Rock legend Prince reportedly was the inspiration behind a charity group that's helping minority youngsters get the skills they'll need to get jobs in the high-tech industry.
The idea for the Oakland, Calif., nonprofit, YesWeCode, came out of a conversation with the superstar after the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, Van Jones, former White House adviser,
told CNN after Prince's death on April 21.
"Prince said … 'A black kid wearing a hoodie might be seen as a thug. A white kid wearing a hoodie might be seen as a Silicon Valley genius. Let’s teach the black kids how to be like Mark Zuckerberg.'" Jones tells CNN.
The nonprofit’s website has now launched a
page thanking Prince.
In his CNN interview, Jones also reports Prince helped fund an environmental group aiming to bring solar panels to Oakland.
Prince’s faith as a Jehovah’s Witness meant he didn’t speak publicly about his charity work, but "I guarantee you, anybody struggling, anywhere in the world, he was sending checks, he was making phone calls," Jones tells CNN.
The YesWeCode program's aim is to teach 100,000 low-income non-white teenagers how to write code; the organization now has 15 technology companies working with youth to help prepare them for Silicon Valley Jobs, according to the
website Quartz.
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