Leapfrogging Inequality

Everyone who got to where he is has had to begin where he was.

Robert Louise Stevenson

Leapfrogging Inequality. New data demonstrates that there has never been a more urgent need for a paradigm shift in education, especially for marginalized and low-income students. The economic intersectionality of technological advances, race, age, gender, geography, and education level will have compounding effects on the economic disadvantages already faced by African Americans and other minorities in urban as well as rural areas. For example, one critical disrupter will be the rapid and ubiquitous adoption of automation and other digital technologies by companies worldwide. According to estimates from the McKinsey Global Institute, companies have already invested between $20 billion and $30 billion in artificial intelligence technologies and applications. African Americans, who already start from a distinctly disadvantaged position in the workforce with an unemployment rate twice that of white workers, could experience the disruptive forces of automation. African Americans are often overrepresented in the “support roles” that are most likely to be affected by automation, such as truck drivers, fast food service workers, and office clerks.

We at Halo Pharms see this as not only a Social Equity issue but also an urgent national crisis. We will, therefore, donate 10% of our profits to Alexandria Academy Institute, an EdTech startup company devoted to developing STEM software for urban and low-income school districts nationwide.