(Akiit.com) Some people question why African-Americans often make public notice of their accomplishments: When we tell our own story (1) we insure that we know the truth for ourselves and (2) we pass the truth from one generation to the next.

A wise man once said when Black people allow others to recount their history the story turns out to be another version of the Invisible Man. That explains how its possible for us to know more about Bill Gates than we do about Dr. Mark Dean. In fact if it weren’t for Dr. Dean, there might not have been a Microsoft or Michael Dell’s Dell Computers.

Dean holds a Ph.D from Stanford University. He holds three of the original nine patents on the computer that all PCs are based upon. He’s been inducted into the National Hall of Inventors, he’s a vice president with IBM and he’s African-American.

So how is it that we can celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the IBM personal computer without hearing about Dean’s involvement? Probably for the same reason we know little to nothing about John Stanard, inventor of the refrigerator, George Sampson, creator of the clothes dryer or Alexander Miles who invented the elevator; if we don’t toot our own horn nobody else will.

In a world where a disproportionate amount of African-American children are falling in a hole called the digital divide, anything we can do to increase their interest in technology is a good thing.

It’s been proven that people who witness the accomplishments of others set higher standards for themselves. If we fail to take notice of Dr. Dean’s deeds for Black history’s sake, please don’t fail our children by keeping silent and creating another invisible man.

By STEFFANIE RIVERS

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 10:24 pm and is filed under African-American News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.