberry pi and a motherboard in which to operate on and to look at ecosystems as people and it's a big part of what I call eco culture which are human characteristics that are permeated in and throughout technological ecosystems and to look at this eco culture and to look at these environments for us to know and understand that the more diverse or the more culture that we have in our ecosystems the whole leveled up and stronger that our ecosystems become it as I had the pleasure of expressing earlier this week that we have to go back because there's a lot of things that we found ourselves leaving behind and if we ask our own selves internally how did we get here and what were the hurdles and the obstacles and what did it take and the opportunities that were afforded us and presented to us to actually get to where we're at this very day here at the summit together what did it take I think we all can admit that we certainly didn't get here on our own that we've all been afforded opportunities including myself and that somebody somewhere down the road at some point in time pointed us in the right direction and so as we find ourselves and as we've heard this week about the incredible leaps and bounds of where we've come from when it comes to innovation and technology today and us being at the doorsteps of industry 4.0 being under the banner under the umbrella of emergent technology growth and as far as we've come we haven't come far enough and that when we look at technology and when we look at technology where we're at today with everything that we've built and as great as it is to know that there's room for improvement and that it could be greater and that our technology will never be at its best until everyone can build it so when we talk about extending realities if we're going to extend reality then we must bring reality with it and if we're going to build technology that we need to hire the people that we want to buy our products so today is about those in attendance how do we come how do we become better allies that aren't program oriented but want to manifest allyship every single day in any given opportunity and how we live now someone asked how okay Chris we hear that that was fine to hear but how do we do that well let me tell you what it's not going to be we're not going to do it by developing an app it's certainly not going to be done by coding and designing and to building out there's nothing technical here in that regard of what so many of us are used to operating as technologists the open source environment in which we need to penetrate and to deal with is internally is within for us to take a look and take inventory inside and the type of hacking that we need to do is we need to hack ourselves because an app hasn't been built where we're headed there is no technological construct that we've made that can get us where we need to go yet within our own selves our human bodies these engines lies the answer and solutions for going further so how is not externally how we'll start internally but the biggest step that we're looking to take and the most prudent activity that we're going to ingress into becoming actionable what does that mean action well we've been seeing over the last several weeks and even the past month there's been an outcry of unity and support for those particularly in the black community let's talk about the elephant in the room I'll be the elephant I came to Silicon Valley with black color skin and I found myself in situations on multiple campuses where whole entire companies and whole entire cities people that didn't look like me but believe or not I was taught by a lot of people that look like you and so becoming actionable as an ally means less talking more doing we cannot no longer just settle for just having a social media post as solidarity sure I understand there's people that protest and want to go on the front lines and and I'm personally not a protester but that's for what they want to do and everyone has a role to play and they must be allowed to play them but we need action and so as far as we've come and solving so many complex situations and things under under the auspices of technology why can't we figure this one out why haven't we put some type of formula code together a humanity and made a hackathon of this this is where we're headed and this is what we're gonna be doing but before we do that we have to become actionable and less talking sure you can post on your social media posts you can black out in solidarity or what's happening with black communities that does so much but do we want to be met with the self same situation six months from now what about next year 2020 has been a wild ride 2021 do we want some more of this I certainly don't and I'm almost sure that you don't as well moving on the first step is acknowledgement one acknowledging that there is a situation at hand and acknowledging that many of us or many of you if you will go free go free have been privileged have had opportunities that other people have been afforded known so was as well it's been hard in my life to I've had to go through a lot of obstacles and a lot of challenges no one's taking that away from you I believe you and many others believe you as well but just know that when we look at the data that's afforded to us and when we look around and even in your own office you must admit to consider that when you look around your own office which is probably virtual now but when you do it how many people do you see that look like me versus how many people that look like you go free when we look on TV and we see the impassioned hearts and minds and the tearing down the stores the burning of cars the screams for injustice what's that about where that comes from well the part of that is a large part of society that we have ignored or have not looked at close enough that is now here right in front of us and we find ourselves in a situation where we look at it and if we acknowledge it we have a winnable opportunity to do something about it the second chap being proactive and not reactive why has it taken the deaths and the innocent deaths of several people for us to have this type of dialogue today we seem to be reactive on issues only when it begins to affect us emotionally in our work environments and what we come to hear about and what we come to see in our daily lives whether that's your media personal friends that may be hurt that may be suffering but let's consider looking at this differently and saying you know what there's so much more that I can actually do if I'm more proactive in getting ahead of this and in front of this as an ally as opposed to always doing something after the fact of some tragedy having happened you see big when we talk about being an ally every day that means doing something about it every single day and not something that you feel like you have to go out of your way for but something that you naturally do and as we learn look we're learning more things about gender equality more things about communities of color even myself is subjected to the same need to update my understanding on how to better be a better human since citizen contributor and so I'd rather be proactive than reacted to a situation after the fact let's keep that in mind moving forward I want to applaud each and every one of you for your courage the mere fact of all the different events that we've had all week in the open source summit that you've taken time at its sunset and the conclusion of this event there's been time with me and with other peers that you know and may not know to talk about this very sensitive subject took courage it took a lot of courage for you to click a few buttons from the comfort of your homes or even offices depending on where you're at to sit and have this dialogue in the conversation and so it's on this self-same courage in this type of leadership disposition is what we're looking to see seven days a week 24 7 around the clock so that you can be the hidden hero because not everybody has the same courage not everyone has the same care not everyone has the same concern but for some self for some reason those of you that are sitting here with me today and I had the pleasure of being with you do whether you decided enough is enough whether you've asked yourself have you done enough and while we're at it I want you to put in there as to why you're here today we don't want that to slip we don't want to I want you to add I want you to put that I want you to write that down and then I want you to hold on to it because where we're going takes courage this isn't going to be easy it's emotional but here's the benefit when we look at innovating technology through ally show the first thing that we want to be mindful of is that we're not doing this as a feel-good initiative yes it feels good to do this yes it should feel good to do this do things that feel good but we're also looking at this for the longevity of the technological construct itself and that when you look at being diverse look at inclusion equity and belonging we're looking at it from a new lens in an updated lens of this being also a revenue drive a form of sustainability not just for those that build it before the whole technological sphere as a whole you see humanity and technology go hand in hand you can't have one part of the country enjoying all the things that technology provides and affords us and at the same time you have those that are looking and walking on the same avenues and streets looking at you enjoy a thing that they had no contribution to and for there's a lot of anti-cinematic that comes with that there's a lot of hurt that comes to view that and at some point as we've been seeing as of late people will speak their minds about it and speak their hearts however that manifests and so instead of being reactive let us consider being proactive in tackling this narrative now and that is a big part of what we're doing today as a technology community and saying hey we've come very far with our innovations when it comes to autonomous systems when it comes to open source society how open is the source bin for everyone that's just not community of colors as well and genders what have we done through technology to build for everyone but the first steps being proactive not reactive being courageous and then we're going to dive a little further so what are our guidelines look like no i'm not going to give you a whole wikipedia and length of information yes there's a lot of good information out there and you as an ally should infill yourself imbued with the responsibility to go out there outside of sessions that we have with these small batch of journeys that we have together to want to go outside and go explore from yourself further to how to become a better ally and to refine your understanding and at the same time from student position to teacher to become the singular hidden hero you may find yourself in your office in your building or in your company virtually being the only hidden hero out of hundreds for some of you thousands now how do we start off open minded so being open to the idea is that there's a lot that we don't know versus what we think that we know what we do know because of what we thought we knew and what we think we know was working then there probably wouldn't be a need or a reason for us to be here together so having a sense of open-mindedness being subjected to refinement purification on our understanding of what we come to know and understand thus far and our sojourn of life and in the workplace when it comes to being a better ally and human contributor the second is vulnerability that's from the executives on down and around to be vulnerable to be a hero or really a hidden hero means vulnerability to stand and say what you believe when it's not just to yourself or to your close family and sometimes even with your loved ones to say what you believe in your own convictions but even to your own peers and to stand for that to stand for others that cannot stand for themselves they're not afforded the platforms that you and i are to do that comes vulnerability wide open for everyone to see this is what i believe this is how i feel emotionally this is what i'm about this is what i'm for representing but before we're vulnerable we have to have an open mind to be vulnerable and when we're vulnerable it's okay you'll be subject to scrutiny you'll have people that may look the other way on you and you may have friends that you're used to sitting and enjoying time with that they may not agree with you and they may not be as friendly as they once were but your convictions and your principles will supersede that because you're one of the hidden heroes that realizes that we need to go back because we left a lot of people behind in particular the black community you see the reason that i'm saying this i have just as much as a care for technology as all of you someone wants to ask me on stage they said chris we have a lot of people when did you first get into diversity and i sat there in front of all of these people and i didn't expect this to be asked they gave us the questions beforehand and i had to think when did i get involved in diversity and talking about it but the answer that came for within and then i said was that i was born in it you see so many of my other colleagues and friends that don't look like me they're not imbued with this type of responsibility to be one of the ones one of the very few that have gotten through and to give testimony and to share with you what it's like to come to silicon valley and to technology as a whole with black colored skin you see i was a kid and i would come home and i see my dad who at the time i didn't realize was a hacker a good one and he would tear down and take apart computers and build them up and he'd be sitting at his desk with a little light on and i'd come and see it and i say dad what's the web and he'd proceed to tell me and i say dad what's the internet and he would go on to tell me now years later all the way forward when i came to silicon valley i did not know that the impact of what someone that looked like me would have and i realized that all my friends i went to school with all the people in my neighborhoods that also look like me they didn't have someone sitting there a parent in their household to tell them anything about technology next is willingness a willingness to do more than what you've done already a willingness to put just not just a hashtag or to blacken out your instagram or your facebook your social media platform telling people what you stand for but a willingness to do more next on this is servant leadership you know it was always taught give that freely that which was given to you and we have to ask ourselves how much servant leadership have i contributed to my community to technology how much have i given have i given enough or have i been taking and taking and taking have i given back to the ones that have done for me maybe you don't even know the people anymore that did things for you that provided for you my dad's no longer around but i still feel incensed imbued excuse me with the need and the desire for servant leadership to give back and believe it or not not just to those that look like me but it's so important for those that look like me because when we head into industry 4.0 and when we head into emerging technology growth and scale when we start looking at artificial intelligence making our decisions natively that are coming from advanced data sets to derive from the human mind which minds is this ai curating its data from because if it isn't from people that look like me and if it's only people that look like a specific homogenous group then what are we about to find ourselves in we're already dealing with a high amount of implicit and explicit biases but when it comes to it how much more are we about to be confronted with again this is a guilt-free environment but these are things that must be said we can't have all the good of technology and all the advances and all the products they'll talk about a little bit more on how we can be better so a lot of that begins with servant leadership to serve our communities to serve your brother to serve your sister to give back not just to take identifying self-limiting beliefs well some said well i don't know how to do that i don't know how to be such a person you didn't know how to do what you do now but you're doing it back to the vulnerability i don't know if i can do that because i just don't know if people will hear you'd be surprised who would be willing to hear your message on what it is that you have to share and say even within your own workplace and so i challenge you to even reach out to others that may not have heard what you're hearing today and to share that to go against your self-limiting beliefs to do more than what you even your own self believe that you can be and that what you can do so i want you to add onto this next list because i know that we have a lot of professionals and experts and i want you to put and enter into the question and write it down even if for your own self what else are we adding to this list so we have open-mindedness vulnerability willingness servant leadership and identifying self-limiting beliefs within that keep us from moving forward for it's better being allies especially under the subject of innovation so take some time and write that down and then we'll move forward and we'll address some of those so where do we begin too far so i had to take i had to have a talk with my own self see this isn't just me pointing the finger i was always taught you're pointing one finger at someone you got three fingers pointing back at you and i've had to say you know i'm not going to blame society i don't want to do it i don't want to put down others tear down others and say how come you did this to me how come you did i said what is it that i can do and control what i can control and so i had to turn my eyes inwards and i said where do i begin if i want an exact change and express change how does that happen and i came to find out that there's so many different roads towards that happening there's so many different paths but i decided to build one and i wanted to do it where i could take all of you all of you that have taught me technology all of you that when i came to silicon valley there were hardships i'm not going to lie but we're not going to rehearse what those were but there were me finding myself sleeping outside of google living out of hacker spaces building out of hotel rooms and from the seat of my car it's been a long track thus far but there's also a side of people that took time to advance in the level me out and i said my goodness what if i can get all those people back from home to listen to all these new people that i've met in technology in different organizations what if i can get them to meet all these people and bring these two worlds together has anyone done that before on such a level and so i lost an initiative called btmp the black technology mentorship program because i'm often asked before what we see happening in the country and i was asked before that a lot and i've even been asked now chris how do we become better allies what can we do what solution do we have on there which way do we go what do you need so i developed a program that takes the best of technology mentorships speakers our educator class and our advisors to pair that with the best of our mentees that are available and students that want to know about technology that already know about technology that can't land a job that can't even get an interview that is stuck on some type of equation that wants to know so much more about open-source systems and linux that want to know so much more about how to build augmented and virtual reality that want to know so much more about artificial intelligence but they don't know the way to go you see they didn't have someone sitting at their home that was building up and tearing down computers into giving them and pointing them the way and right now technology is moving so advanced it's so fast that even at their schools if you were to develop curriculum and it did get passed through whatever filters that they have to go through for approval of curriculum and technology by the time it was taught to the students it would be outdated you must admit to yourself and i'm sure many of you can attest it that's probably even more than i can that technology has never moved at such a pace than it is now and it's only going to get faster our communication apparatus and the last three months i don't know but i've had more zoom conferences and conversations without traveling than i've ever had before i've seen more the inside of living rooms i've seen more people's living rooms in the last four months than i've had in the last five years but communication is happening and it's accelerating and it's going really really quick it's that we built this program to say let me take the technology class and pair those with black communities and so with the recommended path forward i put it out there publicly i have a large audience on link then very large audience very reactive and i said i need to be vulnerable and put this program out there i don't want to do this i don't want my peers to look at me as the person that has to be the representation for black communities i just want to talk about technology like the rest of them are able to do but somebody had to do it and as the moderator asked me some years ago chris when did you first get into diversity i said i was born into it well then i had to do something about it and so i put this out there and i said i'm going to present this to the technology world and i'm going to put this out into my peers and some are going to judge me harshly some are going to want to talk to me but i did it and it's been embraced it's one of the reasons why i'm here because linux foundation said you know what we can do better and we want to do more chris we'd love to have you here and so here i find myself in front of my peers sharing and being vulnerable right now at this very moment in front of so many there's a lot of people and so many strangers whom i don't know but i know that you are my peers and i'm sharing this with you and i put forth this program for the black technology mentorship program and saying hey i found a way everyone that all of you can become mentors each and every one of you you go to christopherlaffia.com and become a mentor and if you don't feel like you could be a mentor you can become an ally or if you even may feel like you have yet a little bit to learn become a mentee it's a program for mentors and mentees to thrive because we can give education and provide all different types of online courses available but if we don't fulfill what we call the last mile and actually getting people jobs and helping inspiring entrepreneurs to become innovators in the right path towards even beginning a startup then we haven't done enough now some of our mentors will only ask for them to speak for one hour out of an entire year all i want is an hour of your year to sit in front of because since we're no longer subject to location bias subsequent COVID and that the world has decided that virtual communication is the way that we want to move forward in the interim time being when it comes to dialogue of expression and meaning and networking for events of business to take just one of you that's sitting here right now and to put you in front of two thousand we haven't gone public with it but we've now reached over a thousand mentees so what would it be like for you to sit where i'm at in front of your conferencing tool in front of two three thousand two hundred or thousand mentees simply for you to tell them what you do for a living no curriculum needed no slides needed for you to tell them who you are where you're from and what do you do for a living that may seem so minuscule in our eyes that may seem so boring because it's like oh you're just a python developer oh you don't code and see but for other ears and other hearts and minds that have never ever even heard that don't even know what that means could be the significant pivotal pivotal moment for them towards their whole direction in their careers and in their development and so a few minutes with you could quite literally change a few decades for them so when we talk about servant leadership willing to be able to tell people what you do to thousands of people sometimes maybe even hundreds if i could tell you that one of the biggest ways for you to become an ally is through education and under the sound of your own voice and to share your experiences and to help someone to mitigate what not to do and to go towards what to do that sounds like servant leadership to me and in turn what we're doing and contributing and giving back to technology the third observer if you will what we're giving back into technology is we're actually making our products keeping and considering everyone in mind no matter the color no matter the gender and that everyone gets an opportunity to build to innovate to talk about it to educate and then they give back just like you gave to them just like someone gave to you so when we look at where our where allies are welcome it's programs like this like BTMP it's working with people that you never thought that you would find yourself working with it's in places like this and in technology where we're welcome i want you to learn how to go beyond what you've done your whole entire life in your career and to do things different but you're not alone we have a host of allies that have already showed up people i never even thought would even take the time of day to look at it have looked in their own hearts and minds and saying you know what i can do better companies and platforms i don't want you to come by yourself i want you to bring every single person that you know of that has the heart and mind and the disposition for open-mindedness for vulnerability to come and join us and pair our mentors we as mentors with mentees and to know that everyone will be welcome guilt-free environments and that we're all learning together organically and that we've got a lot of road ahead of us and a lot of wood to chop and more importantly to that point that everyone gets to build and everyone has a role to play and they must be allowed to play them and everyone gets to contribute everyone gets to be part of this great technological construct and so i want you to write down what is it that you want to contribute if you had a thousand or even a hundred people in front of you teach them one thing what would that be what could you give back what women that the powerful play exists if you get to contribute a verse what will your verse be what will the one verse be that you would share with others because we can talk about being an ally and we can have vulnerability and we can have open-mindedness and even want to express and manifest servant leadership but we have to ask ourselves what is it that we want to teach and if you can let a group of people a group of strangers know one thing when it comes to technology one thing that you believe would be the most beneficial thing that they can know i want you to write that down put it in that question box or write it down fold it up keep it to yourself and then when the time's right to share that with others and if no answer comes to mind i want you to consider that i want you to take some time to think about that what does that look like and so everyone that gets to build gets to build and you get to express what you think is best because our situation our experiences are diverse and we all come from different places some similar to others but we all have had different paths and different tracks and so there's a different story to be able to share and i've built a platform that allows for you and your company to share because your company isn't just a company your company is people and an ecosystem isn't just hardware and software an ecosystem is people and more to the point an ecosystem is culture i said that one day you'll find yourself in a situation where you may look around and you may be alone or you may be in a room full of full of hidden heroes you see back home where i'm from city called oakland california a lot of people that look like me right across the bridge in the water from silicon valley where a lot of people don't look like me but in oakland we have what we call hidden geniuses some know it and some don't but our hidden geniuses will only ever be as good and discoverable as the hidden heroes that took time and it's like sacaja wea paunce daly on louis and clark there was a journey ahead of them they took time they didn't know what was coming around the corner what was down the path but they took time they rolled the dice and they landed that's a lot like business that's a lot like this program and the better allies that we become the better our technology will be and if we don't do this if we close our computers down and if we walk away and don't do anything we will never have been as great as we ever could have been i hope that someone took time to hear what was just expressed i'm looking forward to reading and answering any questions that may be here we have the q and a portion that's going in now but my doctrine in business is build together and to build strong be courageous don't make this just another session join me in the journey and i will join you i will listen to you i will grow from you i will learn from you i will build with you and your companies and we will do it together and really do something meaningful something that we care about something that changes hearts and minds and i promise when you see what your work has done in the face and the expression of someone else then you know we've done our job and when we no longer have to have sessions like this or we don't have to have diversity inclusion and equity departments and black erg's and when we don't have to have sessions at the linux foundation and one day i can sit here and completely talk to you about technology and never whisper a word about black communities equality bias vulnerability when you no longer hear that in events like this then you know we've done our job and we did just like we did with everything else we built a technology it was in our minds first but one day it was in our hands and we saw it and a group of people decided to come together to do it and even these difficult times we did it so thank you i'm going to take a look at these q and a and see if we have any questions i have no idea if there's been anything that's been expressed so far so if you have any questions i would encourage you to share those and bear with me as i look at a lot of questions that we have here and we're going to start with run from albert smith and let's look at this and take a look at this so that everyone can see uh this question bear with me with albert smith is i wanted to understand why the lack of african americans in technology why do managers of company tend to hire people who look like them how to change something which is a natural behavior well that's a really good question albert and thank you for your courage and your willingness to want to know more about that and so let's tackle the first question because it's a twofer so two in one question we have here so i want to understand why the lack of african americans the technology well a big part of it is is that there's not enough education in the particular neighborhoods where a lot of the black community is right teachers are not paid what they should be paid i mean our teachers are some of the front line heroes and they're certainly not given what uh their do to even learn what we all know technology that's number one too is believe it or not you have graduates from cow berkeley for example that are you know black engineers that i've talked to their alum in all different types of organizations that have expressed to me and told me that chris it's not that they're getting interviews but we can't even get them interview now consider this for a second and now in silicon mallet i'll use this as an example for every job opening for every application you have about a thousand jobs available a thousand excuse me a thousand applicants per job of which 750 that's white homogenous male applicants true 750 you have 250 that is latin x asian female if you will and then you have black now i've got a one percent chance of actually getting phone interview and it may be a one-third of a chance to actually get an in interview so when you look at that the odds are already so severely stacked against me especially with recruiters are now taking the steps and and hiring managers are now taking the steps to say hey you know what we're gonna have artificial intelligence sort out our applications well the big question we have to ask herself is this ai that you built natively where has its data information or his data sets derived from because if i'm already trying to get through the gates of dealing with someone that is implicit or explicitly bias odds don't look too good for me now you got a ai conduit that's going to be doing the same and more of may not look so better so let's go to your second half of the question is is why do managers of companies tend to hire people who look like them how do we change something which is a natural behavior so that's a really good question the first thing i have to say is if you look around your company and you're looking around and around everybody looks like you and comes where you come from you have a problem that means you don't have culture look african america's have been driving culture for decades last time i checked when it comes to our female population is 92 percent of the drivers of retail in this country is female last time i checked that 64 percent of the buying power in california alone was latin x it's compelling that's very interesting so when we look at the situation in hand what my perspective is is i'm no longer trying to make the attempt to go and change the personification of the hiring manager i think it's far more prudent to change the hearts and minds for our mentees to identify bias how to mitigate bias and to hack their minds so that no matter who's at the threshold at the gates waiting for them they have to go through to ingress to get a job that they'll be imbued with a sufficient amount of information and intelligence to be able to handle and conquer any job opportunity when it comes to the hiring process now to more to your point and i'll say this and move forward it starts with you obu to communicate to your hiring managers because i'm not even in your company that even had that dialogue conversation i have been fortunate and have been invited to many technical campuses and helping them get along the way and some are doing well and some aren't doing so well but they're trying i'll give them that effort but it takes people that are on the inside that already have these jobs now here's the i get it when you ask the one to stand up for equality that's already working for a company job security is usually the thing that comes to mind if i do this i may get fired or i may lose my job have the courage have the courage to stand up that's what we're talking about with allyship is being vulnerable and knowing that hey you may not be the best person people want to be around if you start stirring things up but it's not you then who i hate to get such a remedial example or such a farback example but in the days of slavery there were people that stood up that didn't look like me let's bring up something more up to date civil rights movement that wasn't all just black people a lot of that were allies that helped make a lot of things happen for me to vote for my mom and dad to no longer have to drink as separate water fountains during jim crow those are stories that i didn't read in a book those are stories stories that i also so the self-serve one that told me about technology also told me yeah i had to drink another water fountains like that my mom they had to go to movie theaters upstairs can you believe it imagine going to your favorite restaurant and having to go to the back of the restaurant for your meal so curbside pickup isn't new for us we were doing curbside pickup in the 60s so it takes the people that are already inside to help make the difference as well it's not a single variable equation it's multi-variant jody because i want to learn how to be a better ally and to help others become better allies too jody that that is absolutely admirable that's a great reason to be here that's a fantastic reason to be here moving on monica says because i want to do ally ship in a more meaningful way as you should as we all should and so that implies that monica is already doing ally ship but monica says hey you know what i'm going to do things in a more meaningful way probably more abundant want to be more proactive fantastic we need that that's the type of disposition that we're looking for when it comes to ally ship folks that people want to do more because what we've done thus far yes it probably has benefited and served a lot of hearts and minds but have we done enough have we gone further i've had to ask my own self that and i've been an advocate for years and i realized even me i haven't done enough jody's also says and let me publish this one for everyone to see yeah here we go an ally is someone who holds a position of some kind of privilege who actively uses their credibility to support someone who doesn't have the same access this is about creating a more inclusive environment where every person can thrive i hope that everyone agrees with that that was well put i absolutely agree with that it said we're talking about privilege because when we talk about ally ship we've been hearing this word privilege a lot it says what do you mean privilege i was born just i came from you know all types of humble beginnings myself but what we want to stress and ease in a guilt-free environment is that no one's saying that you oppress people no one's saying that i'm gonna say it may be a tough pill you didn't have slaves but you've benefited from slavery you didn't tell people to go drink at the water fountains but the ones that told you identify you and look at you different as the ones that they did tell to go and drink at those water fountains now this is discussion of honesty some say keeping it real do you believe that you've benefited or not simply by the color of your skin that's a question for you to ask and you're alone to ask i'm not going to assume that on you but you have to ask yourself now if i had to make the assumption i would say yes somehow some way in capacity you have that system in that old way of thinking will only work for the success of technology for so long if you look at so many different companies out there ones and platforms we engage in every day there are really ramped up dialogues that are happening when it comes to the narrative of equality and are these companies themselves doing enough i'm not going to say some publicly i could but i'm going to be good for now next let's go to monica someone with comparative privilege who uses it on behalf of those with less well if we look at that yeah i think that's a big one and i want to talk about that and i want to highlight this one and i'm going to publish that someone with comparative privilege who uses it on behalf of those with less look everyone we need champions if there's anything that you get from today's session if there's anything that you take away from this from this discussion it's to know that we need champions that's you you're sitting here and you're sitting with me the program has been presented to you Christopher Lafayette.com has been presented to you a host of things that have been said to you Ian even this week but those that do have privilege those that do have opportunities i'm asking for your help because with this program that i built with what i put out there i can't do it alone and without you this program doesn't happen we need more champions we need more people to go out of their way and let me tell you when we talk about this this isn't affirmative action get that out of your minds that we're out to take your jobs yeah i hear a lot of people in the discussion saying well if we do that then what about me on the way i'm going to let you take my job away from me and my opportunities when you bring more different people in inclusive environments you level up the whole playing field and it creates more jobs it doesn't take away from jobs it creates more opportunities it doesn't take away from your opportunities it makes you better makes your product stronger makes you look better it makes the whole narrative better how many times do we want to how many more protests do we have to see how many more deaths do we have to see it's Pearson it's it's a hard it's a it's a hard pill to swallow but it's happening and it's so anyhow now is the time to make the change so when we look at this whole event this time together this journey down the road and when you go back into the office on monday after hopefully having a wonderful holiday weekend but when you go back ask yourself what have i done and if the answer is not enough which leads into what more could i do think about this discussion think about our journey today and to know that while you're going back to work and your nice job hopefully it's nice i really hope it is because a lot of people are going through a lot of things right now but when you're going back to your lifestyle know that there are people there are people that would fall on their needs to have one day of what you have the entire year there are people that are desperately wanting to get in and to build not just for compensation not just to earn a living yes that matters absolutely because they have as much desire as you do when it comes to building out technology and innovation don't you want to build better don't you want more contribution don't you want your products to be more identifiable to all races when they go to market i'm actually going to work with me i'm asking you to help me i don't know if i've ever gone in front of an audience and asked that but today today i'm doing just that so if we don't have any more questions and i believe that we've gone through all of them the ending of this i'll say this when my dad left and upon his demise my physical dad when he left i didn't have to wonder which way to go in life he'd been there for me my entire life my entire career thus far the day that he left i realized that he gave me everything that i'm supposed to have and i realized to this day even spiritually that i benefit the spirit still hear his voice and that the things that have been expressed to me even in times past i've benefited this day and that when i came to silicon valley and there were people like you that took time to listen and they really do a hand holding with me it changed my career and changed my life and so i want you guys to know and understand that since that's the case we want and i want you to know that pay it forward to give back and i see we have more questions that have just headed in because we're having a real conversation here in an open honest dialogue i want to read some of these questions because i don't want to let those go before we leave but i can feel that you guys are talking and we're having a real honest to goodness conversation illa william says it creates a place for everybody patrick chatman hi patrick hi yua patrick says i want to create a world where allies are not needed that's where we're headed for that's what we're aiming to that's the direction that we're going in that's where we want to be and patrick i want to help build that world with you james perkins an ally is someone that in community members identifies as actively supportive of that community that's right you see there's a lot of things happening in a lot of different communities but i'd like to take the way the keyword is actively supportive that means it's not just something that i do as a feel-good initiative on monday and i completely forget about it on lindsay and i may think about it again on friday and the next week to come after that i no longer think about it ever again because when you stop thinking and when we stop thinking about the need for allyship that means we stop thinking about the people that need our help can you imagine what it would be if someone stopped thinking about you so let's go publish this one we have a question here and this question is from and please forgive me if i spoke say it not wrong ike chukwa agbuchi welcome hi i am totally ready to build this ecosystem of people with you how do i go about this i'm just starting out in the field of it and i'm particularly interested in making artificial intelligence more inclusive what do i do at this entry-level position to build this inclusive economy that's a really good question and there's some complexities to it so let's tackle the first one as we go and we have some more other questions and statements hi i'm totally ready to build this ecosystem of people with you how do i go about this well the first step is having the courage and the vulnerability to do what you're doing now is by attending this conference so congratulations you've arrived you've taken the first step the first step is to know more and that you've acknowledged the situation and that goes for all of you sitting here when we talked about acknowledgement earlier you did it so congratulations you acknowledge that there's something to be acknowledged and that there's a situation at hand and that more importantly there's something we need to do about it now you're just starting out in the field of it and are interested in making artificial intelligence more inclusive now that you're just starting out i would submit to encourage you to take a look at put pen to paper and to start to identify areas where you see manifested bias where you see opportunities where things could be better when you look at natively the beginning of that machine learned sentient if you will and then ask the tough questions if you feel like you're comfortable enough to do it but sometimes the vulnerability and the courage has something to do with not our comfort but being uncomfortable and asking on where does this information come from and what communities does it affect because we need people that are looking at these products and saying how does siri or karkana or bixby or alexa affect other people and people of color where do they get their information from natively and other smart assistants and other chat bots and asking the tough questions internally then reaching out to communities such as btmp or others that you may know of there's others and saying this is some information i have what do you think about this and then start to ideate and create a dialogue and provide the solution on how to approach the situation when it comes to artificial intelligence more better when it's more inclusive because artificial intelligence just like virtual reality of minute reality and extended reality as a whole is extending reality as i said earlier that if we're going to extend reality then we must bring reality with it well a big part of that is knowing where the reality or the source of the information the uiux the design constructs come from because design has a lot to do with this see this is such a good conversation because when you have art and you have design and technology do know that you can have art without technology but you cannot have technology without art and so the influence of art itself in the culture that in which it's permeated in leads to the construct of the technology itself as a whole and so we have to go back to first principles and to look at the beginning to know how to start off right to continue forward i was always tight you start off right you end up right you start off wrong you end up wrong so good question and we appreciate you asking that another iwa i would like everybody to pay it forward both attitude knowledge and allyship but everybody should really have this better attitude from childhood well a lot of us grow up in different homes and in different situations a lot of us find ourselves in situations where the ones that have raised us they don't know this information you know general this is a generational to generational situation and it's geographically taught differently in different locations that's why when we talk about what are we going to do this and how do we approach this the first thing we have to do is approach within our own hearts and minds control what we can control i can't control my neighbor i can't control my colleagues nor do i want to but i want to look within my own heart and mind and say what is my singular contribution to society to my technology community what can i do to make the difference because one person can impact billions iwa says stewardship and strength see everybody and adapt the ones own attitude help others to adjust their attitude the way and the best way that we believe that you're going to adjust anyone's attitude is to be a product of the product be the change so when i launched the black technology mentorship program the hashtag that i decided to go with and my team was asking what are you going to go with and i said the hashtag which naturally should be is be the change i don't want to talk about what other people can do and what other people should do unless i'm doing that myself and if i'm not doing myself and suggesting others to do it there's a disconnect there i can't talk about equality i can't tell you about anti-racism i can't tell you about doing all those things if i'm a racist myself i can't tell you about refining and having an open minded approach and vulnerability if i'm not open or approach to open to hearing what other people from other different communities of gender or other communities of color have to express to me so that i can learn more about them guide is cardenas wonderful christopher can relate in different ways can we connect via email i'd be more than happy to and i'm very much looking forward to that you would text your compass it fit everybody and all i absolutely agree with that i absolutely agree with that it should be a place for everybody not just because it's a feel-good initiative you know silicon valley became incredibly wealthy overnight yes there was capital there was a lot of capital on hand beyond the last 20 years but over in particularly the last 10 years silicon valley in particular and technology is the whole became incredibly wealthy overnight and so they realized early on it's not like they haven't acknowledged perhaps even the linux foundation it's not like they haven't acknowledged hey we have a diversity problem we have a culture problem deficiency we have a gender problem deficiency it's not like they haven't acknowledged that but they did it under the banner saying okay let's throw some money at it put some feel-good initiatives out there and let's see what we can do to give the these camps and these groups and and let's say hey we're doing our part failure so now they acknowledge okay that was first wave diversity now we're looking at second wave diversity and saying second wave diversity is okay let's look at that as a revenue driver because we need to hire the people that we want to buy our products and people from different cultures serves as a better cog into our construct of our machines that we're building that's a good one but not enough now we look at third wave diversity now it's for the survivability of technology it's not about a feel-good initiative it's not about a revenue driver it's now about sustainable responsibility that if we continue to ignore entire communities that it will profoundly at some point impact all of us financially and emotionally now is the time to be proactive and not reactive we have solutions as we've come together before when it comes to building out technology i'm confident that we can come with solutions to make it better it's not an overnight situation but it has to start natively somewhere and by the answers and the questions and the replies of what i'm hearing today i feel more confident now than i did before i began speaking with you all today and lastly i'll leave you with this if you don't have room to be a mentor if you don't have room to be a mentee you don't have a desire to be an ally but you still want to do something and you may not want to volunteer fund it that's right i've never gone online and asked anyone to fund anything i just haven't a lot of people have told me chris you should i haven't wanted to ask for a dime but they said you should chris it's for a different cause because i've been embarrassed to do it but now i'm going to say it fund this initiative become a sponsor or a community partner in particular to the black technology mentorship program if you don't enjoy enough time you may be going through different hardships or what adjustments as we all are help me fuel this so that i can carry this further i can't do it alone i'm so grateful for this opportunity to be with you all i'm so appreciative that the linux foundation has began opening up its understanding for the needs for inclusivity no matter the color no matter the gender for us all to feel comfortable but also to have the dialogue and conversation to make us feel uncomfortable so that we can become more comfortable i appreciate the courage of everyone that had participated i look forward to hearing from many if not all of you soon you can follow me on link then you can message me you can reach out directly to christopherloffia.com i encourage you all to take a look and adventure and if we want to continue this conversation offline i wholeheartedly support that i ask that you build together and to build strong i hope the very best for you and what's coming especially in this new narrative that we find ourselves in this coven 19 arena i hope that everyone is being safe and will be healthy and more importantly i hope in the near future that we'll never have to have this dialogue again because we rolled the dice slot after new country and we landed thank you everyone for your time be well and take care