For me, what is most amazing about the new, controversial SMS service Anonymously Ask a Black Person is not that it exists, but that its creator, Wayne Sutton, threw the site together in a manner of days for a total cost of $106. He did it as an exercise to sharpen his development skills and see if he could start a desperately-needed conversation between races about our differences.
[Related: The Price of Growing Up ‘The Only’ Black]
If you haven’t heard about AABP yet, here’s the scoop. The site, created by black tech expert, Wayne Sutton, is marketed to non-blacks, and gives individuals the opportunity to anonymously ask a question—one that if asked publicly could result in ridicule or accusations of racism– via text message and receive an “opinionated” answer from someone who is of African descent.
Sutton disabled the service 10 days after launching it because he considered it a social experiment. But so many people praised the idea that he decided to put it back up after 10 peers–black techies–offered to help wade through the deluge of incoming questions.
“We decided that we
would speak as individuals. I’m not trying to speak for all black people. We may or may not be qualified to answer every question, but as a black person we will give them our opinions. How can we break down barriers in race and culture and in tech [without a dialogue],” says Sutton, one of the original founders of the NewMe Accelerator.From my perspective, the scenario, not the site, is a testament to the endless possibilities available for not only African Americans skilled enough to understand how to build a Dev. Stack (i.e., development stack, a few pieces of software, often open source, that build the foundation on which you can build a digital project) using Php, MySQl, Javascript or Twilio API; but It’s also proof that Blacks have the skill sets to build the same types of companies that receive million dollar investments. Many people didn’t believe that the site was run by a black person. Sutton questions, if this is because few people believe that there are Black people capable of building a million dollar project.
Don’t get me wrong, building code is
not for the faint of heart, Sutton has been involved in this for the better half of 15 years or more, but tutorials on Web languages abound online, and Sutton himself admitted, that this was a relatively easy endeavor.We currently live in an unprecedented time, where unique ideas, business ventures, and social experiments can be created out of thin air and executed in a short amount of time with very little capital and minimal expertise.
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“There were multiple levels of motivation [for why I created AABP]. I saw that a couple of other services, Y Combinator startup, Magic in particular, raised $12 million. You send a text message and they come do a service for you. I was like, ‘I could build that,'” says Sutton.
The previous weekend, Sutton and his team at BuildUP, a year-old, tech accelerator that creates solutions around diversity in tech, had announced a workshop series with Google, Twitter and Uber among other companies. “We thought this was a big deal. We thought we were going to get some press and nobody touched it,” he lamented. “I
was like ‘Here we go again.’ I understand this is where we are in mainstream culture. The media will cover Apple’s Black emojis , but I feel like working on making an inclusive diverse tech culture is just as important and no one wants to cover that. So, I wanted to do something fun, sharpen my skills, and see if people will use it and see if press will cover it.”Sutton started building the service late Friday night, worked on it all day Saturday with a couple of breaks for food, and posted the final product anonymously on Facebook at 1:03 am on Sunday. Monday morning it was featured on the front pages of both Reddit and Product Hunt. Product Hunt removed it due to complaints that it was offensive. By Monday evening AABP had nearly 9,500 page views. After 10 days, AABP had received more than 100,000 text messages and almost 16,500 views.
We currently live in an unprecedented time where unique ideas, business ventures, and social experiments can be created out of thin air and executed in a short amount of time with very little capital. Blacks need to recognize that in this digital ecosystem, we do have hindrances. But through creativity we also have as much leverage in tech as everyone else.
“I know for a fact that every black person does not agree that this platform should exist,” says Sutton. But if they look at how difficult it is to have a conversation about race maybe they can see what good this can have.”
What do you think? Is AABP Offensive? Can it help educate other races about black culture or engender more stereotypes?
Finally, techies please respond: Can the average Joe or Jill with a great idea execute a tech project–albeit not as quickly, but as proficiently as Wayne Sutton?
—Written by Marcia Wade Talbert