This post was inspired by three words- “women in tech“. While the those words by themselves kind of just hangs in the air without any context, what transpired of them was rather thought provoking. Please read the Tweet at the end of the post for context.
At times I’m engulfed by the feeling of there being something that my life is missing. Something that I’m still lacking. I’ve yet to identify what that “something” may be. Even on my best days when I’m asked “how are you doing, como estas?”, my usual reply is that by all means I’m blessed but “I could always use some more money thrown my way”. To which that’s usually countered with, “I think we all could use some more of that”.
I’m not certain if this feeling of there being something lacking in my life is born from something in the my past that I no longer have at my grasp. There’s years of my life that were spent living inside of a concrete hell that has left huge gaps in my existential timeline, but acceptance and awareness that those moments can never be recovered nor replaced offer consolation. It also isn’t accurate to conclude this feeling is born from discontent with not yet being employed in a profession that aligns with my passion because technically, I hack everyday- excluding any financial incentives.
There’s years spent living inside of a concrete jungle that has left huge gaps in my existential timeline
No, I think it’s safer to say that I’m still not aware of “how much” I actually do know.
For instance, as a musical artist I can rattle off a long list of things that I’m lacking. A list of which, if the addition of any one of these items were granted, I’d feel more fulfilled in my craft. Intuitively that would seem obvious. Even so, this isn’t a declaration of an “empty” artist.
Photo by Khashayar Kouchpeydeh on Unsplash
There was a time, however, that I felt connected to other artists who made up the hip-hop culture. There was a time when art in hip-hop (at least in the “gangsta, reality, hard-core genre) very closely imitated life in the hood. As gangster-rap artists, we shared the common struggle of overcoming the crack epidemic. Rap was how we escaped from, and then re-created our reality.
If you listen closely to the lyrics of gangsta-rap you’ll notice a universal script being sang. Same struggle, same hustle. The epidemic fostered the illusion of freedom from it. It’s ironic that long after the epidemic has ended, the notion of “having more money” still has the same effect today as it did back when young black males were enlisted on the front lines to fight in it. “It” being the Drug War that somehow became the Crack War.
So what’s missing, you ask? They say the women are missing, the Transgenders are missing…the people of color are missing from tech, cybersecurity and InfoSec. I say “We All Belong”. But I’m just a rapper who fell passionately in love with hacking. I don’t have the power nor the desire, for all it matters, to make the decision of determining who belongs in this space.
I’m sure by now you’ve seen the post floating around about the “lack of women” in tech. I’m on the side of it being shallow and highly offensive.
Anyhow, a question was posed – “what if blacks would’ve been used instead of women?” My curiosity got the best of me so I gave it go pic.twitter.com/q4M8JFMoeK
— Quintius Walker (@The_StarHack3r) January 17, 2022
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