Best Posts in Forum: Career, Work, Finances and Education

I went to a HBCU in Atlanta and being openly back then was unheard of...even at or near Morehouse. It was until around 10 years ago that it became more pronounced and even then it was controversial because the Out men were all flamboyant and wanted to dress like women, the schools even tried to impose dress codes.

 

Yes increasingly for any group(unless you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth) you have to word hard as well as have some lucky breaks, or even better, the ability to see and take advantage of opportunities when they arise. It is not just opportunity-it is the ability to see and realize an opportunity is there, and then to seize it and act upon it. It is easier for whites of course, but not as easy as it was and it is getting worse for everyone as society loses the middle class and increasingly becomes a bifurcated society with fewer 'haves', and many many more 'have nots'.

 

I personally think this is one of the biggest reasons. A lot of us want to go back and help the community. Unfortunately the way capitalism is set up, doing that type of work does not pay well.

Also having a mentor to give you career advice goes a long way.

 

I had one student openly ask in a group of girls recently if I had a boyfriend. And I replied "no." Then if I had a girlfriend. And I replied "no." If I liked men. And I replied "no." Then she asked do you like girls. And I said "no." Then I asked "why is this information helpful for you in anyway shape or form?" Then she just left me alone afterwards. I'm actually glad that she was so straightforward though, because I hate when people are thinking things, will talk for days about you behind your back but never ask, or create their own stories.

 

That's actually a good idea. I feel like a lot of gay men do that. Part of the reason they're super successful is because they don't want anyone to give them shit for being gay. Plus, it really matters if you're in a setting where you don't have job protections.

 

I was apart of a community service program in college where we would go to local schools and education programs to tutor and mentor kids. I also briefly was an adviser at a high school. It really depends on you on how open you are to to share your personal life. Kids are very inquisitive especially if they see an highly educated young black male (its surprisingly rare for some of them to even see this) they feel they can relate to and want to know Everything about you lol. They will want to know if your dating or seeing anyone but I told my kids I was single and working on school and make money they understood. But they prob though I was just f*** randoms lol smh. I know when I was dealing with urban high school students one girl tried to openly flirt with me in Spanish (her teacher caught on right away and stepped in). One boy asked did I go to the strip club (I acted like I didnt hear the question). Only one HS boy asked if I was gay (I lied and said no) but I think he secretly had a crush on me cause he called me his baby once and thought I didn't hear it smh. So its just up to you on how much you choose to reveal.

 

Both have benefits and different levels of responsibility but... These folks out here talmbout "I'm renting because I may leave [Insert City X here]." but have been living in [City X] for 6 years and haven't even looked at employment at another city or saved enough to move away from where they are.... You may as well buy. Even if it's a one bedroom condo.

Now if you just don't want to have the overhead of a mortgage, I totally understand. There's insurance, plumbing, appliances, yard work... That's all on you but you have a consistent payment and unless you have a money pit house/condo most people won't be replacing an hvac or stove every year. And you can always get used appliances on the low low.

Also markets vary so buying in Atlanta may not be ideal but renting in Jackson, MS may not be ideal. There's a lot of variables to consider.

 

Everyone wants to be perfect at something. But when it comes to your credit score, that perfect 850 score may not be worth the anxiety. In reality, your score only has to be good enough to impress lenders.

Ted Rossman, analyst at CreditCards.com, noted this in a recent article where he explained his strategy for choosing a new credit card. “Once you’re at 740-plus, you’ll qualify for the best terms,” he said. Actions that impact your score a little bit—like applying for a new credit card—might ding your score a few points, but not enough for you to be concerned about the health of your credit profile, he explained.

But 740 is 110 points below that top score. Can you really get the best rates for loans, credit card interest rates, or other banking products with what feels like getting a B+ instead of an A?

I asked Rossman why 740 is a magic number. “Anything 740-plus is considered excellent and lenders don’t distinguish beyond that,” he said. That’s because there are a variety of scoring methods that lenders use to determine how creditworthy you are when you apply for credit.

VantageScore, the number you often see when you use free credit score tools, is a collaboration among the three credit reporting bureaus, and there are two versions of that method that could be used to calculate your score.

But lenders more frequently use FICO to generate credit scores. And, like VantageSCORE, FICO has several different versions of its own scoring model. “Different lenders use different formulas, often because they get comfortable with one and want to avoid the cost and hassle of upgrading,” Rossman explained.

Mortgage lenders can use scoring models as old as FICO 2, while FICO 8 and 9 are the most commonly used FICO models, Rod Griffin, Director of Education at Experian, said. He considers the key score benchmark to be 750. “It depends on the type of score and the lender’s threshold,” Griffin said.

And just to add one more wrinkle to this whole situation, some scoring models have a top score that’s well into the 900s.

But don’t worry about the 850s and the 900s right now. Instead of working on your numerical score as a financial goal, it’s more important to think about what factors make up that score.

If you pay at least your minimum balance on time and don’t use too much of the credit that’s been extended to you, you’re likely to have a solid credit score, although the actual number may vary depending on where you look. So stay clear of your credit limit and set up autopay for your monthly statement. Once you hit that 750 range, you can be confident that you’ve earned a spot near the top of the class.

https://twocents.lifehacker.com/this-is-the-credit-score-you-should-actually-be-strivin-1838037288

 

After winning a $52 million lottery jackpot in 2010, Miguel Pilgram used his winnings to launch his own real estate company, The Pilgram Group, and invest in properties across South Florida. Now, the successful businessman is committed to reviving Sistrunk Boulevard, a notorious corridor in downtown Fort Lauderdale once known as a thriving Main Street for African Americans.

Known as the “historical heartbeat of Fort Lauderdale’s oldest black community,” Sistrunk Boulevard runs through the city’s black business district. It was named after James Sistrunk, a black physician who helped establish the first African American hospital in Broward County in 1938. During this time, segregation laws banned African Americans who lived west of the tracks from crossing over to the east side after dark.

After desegregation, Sistrunk Boulevard gradually declined into an area plagued by gun violence and riddled with drugs and abandoned buildings. To restore the distressed community to its original days of glory, Pilgram has purchased three buildings and plans to build a jazz lounge, blues lounge, restaurants, and a center for performing arts.

“For me, it’s [about] preserving the community as a whole,” Pilgram told an NBC local affiliate station in South Florida, adding that Sistrunk was once a hub of “success for businessmen.”

According to community activist and legal specialist Edduard Prince, foreign developers are “drooling” to invest in Sistrunk. However, far too often, areas like Sistrunk are then stripped of their cultural identity while native residents are pushed out through gentrification.

“The black residents of the community know that they’re in [a] prime location, they know that they’ve been fighting for years, and developers are drooling over the property,” Prince told the station.

Pilgram’s plan for development, however, is to preserve the area for local residents. “I was raised in a similar environment,” he told The Sun-Sentinel. “There is a need, and in my mind, an obligation, to invest there.”

 

Meet Married Couple Charles and Ricky, Co-Owner's of Lambda Vodka, the first New York vodka born from the LGBTQ community.

www.lambdavodka.com

 

This is a long but very good read!




It was a dream job, the type of assignment that could make or break the career of an ambitious executive with an eye toward the top. “It was my first big promotion,” says Bernard J. Tyson, the 57-year-old CEO of Kaiser Permanente, a health care company with nearly $60 billion in annual revenue. The year was 1992, and Tyson, then in his early thirties, had been named administrator of one of Kaiser’s newest hospitals, in Santa Rosa, Calif.  “Everyone knew this was the hospital to lead,” he says.

His physician partner, an elderly white gentleman named Dr. Richard Stein, was less excited by the news. “It was one of those Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner sort of welcomes,” Tyson recalls. And it went downhill from there. The two men were constantly at odds, unable to collaborate, with most conversations ending in angry standoffs. “He would say something, and I would react,” says Tyson. “It was the most difficult relationship I have ever had.” Failure seemed inevitable.

One day Stein invited Tyson for a walk. “He said, ‘I have to confess something to you, something that might end our relationship,’ ” Tyson recalls. “I have never worked with a black man like this.” He meant as a peer. Stein, it seems, didn’t know what to say, how to act, what to expect. Tyson saw it for the opening it was. “It was at that moment I realized that the majority of the population doesn’t have any sort of mental road map for how to relate to and work with someone different from themselves.”

Tyson credits Stein with the courage to open up about race. It changed the trajectory of their relationship and their work together, helping Tyson fine-tune a philosophy of inclusion that he believes can inspire empathy and courage within the organization he now runs—one that employs 180,000 people in eight states and the District of Columbia.

“I have the opportunity and the obligation to change the narrative around complex conversation like race that help us work together toward common objectives,” Tyson says. “but to do that, we have to tell the truth.”

Let us begin, then, with one cold, hard-numbered truth: For much of corporate America, racial diversity continues to be at best a challenge—and at worst a flat-out fiction—particularly in the executive ranks. There have been only 15 black CEOs in the history of the Fortune 500, of whom five are currently in the role. (Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox XRX 1.57% , is the only woman; Kaiser Permanente, the organization that Tyson runs, is a nonprofit and therefore ineligible for the Fortune 500.) Nor is it much better outside the corner office. According to a corporate diversity survey released last June by the office of Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, black men and women account for a mere 4.7% of executive team members in the Fortune 100 (the top 100 U.S. companies by revenue), a share that hasn’t budged since the survey was first conducted in 2011. Even at smaller companies, African Americans hold an estimated 6.7% of the nation’s 16.2 million “management” jobs, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, though they make up twice that share of the population at large.

Numbers, however, don’t capture the frustration that many black executives feel as they try to thrive and compete in a realm where race is often seen as an asterisk on their résumés and an unspoken subtext in conversations about career advancement. Black women, to be sure, face biases related to both gender and race—a double whammy of headwinds in the flight up the company ladder. For black men, though, the challenges of the corporate life are daunting at least in part because they are sometimes hard to pin down—influenced as much by age-old prejudice as by cultural preconceptions, the subtleties of psychology, and the weight of human history (more on that soon).

For this story Fortune focused on the particularity of being black and male in corporate America. We spoke with dozens of black men about their lives and careers, interviewing executives at major companies, as well as researchers, educators, and talent experts. Many were eager to discuss the subject of race and the pressure they sometimes feel from having two “jobs” at the office: an official one, managing a team or division, and the other, “representing” other African Americans who have yet to make it into the room. “If you’re being asked to show up at diversity fairs or be the ‘person of color’ at events unrelated to your job function, it costs you,” says David Thomas, 59, dean of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

Some of the people we interviewed, such as Tyson, have made it. Some are just a few levels down from the top of the power pyramid. Others flamed out or opted out entirely. But most share some striking points of view. Many of these men, for example, spoke of having to constantly calibrate their public miens: striving to appear focused at the office but not too aggressive; hungry but not threatening; well dressed but not showy; talented but not too damn talented. Nearly all had experienced conversations shutting down (or being shut out) when matters of race were brought up; nearly all felt a profound sense of concern for the generation of black men to come, fearing that if they did nothing personally to develop the talent pipeline, the share of African Americans in business would only dwindle.

After more than half a century of corporate diversity efforts—the first of these programs evolving in the wake of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—this is where we stand. With the best of intentions, companies have spent untold billions of dollars on minority recruitment, bias training, mentoring, and support groups. One 2003 estimate put the value of the diversity-training business at $8 billion a year—a figure that may well seem conservative given recent initiatives. (Last year, for example, a single company, Intel, announced it was investing $300 million over three years to improve the gender and racial diversity of its workforce and the inclusiveness of its corporate culture.) Ninety percent of Fortune 100 companies now have a chief diversity officer. Nearly every major company has express policies and plans to broaden workplace diversity.

These “best practices,” however, simply aren’t as effective as many believe. To cite one analysis, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard, and the University of Minnesota evaluated the diversity programs of 708 U.S. companies from 1971 to 2002 and could find very little evidence of long-term positive impact. Other academic studies have revealed a growing backlash by white employees to diversity programs that many had once supported. A team of psychologists from the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Washington, for instance, recently reported that the mere fact that a company has a diversity policy can lead some white employees (even those who had previously considered themselves allies of the diversity cause) to believe they are being treated unfairly.

For many black men in corporate America, this new antagonism over diversity programs has only added to the frustration and sensitivity. It is a strange catch-22: The more that issues of race in the workplace are brought to light, the more prone and isolated some black executives feel. And yet the less often issues of race in the workplace are brought to light, the easier it is for the unsaid to negatively influence careers—and the more prone and isolated some black executives feel.

After the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Bernard Tyson wrote a candid essay on LinkedIn about being a black man in America. “It was the image of an African-American kid, shot down and left in the street,” he says. “Regardless of how it happened, you personalize that.” Then he pauses, leaving unsaid the sentiment that many black men feel: It could have been me. His post, titled “It’s Time to Revolutionize Race Relations,” laid bare his own experiences as a black man and touched a nerve. The essay generated nearly 450,000 views and close to 3,000 comments and more than a thousand Twitter TWTR 8.12% mentions.

While many black executives do their best to separate their professional skin from their human one, there are nearly constant reminders from the outside world that the two are the same. In his recent conversation with Fortune, Tyson ticks off a list of experiences he’d had in the previous few weeks: pulled out of the security line for a public pat-down as he attempted to enter his own luxury box at a football game; a crisp lecture on proper tipping that accompanied the check at an upscale restaurant; a woman clutching her purse tightly as he walked by.

The CEO talks openly about such interactions. When colleagues ask why he “exposes” himself that way, he answers with what has become a familiar refrain: “We have to be able to tell the truth about these things.”

Building a Black Engineer
In 2014 several firms, led by Google GOOG -0.07% , published diversity data that showed how underrepresented African Americans are in tech. Facebook FB 0.08% , Google, LinkedIn lnkd , Yahoo, YHOO -0.29% and Twitter TWTR 8.12% all reported that just 1% of their workers were black. Nobody was surprised.

Dr. Freada Kapor Klein, a diversity expert and partner at the Kapor Center for Social Impact, has a theory as to why the tech sector is so seemingly resistant to diversity in its ranks. “There is a deep and shared mythology that it is a perfect meritocracy,” she says—a self-reinforcing vortex of talent drawn from certain schools, with identical credentials, wearing, most likely, similar garb. “Unless that gets dismantled, there is no way to implement effective diversity programs,” says Kapor Klein.

Former Obama administration official, Jim Shelton.Photograph by Patrick James Miller for Fortune
Last year two black executives from Twitter abandoned their separate quests to dismantle the meritocracy trap. Leslie Miley, the highest-ranking black engineer (he won’t give his age), and Mark Luckie, 32, the second-highest-ranking black employee, both quit. Loudly. Then, in separate posts on Medium, they went public with personal treatises on their experiences inside a company that they claim failed to recruit, hire, and develop black talent in any meaningful way. Miley’s attempt to introduce more diverse engineering candidates into the hiring process who didn’t have typical Silicon Valley educations or résumés triggered a laundry list of objections from colleagues, he says. When he proposed a new job to focus on onboarding and welcoming minority tech talent into the firm, he got an earful. After a particularly tense conversation with his boss about recruitment tactics, Miley claims he was told, “Diversity is fine, but we don’t want to lower the bar.”

David Thomas, Georgetown’s McDonough School dean, says such arguments reveal a bias called attribution error. “People are more likely to trust performance data—that someone, for example, is an outstanding performer—if they’re white,” he says. If you’re not expecting positive performance from a particular group, such as black men, you may attribute their success to external factors, like affirmative action or luck. Translation: If you hired a black programmer, there’s a good chance you “lowered the bar” to do so.

Such ingrained attitudes make it harder, Thomas says, for black employees to find sponsors who believe in them—to create a market for them inside the company and out as they progress in their careers. His own research has found that it takes people of color longer than their white counterparts to transition into their first managerial job. Bias in the form of attribution error is probably a factor.

Back at Twitter, Luckie, who was the company’s manager of journalism and media, tackled the diversity issue from the New York office. Where were the black people? he wondered. And why weren’t they being promoted? “There was no buy-in from leadership,” Luckie says today. “It’s such a horizontal company, and there isn’t a lot of room to grow. People who were promoted looked just like their manager.” (A Twitter spokesperson says the company is committed to “making Twitter more diverse and inclusive” and is “making substantive progress.”)

Both Luckie and Miley were active participants in the BlackBirds, the black employee affinity group at Twitter. But the collective had very little impact as a development or advancement mechanism, they say. In an attempt to break down barriers, Luckie even launched an informal “Ask a black guy” initiative. “The sales teams asked … how to get Twitter involved in things like the Essence Festival or to get black influencers to support product launches—but there were some Beyoncé and twerking questions,” he says with a sigh.

The relative lack of minority employees at Twitter was particularly galling, say Luckie and Miley, because the platform had become such an important tool for the global black community, through a vibrant and dedicated subset of users known as Black Twitter—who speak to one another about the reality of blackness in America and who often contribute original reporting, spreading news through ad hoc hashtag communities like #BlackLivesMatter. “Black Twitter is one of the best-use cases for Twitter itself,” says Miley. “Yet instead of figuring out what we could learn from powerful groups like this, we were losing ground to Instagram.”

Miley and Luckie felt as if they were living a case study in corporate frustration—and when both men quit, they left without a job. Luckie wrote a novel called DO U, about men at a fictional black college, and now runs a site called Today in Black Twitter. Miley, who says he “became the angry black guy” before he left, had a bumpier exit. When he made his decision to leave the company, he waved off a severance package in order to be legally able to share his story. He is now the director of engineering at Entelo, a private company that builds—wait for it—recruiting software. But the job search was nerve-racking. “My Medium post has come up in every interview,” he says. “I make people nervous.”

The Power of Networks
David Sutphen’s black father and white mother fell in love at their jobs at the Social Security Administration, in Kansas City, Mo.  They got hitched during their lunch hour, rushing across the state line to Kansas, where it was not prohibited for mixed-race couples to marry. Their lives were lives of ever-present risk, says Sutphen, managing partner at the Brunswick Group, an advisory and consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.  The racism they faced was front and center.

Google Capital’s David Drummond both believe that early intervention is the key to filling the black talent pipeline.Courtesy of Google

Today Sutphen, 46, sees executive men of color managing a different kind of racial challenge—a balancing act. Black executives, he says, often have to play the role of “happy warrior,” mastering the art of being exceptional but not frightening. Groups of black men can be … intimidating, he says—then laughs: “There’s not going to be a Most Powerful Men of Color conference [at Fortune]. But we could use one.”

For many black men, that double standard starts very young. A striking 2014 study by UCLA professor Phillip Atiba Goff and colleagues and published by the American Psychological Association found that black boys as young as 10 years old were viewed as older than—and not as “innocent” as—white boys the same age. (Children 9 years and younger were seen as equally innocent, regardless of race.) Other studies show that black boys are more likely than white boys to be disciplined and sent to remedial programs for the same acting-out behaviors. And many people Fortune spoke with for this story say that many of the challenges that black men face in corporate hallways begin here—in childhood. In elementary school hallways.

Too many of them get lost there. “We know that if a boy can’t read by third grade, he’s four times less likely to graduate from high school,” says Jim Shelton, 48, a former deputy secretary of education who is now president for the online education company 2U. “And it gets worse from there.” A kid who has been suspended once by ninth grade is twice as likely to drop out, and black boys are four times as likely to be suspended. In 2014, Shelton was tasked with setting up My Brother’s Keeper, a corporate- and foundation-backed initiative launched by President Obama to address the “opportunity gaps” and “achievement gaps” faced in particular by boys and young men of color.

As high-profile and as high-minded as My Brother’s Keeper is, though, it is also sprawling in scope, from early-childhood health screenings to reading programs to efforts to reduce community violence. What matters most, though, is that MBK itself is a mechanism to connect boys with a network of successful adults. In the same vein, what often counts most for professional men is the intimacy of a social network. Relationships, in short, matter.

After Obama was elected, Sutphen reached out to his childhood pal Jon McBride, who had earned a post in the Obama White House in the Presidential Personnel Office. The two began to plan informal networking dinners in D.C. to get a handle on the new administration. But what started as a few dinners with friends and new acquaintances turned into a regular series of events that became increasingly more structured. Lots of industries were represented. “It became a convening platform, with special guests, to talk about issues that matter to us, like education,” Sutphen says. But it quickly turned into a place where people could get the kind of high-level coaching that should have been coming from sponsors inside their firms. “ ‘I’ve got a chance to head to Europe, should I take it?’ ‘Got any intel on this company?’—that type of stuff.”

Ed Welburn, GM’s vice president of global design, turned a childhood love of cars into a dream job. GM’s outreach helped get him there.Photograph by Marvin Shaouni for Fortune

Like Sutphen, Charles Phillips, the 56-year-old CEO of Infor, a $2.8 billion enterprise software firm, has an informal network of his own—a supper club of two dozen business leaders and professionals, most of whom prefer to remain anonymous, who have raised millions of dollars for causes they care about. But he also routinely meets with young black tech executives coming out of Facebook, Google, and other Valley companies, and offers counsel where he can. “I started at Wall Street and made my career at Oracle,” says Phillips, who was a former co-president at the software giant. “I didn’t work with any black people for most of my career.” Now he relishes the chance to provide feedback on matters of due diligence and arrange meetings with prospective partners for the young entrepreneurs, or even facilitate direct investment in their startup ideas if it makes sense.

From the high perch of CEO, Phillips has also been able to transform Infor—making the decision at the top of the company to change the way it recruits at the bottom. To find entry-level employees, he set up a central talent pool, filled with interns drawn from a diverse selection of colleges, designed to eliminate the cronyism that typically accompanies hiring. The company has started to collaborate with certain colleges with curriculum support and certification programs, specifically to create more work-ready candidates. “We recruit, train, and place interns in divisions. Managers don’t know who they’re going to get. And it comes out of my budget, not theirs.” He says leaders are happy because they get unique talent that they don’t have to pay for. Phillips also incentivizes company recruiters to focus on retention. “We want people to stay past a year, and that takes mentorship and coaching.”

Ed Welburn, 65, knows the power of that. As a kid he fell in love with a Cadillac concept car, he says. When he was 11, he wrote a letter to a GM GM 1.06% executive saying he hoped to work there one day. “I got an answer,” he said: Keep sketching, and get yourself to Howard University.

Welburn did just that, entering the fine-arts program at the venerable Washington, D.C., institution—one of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs. As it turned out, says Welburn, “the professors had such a deep relationship with GM, they were able to fine-tune my curriculum to help me prepare for a career there.” When he got his dream job in 1971, he was the company’s first black designer. Welburn, GM’s vice president of global design, now runs all 10 of GM’s design centers and sits on its executive-leadership team.


The symbiotic partnership between U.S. automakers and HBCUs, indeed, has helped prepare young black engineers for technical careers in auto manufacturing for at least two generations. By hiring at all levels, the automakers played a significant role in helping people transition from servant class to middle class.

The lesson isn’t lost on David Drummond. “The relationship between the HBCUs and the automakers is historically really important,” says Drummond, a senior vice president at Alphabet and chairman of Google Capital. “And we’re trying to do the same thing now.” In 2015, Google doubled the number of schools where it recruits and started embedding engineers at a handful of HBCUs, including Howard, to teach and demystify the process of applying for jobs in Silicon Valley. “It’s part of a broad plan the company has launched to change diversity numbers,” he says. “We’re taking a long look at who is getting promoted and why talent may not have been as recognized in the way that it should.”

The Lost Generation
For a generation of business-hungry black men in their twenties and thirties, there is another question to answer—and that’s whether it’s too late. The question, though, has a twist: Is it too late for corporate America?

Darian Wigfall, 34; Damon Davis, 30; William Porter, 35; and Ross Gibson, 29, are huddling in a corner bar called Whiskey Ring on Cherokee Street in St. Louis. It’s an artsy street: “Kind of like our Brooklyn,” offers Porter. They are all college educated—“Well, I only went to college for a hot minute,” says Porter, and Gibson had to postpone the last few credits on his master’s in behavioral neuroscience when a family member got sick. All four men are keen observers of the race dynamics around them. We are 11 miles from where Michael Brown died. “The movement took off here,” Wigfall says of #BlackLivesMatter, sounding determined. The troubles that all the men had witnessed growing up were blown up into a global debate in and about their own backyards.

Over craft beers and premium whisky, they explain why they are convinced that corporate life isn’t for them. “There’s just no way,” says Wigfall. Wigfall and Davis tick through an almost comical list of roles they play—artist, filmmaker, DJ, web designer, author, music industry mogul. They’ve co-owned a record label called FarFetched for five years. They all believe that they have access to the tools they need to succeed on their own terms and a network of friends and community that sees them. They see no need to invest in a corporate career that isn’t designed to invest in them.

“My grandmother had a barbershop for years, right over there,” says Porter, pointing to a shuttered storefront. “I can build a community business, be part of things.” He opened his own place up the block, MasterPieza, offering gourmet pizzas. How did he learn to make pizza? “YouTube,” he says with a laugh. “I learn everything there.” If his business ideas are workable, he can scale them on his own.

Corporate America, it seems, is missing out.

That said, Gibson is missing something too: He could use some cash. He has arrived at our meeting with a thick textbook on venture capital and is planning to raise a round of funding for his newest project, Ardefact, a luxury shopping site that has a crowdsourced procurement element baked into the mix. “I’m learning how to structure deals,” he says, patting the book. He is also a real estate scion of sorts. “My grandmother was big in rural Arkansas real estate,” he says with a laugh. He co-owns some property, including the building on Cherokee Street that houses the venue where FarFetched holds release parties. He waves off talk of Silicon Valley and says has never heard of Sand Hill Road or venture titans like Marc Andreessen. But his face lights up when I mention former Twitter engineer Leslie Miley. “That dude!” he says with admiration. “Do you think he’d take my call?”

An Inside Look at What’s Keeping Black Men out of the Executive Suite
A version of this article appears in the February 1, 2016 issue of Fortune.

 

While giving a talk about Minority Serving Institutions at a recent higher education forum, I was asked a question pertaining to the lack of faculty of color at many majority institutions, especially more elite institutions.

My response was frank: “The reason we don’t have more faculty of color among college faculty is that we don’t want them. We simply don’t want them.” Those in the audience were surprised by my candor and gave me a round of applause for the honesty.

Given the short amount of time I had on the stage, I couldn’t explain the evidence behind my statement. I will do so here. I have been a faculty member since 2000, working at several research universities. In addition, I give talks, conduct research and workshops and do consulting related to diversifying the faculty across the nation. I have learned a lot about faculty recruitment over 16 years and as a result of visiting many colleges and universities.

First, the word ‘quality’ is used to dismiss people of color who are otherwise competitive for faculty positions. Even those people on search committees that appear to be dedicated to access and equity will point to ‘quality’ or lack of ‘quality’ as a reason for not hiring a person of color.

Typically, ‘quality’ means that the person didn’t go to an elite institution for their Ph.D. or wasn’t mentored by a prominent person in the field. What people forget is that attending the elite institutions and being mentored by prominent people is linked to social capital and systemic racism ensures that people of color have less of it.

Second, the most common excuse I hear is ‘there aren’t enough people of color in the faculty pipeline.’

It is accurate that there are fewer people of color in some disciplines such as engineering or physics. However, there are great numbers of Ph.D.’s of color in the humanities and education and we still don’t have great diversity on these faculties.

When I hear someone say people of color aren’t in the pipeline, I respond with ‘Why don’t you create the pipeline?’ ‘Why don’t you grow your own?’

Since faculty members are resistant to hiring their own graduates, why not team up with several other institutions that are ‘deemed to be of high quality’ and bring in more Ph.D.s of color from those institutions?

If you are in a field with few people of color in the pipeline, why are you working so hard to ‘weed’ them out of undergraduate and Ph.D. programs? Why not encourage, mentor, and support more people of color in your field?

Third, I have learned that faculty will bend rules, knock down walls, and build bridges to hire those they really want (often white colleagues) but when it comes to hiring faculty of color, they have to ‘play by the rules’ and get angry when any exceptions are made.

Let me tell you a secret – exceptions are made for white people constantly in the academy; exceptions are the rule in academe.

Fourth, faculty search committees are part of the problem.

They are not trained in recruitment, are rarely diverse in makeup, and are often more interested in hiring people just like them rather than expanding the diversity of their department.

They reach out to those they know for recommendations and rely on ads in national publications.

And, even when they do receive a diverse group of applicants, often those applicants ‘aren’t the right fit’ for the institution. What is the ‘right fit’? Someone just like you?

Fifth, if majority colleges and universities are truly serious about increasing faculty diversity, why don’t they visit Minority Serving Institutions — institutions with great student and faculty diversity — and ask them how they recruit a diverse faculty.

This isn’t hard. The answers are right in front of us. We need the will.

For those reading this essay, you might be wondering why faculty diversity is important. Your wondering is yet another reason why we don’t have a more diverse faculty. Having a diverse faculty — in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion — adds greatly to the experiences of students in the classroom. It challenges them — given that they are likely not to have had diversity in their K-12 classroom teachers — to think differently about who produces knowledge. It also challenges them to move away from a ‘white-centered’ approach to one that is inclusive of many different voices and perspectives.

Having a diverse faculty strengthens the faculty and the institution as there is more richness in the curriculum and in conversations taking place on committees and in faculty meetings. A diverse faculty also holds the university accountable in ways that uplift people of color and center issues that are important to the large and growing communities of color across the nation.

Although I have always thought it vital that our faculty be representative of the nation’s diversity, we are getting to a point in higher education where increasing faculty diversity is an absolute necessity and crucial to the future of our nation.

In 2014, for the first time, the nation’s K-12 student population was majority minority. These students are on their way into colleges and universities and we are not prepared for them. Our current faculty lacks expertise in working with students of color and our resistance to diversifying the faculty means that we are not going to be ready anytime soon.

I’ll close by asking you to think deeply about your role in recruiting and hiring faculty. How often do you use the word ‘quality’ when talking about increased diversity? Why do you use it? How often do you point to the lack of people of color in the faculty pipeline while doing nothing about the problem?

How many books, articles, or training sessions have you attended on how to recruit faculty of color?

How many times have you reached out to departments with great diversity in your field and asked them how they attract and retain a diverse faculty?

How often do you resist when someone asks you to bend the rules for faculty of color hires but think it’s absolutely necessary when considering a white candidate (you know, so you don’t lose such a wonderful candidate)?

Rather than getting angry at me for pointing out a problem that most of us are aware of, why don’t you change your ways and do something to diversify your department or institution’s faculty?

I bet you don’t, but I sure hope you do.

An Ivy League professor on why colleges don’t hire more faculty of color: ‘We don’t want them’

 

COMPTON, Calif. (KABC) -- A 16-year-old Compton teen has made history by becoming the youngest African-American to pilot an airplane around the continental U.S.

Isaiah Cooper landed at the Compton-Woodley Airport around 10 a.m. after traveling more than 8,000 miles in 13 days. In the beginning of his journey, Cooper ran into a little trouble but did not give up.

While flying through Wyoming, he faced extreme wind shear and was forced to land and switch planes. He said quitting was never an option for him.

"Just stay focused. There's a lot of people that will try to detract you from the road that you're on," he said. "Whatever you want to do, you can do it, just put your mind to it."

He added he has no plans to take it easy after completing his record-breaking trip. His next goal is to fly around the world solo when he turns 18, which would be another record.

 

http://lifehacker.com/renting-is-throwing-money-away-is-completely-false-1747050568

You might have heard the old adage “renting is throwing money away.” It seems like common sense. You don’t buy anything when you rent, but you keep to keep the house you buy. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

As personal finance blog Afford Anything breaks down in massive, incredible detail, buying a home is a lot more complicated than “Rent, except you get to keep it.” Not only are there major additional costs that you’ll be paying for the rest of your life (like repairs, renovations, and property tax), but for the first several years of your mortgage, you’re barely even gaining any equity!

Should you keep renting? Is renting better than buying? Or should you purchase a home? Is buying the better choice? Your answer is going to depend on a massive number of factors, including:

• The local price-to-rent ratio.
• How long you’ll live there.
• Your alternative investment options.
• Your assumptions about inflation and investment gains.
  
• Maintenance, repair, insurance, property tax and capital expense costs.
• The rate at which rents rise.
• Et cetera, etc., etc.

You get the picture. My goal is to impress upon you — once and for all — that this myth that “renting is throwing money away” is wrongheaded. In fact, it’s dangerous. It oversimplifies a life-changing, six-figure decision. It’s probably caused thousands (or millions) of people to buy houses they later regret.

The entire piece is long, but should be mandatory reading before making the decision to buy versus rent. While it’s true that you’re buying an asset when you purchase a house, it’s an asset that barely keeps pace with inflation, and you lose the opportunity to make other investments. Not to mention, renting is underrated. Even if you think you’ve considered this topic top to bottom before, you’ll likely find some information you hadn’t thought of before (like a detailed explainer on the price-to-rent ratio) that you hadn’t thought of before.

Renting is Throwing Money Away … Right? | Afford Anything via Rockstar Finance

 

My first job was as an aftercare and VPK (Preschool) teacher at a daycare. I was in my senior year of high school and I was making bank at that job! (well.... as a highschooler, I was making bank lol), it was rewarding working with the kids and helping them with their homework, and helping with the infants, man I loved that job, I'll always remember it. Best part is, it was only two houses away! and I helped myself get the job, I volunteered there for three months and after that the boss hired me. I loved it. Although when your the only male working in a place full of women, there was so much drama between the women at that job that at one point the police got called..... at a daycare? like as the kids would say "where they do that at"? That place could've been a reality show, Lmaooo! After working there though, I can't look at daycares the same. smh lol.

But what I did love is that many of the parents liked me so much (you know as the only guy I got alot of shine. lol) so they would let me babysit their kids on the weekend. And most times during babysitting I never had to do anything since the kids were asleep by the time I got there, the mom would order pizza and dvr my soaps for me. lol

 

My first job was as a Page for the Senate of VA. That was a great experience. Being able to have a front row seat to law making. It was my sophomore year of High School and I was the only black page that year, so it was of course an interesting experience.
My career first job, that I applied and got hired for is what I am doing now, teaching Special Education. I was a tutor while in college over the summers and it made me realize I didn't want to do anything much with my Business Management degree I was working toward. I then went to grad school for Special Education and applied two years during that time trying to become a teacher and it wasn't until I graduated with my degree did I get hired.

 

What is your occupation/profession or job?

Nursing Assistant and Licensed Phlebotomist

In addition:
Degree or nah?
Nah. lol.But I'm working on it as I'm currently in school
Why did you pick it? How did you get it?
I picked it because I didn't want to work jobs that had nothing to do with what I wanted to do, which my goal one day is to become a Physician in the capacity of a Nurse Practitioner, I'm thinking of specializing in pediatrics but the night is young. lol. And I got it because I applied and got hired.
What do you do at work? (be specific, titles mean nothing)
As a nursing Assistant I help the patients get dressed, assist them with medication and daily hygiene needs. As a Phlebotomist, you draw blood, process specimens and assist with also centrifuging specimens as well.
How long have you been working there?
As a nursing Assistant for about ten months and for phlebotomy since december.
Are you satisfied? Are you looking for something else?
As a phlebotomist yes, I decided to become a phlebotomist to do something more medically oriented.
Is the pay good? (is it really holding you down?)
It is, I've managed to garner alot for my someone my age, so I feel blessed because of that.

 

My first job was working for a lawyer during my freshman year of high school. I would work 3 hours a day every day filing papers, making copies, cleaning up the office and running back and forth the courts. Then I would work full-time in the summers. (I also worked at a museum.)

After I graduated from college, the lawyer introduced me to someone who introduced me to someone else who helped me land my first professional job out of college...which was my dream job. To this day, I have not held a professional job that I've applied for and give my first job and boss the credit for paving the way for me as a professional. I learned a lot at a young age and that has benefited me throughout my career.

 

Until Tyroc mentioned it, I was going to inadvertently skip over my 2 years as a paper boy (ages 13 - 15). A year after surviving that bit of torture, I got a job as a courtesy clerk (bag boy) in a grocery store. The day that I turned 16, I got my license, drove to the grocery store, filled out an application, and stalked the store manager every other day for weeks until he finally hired me.

 

This is cool. I'm an index fund + extras kind of dude. As they say, the market only goes one way- up. Get in now (or low...you know, just get IN) and leave it there for 15-20 years. And then relax.

And for the record, my "extras" are things I hold near and dear- pharmaceuticals, medical devices, rehab facilities, insurance companies (hey, if you're gonna pay them, they might as well pay you too!). Health care baby. I can't wait to actually get enough money to plow it into these areas-then it'll actually make a difference.

 

I understand the workers reaction. This globalization, post industrial, neo-liberal, economy is designed to make the average man and woman in the "first world" into 3rd world peasants. Political and social elites have been selling us on this "free trade" bullshit since the 1970s the results have been disastrous for most of us. But there is a reason this is happening. It's designed to give the ultra wealthy complete and total control over the population. Call it plutocracy or neo-feudalism. But whatever you call it the results are the same. Bernie Sanders is one of the few people in politics fighting against this or even talking about it.

 

Even with this,I feel like some people will find a more covert way to express their homophobia.Kinda like how instead of lynching cops these days do "random" stops and searches. Like you said,just gotta assess the situation.

 

I'm here for the form and technique. I like classical music and all of the mechanics of it,and ballet looks like the visual form o of it. It looks unreal and flowing. Plus I'm into melody over rhythm,so I like things that operate in a way I sort of wouldn't predict .

 

@Champagne_Papi not another damn teacher on here. What a gay ass occupation. But naw, I would have never expected you to be a preschool teacher.

 

What is your occupation/profession or job? Political Officer, Diplomat

In addition:
Degree or nah? Bachelors in Political Science and Communications, Masters in Security Studies & Diplomacy
Why did you pick it? How did you get it? I applied with the State Department, took the foreign service exam, and was a little lucky.
What do you do at work? (be specific, titles mean nothing) represents the interests of the US abroad. The job varies in scope every day.
How long have you been working there? 3 years
Are you satisfied? Are you looking for something else? Mostly satisfied, this is my dream job. I was a university teacher and paralegal before this and I hated those jobs.
Is the pay good? (is it really holding you down? Pay is solid. Although who couldn't use more?

 

@Ockydub, thank you for continually highlighting that our folks can take advantage of investing and the financial market without being ballers. Picking individual stocks is in some folks' swim lane even if they don't have a large portfolio to manage. Others have a sizable portfolio, but don't want to pay a significant management fee. I would like to throw an idea out there for non-ballers and ballers alike, consider a robo-advisor: The Best Robo-Advisors - NerdWallet

I have a Certified Financial Planner. Yet, I will be throwing some free cash in a robo-advisor fund this month to see how the return compares when I'm not paying 1% of my portfolio to my advisor. Over time, a .25% - .45% fee compared to a 1% fee (or higher for a smaller portfolio) can make a significant difference.

There are wealth creation vehicles out there that most folks don't know about. I make all of my charitable contributions through a donor advised fund (We can get into the specifics later.). When I found out about funds like this, I was like WTF?!? I have a formal education, including an advanced degree, why didn't I know about this "ish?" I didn't know because these perks were created for a different sub-set of the population even though they are available to us all.

I am writing this novella merely to say please invest in yourself if you have any spare cash. Fifty ($50) dollars a month is $600 a year. Trust me. It may not sound like a lot, but the money grows if you let it sit in your account without touching it (through the good times and the bad). *climbing off of my soap box, but want to say thanks again to Ocky for pointing out that investing doesn't have to be a burden or scary.

The Best Robo-Advisors

ARIELLE O'SHEAMarch 14, 2016 Advisors, Investing

In the space between DIY investing and personal — but expensive — financial advisors sits the robo-advisor, a crop of companies that manage client portfolios via computer algorithms, cutting costs and passing the savings on to investors. These online advisors have taken off over the last several years: There are currently a couple hundred firms in the race.

The bones of the services are often similar: Most use low-cost exchange-traded funds to build a portfolio, then rebalance that portfolio on a regular basis. Many provide elevated features, like tax-loss harvesting on taxable accounts. A few offer access to dedicated financial advisors. To help you identify which robo-advisor is best for you, we’ve selected the top services for each type of investor.

The best robo-advisors overall
These robo-advisors have inexpensive management fees, a diversified ETF portfolio and reasonable account minimums.

• Offers superior tax efficiency on accounts over $100,000. See our Wealthfront review.
• Management fee: 0.25%, waived on first $10,000 in account
• Account minimum: $500
• Promotion: NerdWallet readers get the first $15,000 managed for free

Get started

• Goal-based tools motivate investors to save more. See our Betterment review.
• Management fee: 0.15% to 0.35%
• Account minimum: $0
• Promotion: Up to six months of free management

Get started
Two robo-advisors stand out from the crowd: Betterment and Wealthfront. Both have low account minimums, easy-to-use interfaces and innovative features. The services differ in their fee structure: Betterment uses a three-tier pricing system, under which balances below $10,000 pay 0.35% (or $3 a month without auto-deposit). The fee drops to 0.25% for balances between $10,000 and $100,000, and to 0.15% for balances of more than $100,000. Wealthfront manages the first $10,000 completely free, then charges a flat fee of 0.25% on the rest. That free management makes the service cheaper on balances under $100,000; investors who cross that threshold will pay less at Betterment. But Wealthfront also offers direct indexing, a tax strategy that can close that fee gap on taxable accounts (more on this below).

Best robo-advisors for free management
These online advisors charge no management fee.

• Offers management free of charge, though additional services like tax-loss harvesting are paid add-ons. See our WiseBanyan review.
• Management fee: $0
• Account minimum: $10 to open, but no balance requirement

Get started

• Free management from a trusted leader in financial services. See our Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios review.
• Management fee: $0
• Account minimum: $5,000

Get started
Let’s make one thing clear: Very little in financial services is completely free. Both WiseBanyan and Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios offer portfolio management free of charge, but the investments used — primarily ETFs — still carry expense ratios. But that’s true of all investments. Overall, you’re likely to pay less at these robo-advisors, but you should carefully consider features. WiseBanyan makes its money from paid add-ons: Tax-loss harvesting, which is beneficial for taxable accounts, is part of the package deal at many other advisors (including top choices Wealthfront and Betterment) but costs 0.25% here. Schwab uses many of its own funds in client portfolios, meaning those aforementioned expense ratios add to its bottom line — but it gives investors access to an impressive selection of 20 asset classes. Schwab also offers free rebalancing, and tax-loss harvesting is included on taxable accounts with balances of $50,000 or more.

Best robo-advisors for 401(k) management
These advisors will manage your employer-sponsored retirement plan.

• Manages Fidelity 401(k)s that are enabled with BrokerageLink completely free. See our FutureAdvisor review.
• Management fee: 0.50%; several services are free
• Account minimum: $10,000 for premium service
• Promotion: Three months of free management

Get started

• Manages employer-sponsored plans for a flat monthly fee. See our Blooom review.
• Management fee: $1 or $15 a month
• Account minimum: $0

Get started
Most robo-advisors manage IRAs and taxable accounts but leave you in the dark about your 401(k). These two advisors attempt to fill that hole. Blooom specifically focuses on management of employer-sponsored plans like 401(k)s and 403(b)s, charging a flat monthly fee of $1 for balances under $20,000 and $15 for balances of $20,000 or more. The company works within the investments offered by your plan, and offers free analysis so you can test the service before signing up. Accounts are rebalanced every 90 days. FutureAdvisor manages an array of account types held at Fidelity or TD Ameritrade for a 0.50% management fee, but Fidelity 401(k) and college savings plan management is completely free.

Best for access to a financial advisor
These robo-advisors combine the lower costs of online investment management with a dedicated financial advisor.

• Portfolios are built on a client-by-client basis. See our Vanguard Personal Advisor Services review.
• Management fee: 0.30%
• Account minimum: $50,000

Get started

• Offers a number of tools completely free. See our Personal Capital review.
• Management fee: 0.49% to 0.89%
• Account minimum: $25,000

If you’re not comfortable with a computer taking the reins, but you’re intrigued by the lower management fees involved, you might be interested in a hybrid service that pairs computer automation with human financial advisors. The best of these hybrid services come from Vanguard Personal Advisor Services and Personal Capital. Both have high minimum investments — $50,000 and $25,000, respectively — but offer personal service with customized portfolios and dedicated advisors. Vanguard’s management fee is more in line with the rest of the robo-advisor competition at 0.30% (it is subsidized, at least in part, by the use of Vanguard’s own funds in portfolios). Personal Capital’s fee is tiered by balance but skews high: Accounts with balances under $1 million pay 0.89%.

Best for minimizing taxes
Investors with taxable accounts will want a robo-advisor that offers first-rate tax efficiency.

• Direct indexing service is available on accounts of $100,000 or more. See our Wealthfront review.
• Management fee: 0.25%, waived on first $10,000 in account
• Account minimum: $500
• Promotion: NerdWallet readers get the first $15,000 managed for free

Get started

• Offers individual securities for accounts of $100,000 or more. See our Personal Capital review.
• Management fee: 0.49% to 0.89%
• Account minimum: $25,000

Both Wealthfront and Personal Capital offer superior tax strategy for customers with taxable account balances that top $100,000. Wealthfront’s direct indexing service purchases individual securities rather than index funds or ETFs, zeroing in on tax-loss harvesting opportunities. The company says the service can add as much as 2.03% to annual investment performance (effectively canceling out the fee difference between Wealthfront and Betterment on taxable accounts of that size). Personal Capital also has the ability to use individual securities rather than funds on accounts with balances of $100,000 or more; it says its tax optimization services can increase returns up to 1% annually.

 

I think the article should've mentioned that those "life-long learners" that frequent the library either grew up in a house where books were prevalent and the parents stressed the importance of literacy or those life-long learners found the joys of reading on their own terms.

I'm finding it incredibly difficult to get my students interested in reading (let alone attending a library) and that is in part due to the prevalence of "distractions" (i.e. TV, cell phones, video games, social media, etc.) that occupy an enormous amount of people's lives.

 

I have relatives that work at IBM. They were told there jobs are moving to Canada. One of reasons given was that costs would be cheaper since Canada has socialized healthcare. They still want to keep them under contract to train the new guys though. SMH

 

Nominative profiling does exist especially if your name sounds too ethnic. I heard that interview this morning too but left before they got into this discussion. My name is like a multiple threat. It's could be Muslim, Middle Eastern, African, or Spanish. In corporate America, it is easy to be singled out and could uniquely work in your favor if you are top in your dept or field . Or if you work in a call center and interface with the public, you could be subject to unfair prejudice based on the first few seconds of how you drive the call will create a lasting impression. If you don't speak intelligently and professionally you won't be taken seriously/respected. #facts.

 

I try to not mix church and state aka sexuality and work. It seems though that the culture in the Pacific Northwest is very open and accepting. I don't think it would be a big deal to even bring it at work. I just don't like to be prejudiced for my sexuality. Being black in tech is already hard enough.

 

Lowkey, he shouldn't have gotten fired for that. She indicated in the text that she got a new number, therefore he didn't know. How he decides to respond to text messages in his personal life is not Maribel's business.

 

I somewhat agree man. It also puts one in a position to motivate other gay men. But i think my biggest worry would be my orientation overshadowing the work i actually do. Like the football players that have been coming out. I dont hear about how many touch downs they made just that they are gay and were spotted eating somewhere

 

I was the overachiever. Valedictorian. Involved in clubs. All that. And was nice to everyone enough where I was voted Homecoming King.

 

Horrible work-life balance is the primary reason why I left the legal field and law school on the same day. I was working as a paralegal for a medium sized disability law firm and attending law school. The firm was prosperous, everyone enjoyed decent salaries, outstanding benefits, profit sharing etc. But all of that came at a huge price. I worked 50-60 hours per week, studied for another 20 hours that I became miserably depressed. After a while, I discovered that the managing partners and associates attorneys were even more miserable than me. Despite having money or the options of going on luxury vacations (which were never actual vacations because we still worked) I finally discovered that it never ended. One day, I got so fed up that I typed my resignation letter turned it into my boss and walked out. That same day, I unenrolled from law school and never looked back.

The current status of our work life in America is ridiculous, people only work to pay bills, working longer hours for shittier salaries and with no benefits.

My current job requires that I work longer hours sometimes but it is work that I love but at the end of the day, I recognize that my job/profession is just that, a job. It is not my life. People around the world get that, that is something we need to start recognizing in America.