In a week that has seen rideshare giants Uber and Lyft undergo tremendous scrutiny because of their top executives’ ties to President Donald Trump, all is not lost on the “little people” who are in need of some form of on-demand transportation.

Another rideshare platform, known as Moovn, stands a great chance of taking a substantial amount of disgruntled passengers who have been involved in the #DeleteUber movement for the past several days. Launched in 2015 by a Melanoid man from Tanzania by the name of Godwin Gabriel, the app has created quite the buzz on social media and by word of mouth. As of right now, the app is available for passengers in several markets, including Atlanta, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Seattle. Moovn also is gaining an international presence, setting up shop in cities like Johannesburg, South Africa, and Nairobi, Kenya.

The recent launch of Moovn couldn’t have come at a better time. In October of 2016, the National Bureau of Economic Research released a study which found that many Melanated people — namely Black people of African/Melanoid descent — were being discriminated against on both sides of the rideshare platforms…as passengers and as drivers. In an August 2016 interview with Geekwire, Gabriel stated that “Being a late-comer in this space allows us to learn from our competitors’ missteps, which has helped us strategically navigate our own course towards continued growth”.

If the app achieves much success, it is due solely to Godwin Gabriel’s ability to serve a need to a demographic that is being disproportionately marginalized while simultaneously serving the transportation needs of the dominant society as well. His disruptive approach to a relatively new marketplace which has already shown more than enough  “Good Ol’ Boys’ Club” tendencies will serve him well in his endeavors with Moovn.

For those who may be wondering, this app is named Reachfolk, it’s about to make Black Society’s life a little easier–one city at a time. Created by podcaster and author Daniel FreeMan (who wrote the Bestselling book titled: How To Make A Dollar Out Of Fifteen Cents!), the platform is currently in its beta stages, and a campaign to raise the funds to complete the development of the app has been launched which can found by following this link.

Whether you’re looking for a Black Owned hookah lounge or a mechanic, Reachfolk is a surefire way to stay connected–no matter where you are.

B. Clark

Ethel Easter, a Black woman who resides in Houston, went recently under the knife because of intestinal issues. Prior to her procedure, Easter decided to place a small audio recording device in her hair to catch anything that her surgeons possibly could have said about her while she was rendered unconscious. Her reasoning for doing this was because of skepticism from the less-than-professional treatment she received during her consultations with her doctor, who demanded the following:

Who do you think you are? You’re gonna wait like everyone else.

Ms. Easter recalled the doctor telling her this in response to her sense of urgency and concern in regards to her wanting to prevent further damage to her internal organs. She was ordered to wait two months, as opposed to a much shorter time frame. What was to take place during her surgery was extremely cruel. The surgeons would make snide remarks about Easters physique, with one of them at one point even referring to her as “Precious” (the movie character portrayed by actress Gabby Sidibe).

For more on what was said about Ethel Easter during her surgery, watch the following video.

B. Clark

The social media giant, which found itself in hot water after it was revealed that its employees were crossing out “Black Lives Matter” (and replacing the term with “All Lives Matter”) on the headquarters’ signature wall, has been a hot button issue as of late.

Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg stepped forward to order his employees not to make such changes to the signature wall, citing the following statement which was included in a company announcement letter:

“I was already very disappointed by this disrespectful behavior before, but after my communication, I now consider this malicious as well”

For more on Zuckerberg’s written statement regarding his employees’ anti-Black gestures, please view the following photo.

As expected, the controversy surrounding this issue prompted many to take yet another look at the minuscule amount of Black employees who work for Facebook. This is perhaps one more case of the systematic exclusion of Black tech professionals from Silicon Valley. As seen in this story’s featured image, Facebook has changed its sign to be decorated with a traditional African tribal-themed print.

To get a glimpse of how the regular Facebook greeting sign looks, view the image below.

In spite of Zuckerberg’s attempt–albeit a contrived one–to smooth over his company’s image (as it pertains to Black people), many are not convinced. In recent months, it has been shown that many Melanoid people with a large Facebook following have witnessed their accounts be suspended when using their accounts to address specific Black issues, which is a stark contrast to the countless white supremacists who have used their Facebook pages to spread and cosign anti-Black–and often violent–rhetoric, which often goes unpunished.

In order for Black Society’s social media experience to remain fair and enjoyable, a solution has presented itself, which will prove to ensure just that…a fair and enjoyable social media experience; free of harassment and trolling by white supremacists.

For more on this solution, please follow this link.

B. Clark

The game, titled Playing History: Slave Trade, is a video game created and released by Copenhagen (Denmark) based company, Serious Games Interactive back in 2013. The premise of the game allegedly was intended by its developers to be used as an educational tool for children between the ages of 11-14 about the treacherousness of the Slave Trade, although the content of the game appears to be less-than-sensitive toward people of the African Diaspora, let alone “educational”.

As you can see in the featured image of this story, there appears to be an animated/ digitized image of African captives being dumped into a slave ship in large quantities and forced to all fit into the ship at once, which is eerily similar to the objective of the 1980’s puzzle-themed video game titled: Tetris. The founder of the Slave Trade game, Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, used Twitter to justify his reasoning(s) for creating the demeaning game, only to later delete his account earlier this month.

Here is another screenshot from the game below.

Although the trailer for the video game was edited in order to leave out the slave ship scene, it remains a segment of the game. Games such as these are a vivid reminder that there is a need for us to create our own video games among other things.

B. Clark

Van Jones is the co-founder of the Ella Baker Center For Human Rights in Oakland, CA. He is also a Yale-educated attorney who has authored two New York Times bestselling books, and has been heavily involved in high levels of the U.S. government.

Oh yeah, and he also cares about Melanoid youth.

In fact, Jones cares so much about Melanoid youth who are disenfranchised, that he has created a vehicle of empowerment for them. #YesWeCode is an initiative that targets “low opportunity” youth (namely Melanoid youth) and provides them with the necessary resources and tools to become world-class computer programmers. In an age where our youth lag far behind youth outside of Black Society, Mr. Jones has taken on the task of giving our youth the opportunity to compete–and in many cases outperform–their non-Black counterparts in the tech fields.

Watch Jones discuss the mission of #YesWeCode in the video below:

As stated in the video above, the goal of the organization is to get 100,000 low-opportunity youth to be trained to become coders. The impressive fact about this movement is that the majority of the youth benefiting from this will be Melanoid youths who would have otherwise saw doors slammed shut in their faces by similar initiatives in the dominant society.

Van Jones’s contribution to the empowerment of our youth is highly commendable, and necessary at this point in time. To date, there is a lack of initiatives such as #YesWeCode that will change–and broaden–the concept of success among Melanoid youths. As the world becomes increasingly tech-dependent, our next generation of young Black professionals will be better prepared for the demands of the world around them.

To enroll young Melanoid prospects into #YesWeCode, follow the link below.

http://www.yeswecode.org/search

B. Clark

Tristan Walker is the visionary behind the creation of Bevel, a collection of shaving and grooming products with Melanoid men in mind. Because so many Melanated men suffer from Pseudofolliculitis Barbae, aka “razor bumps”, our skin requires special care that will maintain healthy skin after shaving. Mr. Walker has filled a large void by creating these products.

As a long-time entrepreneur in the Bay Area’s Silicon Valley, Walker got his start in the area by working as an intern for social media giant Twitter. In an interview with the San Francisco Business Times, he explains,  “I want Walker & Co. (Walker’s company which created Bevel) to be the last thing I do. I want it to outlast me. I want to create a brand that lives on and that people really trust.”

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Walker’s accomplishment with his mission is that he has been able to do so from Silicon Valley, an industrial sector of the U.S. that has traditionally lacked a substantial Melanoid presence. His accomplishments don’t stop at Bevel alone. Walker has launched a non-profit by the name of Code 2040, which seeks to steer more Melanated young professionals into the tech industry.

By creating Bevel, Mr. Walker has given Melanated men a healthy alternative to the traditional selection of shaving products that often fall short on their advertised objectives of clean shaves with no skin damage. This in itself, is “cool”.

To purchase Bevel products, go to getbevel.com .

B. Clark

Dr. Achilefu, a professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, recently won the St. Louis Award for 2014 due to his creating a technology that will enable surgeons to literally see any existence of cancer cells in a patient’s body as they are being operated on. The technology comes in the form of goggles–specifically with night vision capabilities–that will aid in detecting cancers in the body.

See Dr. Achilefu’s explanation of his innovation in the news clip below:

With his work guaranteed to revolutionize the ever-growing medical field, our youth will be able to look to people such as Dr. Samuel Achilefu for inspiration as they embark on careers in fields that can truly make a positive change in the lives of many, most notably the lives of their Brothers and Sisters in Black Society.

The Nigerian siblings have shown their love for computers since an age when many barely learn to recite their time tables. Osine developed interest at the age of 7. It was also at this age that he and his brother, Anesi Ikhianosime, who was 9 at the time, came up with the idea of starting a company. Fed up with Google Chrome, they decided to embark on a way to remedy their frustrations with the widely-used web browser by developing their own.

After learning to code at the ages of 12 (Anesi) and 14 (Osine), their hard work paid off, which allowed their efforts to launch Crocodile. The app currently has approximately 5,000 downloads. To add to this remarkable feat performed by the young Melanoid siblings, they embarked upon this project in 2013, around the same time they started to learn to code.

The younger Anesi has already stated that he wants to create another app that will solve real world/real life problems, such as traffic and communication issues. Considering the ages of the young Brothers who have already earned the title of ‘problem solvers’, The future shines brilliantly for them both. The following video shows an ad for the browser, which launched recently.

Check out the story here.

by B. Clark