Uber is trying to repair an image tarnished by a culture of sexual harassment. The ride-hailing tech company set up a $3 million diversity fund and gave $1.2 million to Girls Who Code. Saint John, Uber’s new chief brand officer, is joining the board of the nonprofit Girls Who Code, which works to close the gender gap in tech by teaching girls how to code.
Uber also tried to give $125,000 to Black Girls Code.
Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant turned the money down. She told TechCrunch why. It “seems a bit tone-deaf to really addressing real change in how they are moving towards both inclusion and equity. It appears to be more PR driven than actually focused on real change. So we turned it down.”
Bozoma Saint John on Black Girls Code rejecting Uber's donation #TCDisrupt pic.twitter.com/2rDLNmx4sD
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) September 20, 2017
Saint John’s reaction to turning down money from Uber?
“I don’t really think that’s great,” she said at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017. “I’m a part of this Silicon Valley challenge. I’m not separate and apart from it, sitting in some glass castle somewhere. To me, there is a real need to support a lot of different types of organizations.”
Integrity can't be bought. But bless uber for trying. Some things just take time Uber… like sincerity.. trust.. change..
— Lisa Donaldson (@Liscagodo) September 20, 2017