{"id":125924,"date":"2022-06-21T16:01:58","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T16:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=446577"},"modified":"2022-06-21T16:01:58","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T16:01:58","slug":"celebrating-black-entrepreneurs-who-are-helping-to-make-sure-each-industry-looks-like-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/06\/21\/celebrating-black-entrepreneurs-who-are-helping-to-make-sure-each-industry-looks-like-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Black entrepreneurs who are helping to make sure each industry \u2018looks like America\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

One such recruit<\/a> grew up near a landfill in Durham, North Carolina, Campbell says, in a family plagued by health challenges. Communities made up of racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be near toxic sites, causing much higher rates of severe asthma, hospitalization and death for Black and African American children \u2014 ailments that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe paid this student as an intern to help build out the internship program for the summer, and she hops on the calls with Microsoft and tells the story in a way better way than I can,\u201d drawing from her lived experience to eloquently share these communities\u2019 needs, Campbell says. \u201cIf you have a seat at the table, you should responsibly use it to give a different perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with developing large-scale solar farms for corporations, Volt is investing in community solar projects to encourage developers and banks to participate and is helping low- to moderate-income households get loans for solar panels.<\/p>\n

Campbell hopes his partnership with Microsoft will serve as inspiration for others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re doing the right thing, others need to be able to see that and hopefully emulate it, and that\u2019s how change comes about,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is a great opportunity to reimagine the role corporations can play. To make underserved communities vibrant in a new clean-energy world they can play a vital part in would be a beautiful outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building a gaming industry \u2018reflective of our upbringing\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Two
Cxmmunity co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Chris Peay (left) and co-founder and CEO Ryan Johnson (right) (Photo provided by Cxmmunity)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like Campbell, Ryan Johnson and Christopher Peay graduated from historically Black universities and then found the business world to be a lonely place. The two friends wanted to start careers in esports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to a ton of video-game and esports-centric events across the country, and there was never anyone of color,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n

Even though 83%<\/a> of Black teens play video games \u2014 a higher rate than other ethnicities \u2014 only 4%<\/a> of video game developers are Black or African American.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe quickly realized the industry isn\u2019t reflective of our upbringing, so we decided to try to provide equal opportunities for minorities,\u201d says Peay.<\/p>\n

In 2020 Johnson and Peay reached out on LinkedIn to Darrell Booker, who had just helped start<\/a> Microsoft\u2019s Nonprofit Tech Acceleration program as part of the Racial Equity Initiative. With cash and skilling grants from the company, they created an esports league<\/a> for historically Black colleges and universities \u2014 32 HBCUs now participate, and students earn prizes including scholarships \u2014 along with high school and college academic programs to teach digital literacy through the lens of gaming. They also provide funding to build on-campus computer labs with equipment strong enough to support esports, a placement program for internships with video-game development companies in California, and an esports summer camp for kids in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver our 22-week program last school year, we reached an audience of 15 million people, so we\u2019re bringing a level of awareness to the HBCU community that didn\u2019t exist before 2020,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cIt\u2019s huge for us. And having Microsoft\u2019s name behind us to go in and talk to different partners established us and helped us<\/a> get other corporate sponsorships to accelerate the growth of our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dad
Cxmmunity Chief Financial Officer Warren Davis and his daughter, Charlotte (Photo provided by Cxmmunity)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They named their venture Cxmmunity<\/a> \u2014 with the X replacing the O as a nod to inclusive gaming, since X is a main functional button for lower-cost video-game consoles as well as gaming computers that cost thousands.<\/p>\n

Providing communities with the support they actually need<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Microsoft enters the third year of its commitment to the Racial Equity Initiative, Booker says, company leaders are tearing down walls, banishing preconceived notions and partnering with other corporations and organizations to provide underrepresented communities with the support that\u2019s actually needed.<\/p>\n

Booker was recently talking with a small nonprofit in San Francisco that\u2019s a beneficiary of the initiative, and they asked if he could offer graphic design training. They were trying to create a one-page flyer to hang in schools promoting their work with student athletes, but it kept bleeding onto a second page.<\/p>\n

\"Man
Darrell Booker, based in Atlanta, crafted and leads Nonprofit Tech Acceleration for Black and African American Communities, part of Microsoft\u2019s Racial Equity Initiative. (Photo by DV Photo Video)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt really hit home to me that these organizations have a huge need from a marketing standpoint, and that\u2019s not something that we inherently provide,\u201d Booker says. \u201cBut even if we can help them be the most advanced from a tech standpoint, if they\u2019re missing that piece of it, they\u2019ll never have the impact that they want. So I found another company who was able to come in and assist with some of those things, and that\u2019s a lot of what I\u2019m doing now as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe less we all work in silos,\u201d he says, \u201cthe more these organizations will benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

That on-the-ground relationship is critical, says Charisse Bremond Weaver, who connected with Microsoft not long after she became CEO 16 years ago of the Brotherhood Crusade<\/a>. It\u2019s a nonprofit in South Los Angeles that her father founded in 1968 and at one point mortgaged the family home to keep open.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s literally a labor of love,\u201d says Bremond Weaver, who recalls growing up in a home full of Black and African American activists, entertainers and politicians \u2014 as well as friends in need of housing whom her parents invited in for months at a time. \u201cI love my community, and if they\u2019re in pain, I\u2019m in pain, so I push to get as many resources as possible to love and care for the most vulnerable in south LA.\u201d<\/p>\n

A communications major, Bremond Weaver says she had to learn to be an entrepreneur as she followed in her father\u2019s footsteps under the mentorship of Danny Bakewell Sr., who led the organization for 35 years. The most important thing she did, she says, was to create an advisory board of people who believed in the Brotherhood Crusade\u2019s vision and had strengths different from her own. She also had a goal of meeting five new people every month, which was what connected her to leaders at Microsoft.<\/p>\n

\"Woman
Brotherhood Crusade President and CEO Charisse Bremond Weaver (Photo provided by Bremond Weaver)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cash and technology grants from the company have helped Bremond Weaver expand her organization to 45 full-time employees, from seven when she took over in 2006, and are helping the group provide and track wraparound services such as healthcare, sports and job training to more than 3,000 young people a year aged 10 to 24, 70% of whom are Black or African American. The Brotherhood Crusade\u2019s services help kids who are growing up in neighborhoods without parks or green spaces to exercise in and without the technological infrastructure needed to study or work remotely, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat small investment we\u2019re making in the lives of young Black students will pay dividends for life\u201d \u2014 and for generations to come \u2014 Bremond Weaver says. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just about the monetary support, but about seeing our students and hearing their stories. It\u2019s not my story to tell. It\u2019s different when you\u2019re talking to a young person at a restaurant, and you have five young people and three executives at that table, it\u2019s a real conversation. And the kids are learning that\u2019s what happens when you go to the corporate world \u2014 you go out to lunch, you engage, you tell your story, you articulate who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corporations have a responsibility to invest in the communities they do business in, and if they do, they\u2019ll \u201creap the dividends of great results,\u201d Bremond Weaver says, recalling the support she saw her father get from the community as well as the investments in her own leadership skills that gave her the confidence to succeed him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many poured into me, and it\u2019s now my responsibility to pour back into my community,\u201d she says. \u201cEveryone needs a door opened. It\u2019s when those doors are opened that we get to do the great work we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Top photo: Volt Energy Utility<\/span> Founder and CEO Gilbert Campbell (Photo provided by Campbell)<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One such recruit grew up near a landfill in Durham, North Carolina, Campbell says, in a family plagued by health challenges. Communities made up of racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be near toxic sites, causing much higher rates of severe asthma, hospitalization and death for Black and African American children \u2014 ailments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[58,50],"class_list":["post-125924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-diversity","tag-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}