{"id":183577,"date":"2015-04-28T16:00:10","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T20:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/?p=183577"},"modified":"2015-04-29T13:12:24","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T17:12:24","slug":"from-harlem-with-love-a-letter-to-uber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/?p=183577","title":{"rendered":"From Harlem With Love: A Letter To Uber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"uber\"<\/a>From Harlem With Love: A Letter To Uber<\/b><\/p>\n

April 27, 2015<\/b><\/p>\n

Given my expertise in diversity and strong desire to see significant improvements in the tech sector regarding diversity, I have been closely following the discussion about diversity in Silicon Valley.\u00a0 There is great need for improvement given the industry\u2019s track record. \u00a0I recently wrote about this issue in my article \u201cHomogeniuses: HBO\u2019s \u201cSilicon Valley\u201d Mirrors Tech Industry\u2019s Diversity Realities\u201d which sites statistics and data on the industry.<\/a><\/p>\n

As much as we need to move the needle on this issue, it does not help improve diversity more broadly or signal a strong desire to increase diversity in the workplace when companies elect to discriminate with the various promotions they offer customers. \u00a0Last week, I saw a rapidly growing tech company do just that by discriminating against geographic regions that have large numbers of minorities.\u00a0 This reminds me of the days of restrictive covenants.<\/p>\n

What Uber did on April 23rd says a lot about their overall mindset. \u00a0It leaves me to conclude that this mindset could also filter into their hiring practices and their overall approach to running their business. \u00a0If they had a more diverse workforce, someone may have stopped them from making a big blunder.<\/p>\n

So what happened? \u00a0On April 23rd, I went to NY Tech Day.\u00a0 It was a great event.\u00a0 It brought together thousands of people \u2013 tech companies, start-ups, and people wanting to network with them.<\/p>\n

However, I was very disappointed to see how Uber is trying to grow its business and market its services. \u00a0Uber was offering a promotion for discounted rides in Manhattan.\u00a0 Essentially, you could get a ride anywhere in Manhattan as long as you were not going north of 125th Street. \u00a0For those less familiar with New York\u2019s geography, 125th Street is in Harlem. \u00a0The region above 125th Street is primarily black, Latino, and working class. \u00a0Currently, this area is going through massive gentrification. \u00a0This area is changing quickly, but for now it is mainly populated by minorities.<\/p>\n

In the photo, you can see the promotion card that geographically restricts the offer. \u00a0I was so deeply offended by this that I tweeted about it<\/a>. \u00a0My goal is to get Uber to think more inclusively and not exclude people.<\/p>\n

As Uber wants to grow its business, it should not do so by circumventing the City of New York\u2019s anti-discrimination rules and guidelines regarding transportation throughout NYC. They did just that with this promotion.<\/p>\n

People of color already have to deal with issues hailing taxis.\u00a0 They do not need to also deal with being ineligible for discounted rates if they want to travel to \u201cthe black and Latino part of town.\u201d<\/p>\n

I strongly encourage Uber to become a part of the solution and not perpetuate problems from a bygone era. \u00a0Otherwise, they may signal that they are out of touch with their customer base and are fine alienating people.<\/p>\n

By Fatimah Gilliam<\/a><\/p>\n

Founder & CEO of The Azara Group<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Harlem With Love: A Letter To Uber April 27, 2015 Given my expertise in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":183581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124716316],"tags":[124717426,124717427,124717425],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183577"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=183577"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183622,"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183577\/revisions\/183622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/183581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=183577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=183577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harlemcondolife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=183577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}