Joint Center President Spencer Overton Joins Verizon Panel on Tech and Black Communities

On September 12, Joint Center President Spencer Overton participated in Verizon’s panel, Tech is the New Normal: How Black Communities Thrive in the Digital Economy.

The description for the conversation focused on “how [African Americans] leverage the power of technology in today’s connected world” as “African American communities across America are embracing new technologies and innovations that have the potential to transform our communities by increasing economic opportunities and reducing social disparities.”

Other participants included Rev. Jesse Jackson, Mayor Steve Benjamin, Mayor Frank Scott, Jr., The PLUG Founder Sherrell Dorsey, TechBirmingham President Deontée Gordon, and Brookings Foundation Center for Technology Innovation Fellow Dr. Nicol Turner Lee.

Watch a short clip from the panel below.

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The diversity budgets and the press releases don’t matter if they’re not collecting adequate data and telling you how you’re represented across the data tables. We’re not asking the right questions about what we’ve built, what are our outcomes, and what we TRULY need to move the architecture forward. Stop settling. No one is coming to save us. Said a few words on the @Verizon panel on tech is the new normal at @congressionalblackcaucus conference to shake our cities alive. Let’s Control our own narratives. Join me to help me watch the movement @tpinsights.

A post shared by Sherrell Dorsey (@sherrell_dorsey) on Sep 12, 2019 at 4:15pm PDT