Social Class

Please help me reprise the Digital Ethnorati Panel at SXSW next year; and in the process, bring outstanding African American, Asian American, Latino, Native American and other minority teenage technologists to one of the most important new media conferences in the United States.

Liza with Bianca and Samantha, two awesome ambassadors for the Digital Ethnorati

One of my accomplishments this year was to be able to put together a panel at the prestigious South by Southwest new media conference, discussing the rising influence and importance of african american, latino, asian and other minorities early adopters of digital, new media and mobile technologies.

In this panel I attempted to open a reframing of the digital divide by asking the question : If minorities are such profitable early adopters of digital, mobile and new media technologies, why is it that we're still treated as if we were technology illiterate?

For that matter, Mini Khanlon's talked about the accomplishments of The Level Playing Field Institute and her experience as an upper class Indian woman who understood the social privileges of many Asian Americans.

The second presentation was with Stephen Wilmarth, Bianca Velez and Samantha Perez of The Center for 21st Century Skills. This presentation was heartbreaking, as one of the students of the program had been deported to Brazil and was giving her part of the presentation through Skype.

In an attempt to go beyond discussions about the "digital divide", I organized a panel at this year's South by Southwest festival to discussing the exploding market segment of 'minority' technologists and early adopters.

I apologize in advance for my hemming and hawing. I have a lot of work to do with my public speaking skills. But stay until the presentation done by Stephen Wilmarth and his students from The Center for 21st Century Skills. A victim of our anti-immigration policies, this straight A student gives a heartbreaking account of how after being deported with her mother to Brazil, she tried to keep up with her technology program and classmates using Skype and other social media.

This podcast first appears at the South by Southwest website.