THIS IS A SPACE FOR US

So Shifts The Sector is a facilitated online conversation for, with, and about the Black/African American experience in the tech sector.

Together, we will decipher and name the occurrence of white supremacy and patriarchy and employ life strategies that can clarify where these constructs exist.

Through this journey, we will procure tools that help us solidify and center our individual autonomy in the face of micro and macro aggressions in the workplace (such as white fragility, resistance, reactivity, and general sensitivity).

SSTS is a data project about the Black experience in the tech sector and will inform our growth through 2025.

A Conversation between SSTS Facilitator Diedra Barber and our CEO Mimi Fox Melton

2023 Info sessions begin July 15.

Visit the SSTS website for more info and to sign up.

Visit the SSTS 2023 Website
 

Meet Diedra, Our Facilitator

“My professional background is in education equity, training design and facilitation, program management, operations and business development, organizational behavior, and change management. I attended and completed multiple higher education college/university programs. For most of my life, I have been extremely mind/intellect and body/physically driven.

My personal background is in engaging daily the ever-present work of transmuting white supremacy and patriarchy™ in how I think, move, interact and believe. For me, transmuting white supremacy and patriarchy is at the core of this work and intertwined in it, as opposed to separated or adjacent.”
— Diedra Barber, Founder of Filament Consulting Group

Frequently Asked Questions

  • This journey is open to Black/African American current and former technologists in all sectors and sub-sectors.

  • Absolutely not! All conversation pathways are free. To attend, simply complete and submit the registration form and await an emailed confirmation.

  • In order to make this project available to more folks in our community, we have multiple conversation options for each Red, Black, or Green pathway. See complete date options here.

  • An answer for the “I”: So Shifts the Sector is an opportunity to engage in conversations about experiencing reality as a Black/African American in the tech sector without centering the white gaze and experience. If you are wanting an opportunity to share challenges and joys specific to the Red, Black or Green pathway focal points being offered, we are wanting you to join us because your experience and reality matters. Your voice matters. Your existence matters. We want you to join us!

    An answer for the “we”: So Shifts the Sector is an opportunity to support Code2040 as it seeks to use its platform to highlight, elevate and center the Black/African American experience from the Black/African American lens with what is said and shared by us NOT what is assumed and presumed for us. Code2040 wants to know how Black/African American technologists are navigating the tech industry in the current moment. Your participation will not only contribute to this knowledge building, but you will be helping co-create a more powerful community of Black/African American technologists.

  • You can learn more about her approach here.

 
* We acknowledge that for some the specification of Black/African Americans for this particular journey is triggering. That is what anti-blackness feels like. We also acknowledge that other communities within the BIPOC spectrum could also benefit from such a journey customized for their experience of white supremacy and patriarchy. We emotionally, mindfully, intellectually and heartfully support folks stepping up and stepping in to create similar journeys for their specific communities. If there is any interest in understanding the process and method for this journey designed for Black/African American technologists to support the customization of a journey for others in the BIPOC community, please let us know. To the best of our ability and capacity, we will share thoughts, processes, and ideas that we have engaged to create this journey.