Low-income SF students from Mission nonprofit ejected from Dreamforce conference
“You don’t belong here.”
That phrase was allegedly spoken by a security guard to 20 low-income, mostly Latino students Nov. 6, who were ejected from the giant Dreamforce conference on its opening day, the San Francisco Examiner has learned.
The students are members of the nonprofit dev/Mission, which teaches coding and other technology skills to disadvantaged youth.
They were invited by Salesforce to attend its annual tech conference, Dreamforce, but a pair of security guards mistakenly ejected the students from the conference after allegedly singling them out for their appearance and “fake”-appearing conference attendance badges, which were issued by Salesforce.
“It was a slap in the face to this whole diversity piece,” said Leonardo Sosa, who founded the nonprofit dev/Mission.
“You have the biggest giants in the tech industry kicking us out,” he said. “That hit us very hard.”