It is the time to connect, learn, and care for one another.
As Detroit activist Grace Lee Boggs once said, “Movements are born of critical connections rather than critical mass.” Thus, Code2040 returns with our once beloved Summer Summit, for the first time in Detroit, Michigan to honor its legacy of resistance, activism, and community care and to connect with its budding tech hub – therefore bringing light to Detroit’s unique intersection of social justice and tech.
Whether you are a college student barely breaking into computer science, the previous head of a now-defunct diversity and inclusion department, or an executive at a major tech company: we want to connect with you and create space for you all to connect with each other, learn together, and mobilize toward an equitable future. It will take all of us and it begins here, with connection.
Connect with us. Learn with us. Build a new world with us.
Now, more than ever, the veil is lifting to show how deeply broken our systems really are. For years, the story told within the innovation economy was that these systems exclude Black and Latinx communities; that we must break the barriers of access and create opportunities to build wealth. But the truth is… Black, Latinx, immigrant, queer, disabled communities are not just marginalized by these exclusionary systems – they are under attack.
Our industry---full of companies pioneering new technology and claiming to tackle some of the world’s most difficult problems---struggles not only with inequity within its halls but is directly responsible with these attacks in our community, as they create the very technologies that exploit, oppress, and surveil our communities. In a space where there is the ability to shape the future; create radical technologies to impact positive change; create solutions for all beings and this earth; and increase access to building abundance for our communities; we see rampant injustice, repression, and barriers to create meaningful shifts, instead.
The answer to this injustice lies in all of us. More than ever, Code2040’s mission for racial equity in the innovation economy requires the mobilization of a community of Black and Latinx technologists and their allies and accomplices. This is difficult, exhausting work but this is not the time to despair or be complacent.
TLDR; this event will feature:
- workshops on technical skills
- critical discussions about technology and AI
- workshops on racial equity organizing & advocacy
- opportunities to connect and network across the intersections of tech & social justice, featuring our Code2040 Fellows and community members
- a panel of local organizers, speaking to the power of tech in movement-building work
- free food, free DJ, swag, & more!