Apple educational investment in Oakland linked to meeting between Cook, Rev. Jesse Jackson
Apple's recent educational investments into Oakland, Calif. were prompted by a talk between CEO Tim Cook and civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, according to a report.
Image Credit: Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY
"Tim, all these companies say they can't find talent," Jackson recalled telling Cook after an Apple shareholders meeting, sharing the quote with USA Today. "Oakland is the most multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural city on the West Coast. It's within shouting distance of most of these tech companies. They say 'we can't find them,' Well, they aren't looking in the right places. Come to Oakland. You'll find one of the most creative, innovative, spirited talent bases right in the backyard of Silicon Valley.'"
Apple recently donated 40 iPads to the East Oakland Youth Development Center, which is operating a six-week summer camp aimed at introducing kids to technology and skills they might not otherwise have access to. Many of the kids are impoverished minorities and may not have access to computers at home, despite Oakland being directly linked to San Francisco, one of the world's biggest and wealthiest technology hubs. Apple has offices there and its main headquarters isn't much farther away, in the town of Cupertino.
Lisa Jackson -- Apple's VP of environmental, policy and social initiatives -- reportedly first visited the Development Center in June, and last week told USA Today that the children there are "working on everything from learning to code to writing r?sum?s." The Center said it is eventually hoping to teach dedicated coding classes.
Apple has occasionally come under pressure from groups like Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which have noted that many Silicon Valley companies are disproportionately white. The company has made some progress in diversifying -- its latest official statistics identified its U.S. workforce as 56 percent white.
Image Credit: Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY
"Tim, all these companies say they can't find talent," Jackson recalled telling Cook after an Apple shareholders meeting, sharing the quote with USA Today. "Oakland is the most multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural city on the West Coast. It's within shouting distance of most of these tech companies. They say 'we can't find them,' Well, they aren't looking in the right places. Come to Oakland. You'll find one of the most creative, innovative, spirited talent bases right in the backyard of Silicon Valley.'"
Apple recently donated 40 iPads to the East Oakland Youth Development Center, which is operating a six-week summer camp aimed at introducing kids to technology and skills they might not otherwise have access to. Many of the kids are impoverished minorities and may not have access to computers at home, despite Oakland being directly linked to San Francisco, one of the world's biggest and wealthiest technology hubs. Apple has offices there and its main headquarters isn't much farther away, in the town of Cupertino.
Lisa Jackson -- Apple's VP of environmental, policy and social initiatives -- reportedly first visited the Development Center in June, and last week told USA Today that the children there are "working on everything from learning to code to writing r?sum?s." The Center said it is eventually hoping to teach dedicated coding classes.
Apple has occasionally come under pressure from groups like Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which have noted that many Silicon Valley companies are disproportionately white. The company has made some progress in diversifying -- its latest official statistics identified its U.S. workforce as 56 percent white.
Comments
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/protestors-call-jesse-jackson-shakedown-artist
Nevertheless??? The percentage of whites in the overall composition of the U.S. workforce is not projected to come down to 65% until 2020, so Apple is already significantly MORE diverse than the overall workforce population.
Hint: the title of the article might provide a clue.
I trust Tim Cook does not succumb to this trouble maker. I worked for a large public utility until I retired 10+ years ago. The pressure was put on to hire a more diverse work force that would mimic the same percentage make up of its customers. There are few minorities available in the work force that are / were sufficiently technically inclined to be able to hold a job that was not given to them. They hired all they could hire & then some.
It is very difficult, if not impossible to hire a "correct" racial makeup without discriminating against the existing employees. Not all are unqualified, but you cannot run a technical organization based upon Jesse Jackson's, et. al., formulas. The one way ticket to the moon and beyond still stands. I know many fine blacks that will contribute to the cause if I cannot pay the ticket price.
I bet you can name the others who are big trouble makers. Look at the cities that are being looted and burned. Look at the conventions that are being picketed. This guy makes no positive contribution to life. I respect Martin Luther King's methods and I am a white southerner (WASP).
Don't start kissing up to these trouble makers Apple. I will liquidate my holdings if you do and buy something else.